I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry - Um, seriously?

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Post by kaytodd »

How can you copyright such a general concept like two people pretending to be gay lovers to achieve a financial or other benefit? Should Sydney Pollack have waited until Casablanca entered the public domain before making Havana? Taking the basic framework of a story and making a story of your own has been done for centuries. How many stories of lovers who come from warring groups were created before and after Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet? If you cross a certain line and take too much of the earlier story...well, that is why there are attorneys who specialize in copyright infringement. But I would think details would have to be taken from the earlier story, not just the general concept.
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Post by Mister Tee »

Sonic Youth wrote:None of these waste-of-time lawsuits ever get anywhere. What are the chances that more than one person came up with the same premise? Excellent, I would think.
Actually, this idea was so bloody obvious I wouldn't be surprised if there were a dozen (equally bad).
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Post by Sonic Youth »

None of these waste-of-time lawsuits ever get anywhere. What are the chances that more than one person came up with the same premise? Excellent, I would think.

Whatever happened to the frivolous Knocked Up lawsuit?
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Post by Precious Doll »

I can smell a lawsuit....

From The Sydney Morning Herald 18 July, 2007, by Garry Maddox

No laughing matter: US comedy may be a rip-off

THE makers of Paul Hogan's most recent hit film are investigating whether it has been ripped off for a new Hollywood comedy starring Adam Sandler.

The director and co-writer of Strange Bedfellows, Dean Murphy, is concerned about the similarities with I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, which opens in the US this week.

He believes the Australian investors should be compensated if there has been a copyright breach. Starring Hogan and Michael Caton, Strange Bedfellows was about a straight cinema owner and a mechanic who pretend to be gay to claim a financial benefit.

It was the highest-grossing Australian film in 2004, taking $4.8 million, and has subsequently been released on DVD in the US.

Backed by the Hollywood studio Universal Pictures, Chuck and Larry stars Adam Sandler and Kevin James as two straight firemen who pretend to be gay to claim a financial benefit.

While he is yet to see the new movie, Murphy said he was struck by the similarities when he saw the trailer on the weekend.

He heard other cinemagoers mention Strange Bedfellows as the trailer screened.

Murphy has also been receiving emails every day saying Chuck and Larry seems like exactly the same film.

"It's obviously annoying if they have ripped the film off but until we see it, it's so hard to know," he said.

The American distributor of Strange Bedfellows is looking at possible copyright infringement.

"I don't think they've seen the other film yet but … they're going to have a careful look at it and see if there have been any breaches," Murphy said.

"It's hard to know if they would be that blatant but apparently it has happened before so we'll wait and see."

A spokesman for Universal Pictures Australia said he was seeking comment from the studio.

Caton has told The Sun-Herald that he gave a copy of Strange Bedfellows to the comic Rob Schneider. They worked together on the Hollywood movie The Animal, which had Sandler as executive producer.

"I'm going to have to get onto Rob Schneider and say you owe me one pal … or Adam Sandler owes me one," he said. "They're really good mates and it's obvious he's said 'Hey, have a look at this'."
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Post by Mister Tee »

Clifford Odets was known to show some critics copies of his plays early on; his biographers rightly nail this as an attempt to co-opt criticism. Seems to me that's what's happening here: shmooze GLAAD with an appearance by a Movie Star, and hope they'll glaze over any objections.

On the one hand, this movie seems to have aspects of the minstrel show -- I'm reminded of Conan O'Brien's remark about Will and Grace: "What a breakthrough, to be able to laugh at homosexuals!" But there's possibly a sense in which this movie continues a sort of normalization process which has gradually (too gradually, I'm sure, from the point of view of many) moved gay issues into the mainstream. The fact that goofball slob star Adam Sandler is featured in a movie that (apparently) ultimately concludes homophobes are idiots moves the center of gravity a bit further to the left -- even if much of the movie traffics in nauseating stereotypes along the way.
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Post by The Original BJ »

You're not humorless at all. But that article is drop-down hilarious. They want to make sure they're not offending anyone? And what if people are offended? Will they not release the movie?

The move seems more like begging forgiveness than asking permission.
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Post by flipp525 »

I'm still failing to see what's funny about gay marriage. Especially since it's still not legal. Maybe I'm just a humorless fuck.

From imdb.com

Sandler & James Take New Movie to Gay Groups

Funnymen Adam Sandler and Kevin James took their new movie to the leaders of U.S. gay rights groups - to make sure the release wouldn't be rocked by protests. The two stars play fire fighters who pretend to be a gay couple so they can receive domestic partner benefits in I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry. And James reveals the pair was so concerned the comedy would upset gay groups, they screened it for them well ahead of the film's release date in an effort to make sure they wouldn't be offending anyone. The actor says, "We screened it for (gay rights group) GLAAD because we certainly didn't want to offend anybody in any way. The main reason of this movie is really just to make people laugh and that's all we wanted to do. When you pick a subject like this, you're honestly gonna have to walk that line and you want to show what it's like out there. These guys are idiots in a way. They learn tolerance, what it's about, and what happens when they have to pretend to be this way. That's basically it, but we're certainly not trying to tell people how to live their lives in any way, shape, or form. We are just basically hoping people will go and laugh and have a good time with it without making light of the subject itself."




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Post by Sonic Youth »

I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry
By BRIAN LOWRY
Variety


Relentlessly juvenile and awash in stereotypes, "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry" is the kind of buddy comedy Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau might have starred in 40 years ago, when the material would have felt less dated, if no less silly. Kevin James and Adam Sandler hardly approach that standard, and it will be slightly depressing if a barrage of schoolyard gay jokes passes for "edgy" a quarter-century after "Victor/Victoria." Taken for what it is, pic should find its sweet spot somewhere between the easily offended and very easily amused, providing Universal with a modest summer tryst.

Produced by Sandler's Happy Madison and Tom Shadyac's Shady Acres shingles, "Chuck and Larry" miscasts Sandler as a ladies man who's Mr. February on a firefighters calendar, bedding women in multiples of two and four. Hey, it's nice to be the boss.

In another incongruous pairing, "Sideways" writing team Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor join "Golden Girls" scribe Barry Fanaro and director Dennis Dugan (who previously helmed Sandler's "Happy Gilmore"). Pic initially plays like a screwball comedy with a bit more smarts, but ultimately, the more banal sitcom impulses win out.

Larry (James) is a widowed firefighter with two kids who discovers that, thanks to bureaucratic red tape, he risks losing his benefits if something happens to him. The improbable solution: Enter into a domestic partnership with his pal and co-worker Chuck (Sandler), leaving the money and kids to him.

Yet after filing the paperwork, the two are advised by a beautiful attorney (Jessica Biel) that such a fraudulent ruse has landed others in considerable trouble, forcing them to prove the charade is real. This puts them in the crosshairs of an obsessive fraud investigator (Steve Buscemi) while rendering them poster children for gay rights, prompting others to keep throwing open their closet doors.

Along the way, the movie repeatedly slips in "Bias is bad" messages among all the gay jokes, including an extended don't-drop-the-soap-when-showering-at-the-firehouse gag. Forced to forgo sex, meanwhile, Chuck actually begins to develop an adult bond with his unwitting lawyer, which doesn't stop him from feeling up her boobs in a moment of sisterly bonding.

Dugan is hardly a master of subtlety, and given the limitations of their leads, the producers' smartest move is to populate the cast with talented supporting players who can milk laughs from the mostly inane setups. Tops among these are Ving Rhames as a fellow fireman and Dan Aykroyd as the fast-talking fire chief.

Buscemi's cartoonish shtick, by contrast, falls painfully flat, and Sandler's former "Saturday Night Live" posse (Rachel Dratch, Robert Smigel, plus an uncredited David Spade and Rob Schneider) also turn out in abundance, with Schneider's caricaturish portrayal of an Asian wedding coordinator possibly the most embarrassing of that sort since Mickey Rooney in "Breakfast at Tiffany's."

Again subjected to a parade of fat jabs, James possesses a vulnerable, likable lug quality that served him well in TV as well as in "Hitch." Sandler's fans should enjoy hearing him toss off lines about being "big-time fruits" or having "boarded the dude train." The two also have fun with their relationship, occasionally squabbling like a married couple.

Even the most generous-minded, however, will have their patience tested as the movie overstays its welcome in the extended last act, which can't be salvaged by a couple thematic cameos by actors including Richard Chamberlain.

With the material pitched so broadly, "Chuck and Larry" clearly hopes not to give offense, which isn't to say that some gays won't understandably be put off by it. The movie's only aim, however, is to ride the "dude train" to happily ever after -- a marriage of comedy and commerce that appears unlikely to endure for very long.


-------------------------------------------


I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry
By Kirk Honeycutt
Hollywood Reporter


"I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry" is a "gay" comedy created by straights who want to have it both ways: Hit the audience with a barrage of homophobia and gay jokes yet wind up with an ecumenical, politically correct embrace of all points of sexual orientation. It's the equivalent of that old Jerry Seinfeld bit where he mentions someone is gay but quickly adds, "Not that there's anything wrong with that." We even get the film's star, Adam Sandler, summing up what he has learned from his experiences pretending to be gay: Don't use the word "faggot," he lectures. It's hurtful.

"Chuck & Larry" won't be hurtful at the boxoffice, where Sandler is a highly commercial comedy brand. Straights pretending to be gay can always provoke easy laughs, especially when the movie takes place in a tame, AIDS-free universe where homosexuality simply means an aggressive fashion style. Universal Pictures can anticipate a strong domestic boxoffice; overseas, however, its extremely broad approach to situation comedy might meet resistance.

Sandler and Kevin James (CBS' "The King of Queens") play thoroughly hetero Brooklyn firemen who through a convoluted and unconvincing quirk in civic red tape must pretend to be domestic partners in order for James, a widower, to list his two kids as his life insurance beneficiaries.

Never mind that everyone in their lives knows their sexual orientation, which includes Sandler's infamous bachelor pad that runs hot and hotter babes on a daily basis. No, everyone instantly believes the charade. OK, not everyone: Their chief, played with cut-the-crap bluster by Dan Aykroyd, never buys the act for a minute.


So the pretense commences. The city sends a prissy fraud inspector in Steve Buscemi to inspect their honeymoon pad and rifle through garbage to determine whether it's gay enough. Fellow firefighters quake at the prospect of showering with the two "partners"; and the mailman now feels free to come on to James with a slew of postal service double entendres involving special deliveries and handling big packages.

Predictably, Sandler falls in love with the partners' glamorous attorney, Jessica Biel. Yet he can only enjoy a "girls' day" with her -- you know, shopping, trying on clothes and Sandler groping her breasts to determine that they are real.

The curious thing here is that Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor rewrote this long-in-development screenplay. Yet the authors of such smart comedies as "Sideways," "About Schmidt" and "Citizen Ruth" can't move the film away from the world of easy laughs and sitcom jokes into a realm where sexual prejudices and presumptions get examined in a whimsical yet insightful manner.

One longs for something like Paul Rudnick's script for "In & Out," which was very funny yet delved into the trauma of coming out and the perplexing issue of homophobia in society.

Under the direction of Dennis Dugan, the film seemingly will try anything for a laugh. This includes having James' loutish maid (Mary Pat Gleason) wake up in bed with the two men one morning. How logically did she get there?

Some actors -- notably James, Ving Rhames and young Cole Morgan as James' small son who prefers musical comedy to baseball -- appear game for a more challenging comedy. But Sandler, whose own company was one of the producers, prefers to swim in safe, shallow waters rather than plunge into the deeper issues the film so cheerfully ignores.

Production values are strong, though the film lacks visual panache.
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Post by Eric »

flipp525 wrote:I've practically worn out my iPod listening to Shirley's "Hood Olympics". Funniest. Shit. Ever. Next to her call to the Greyhound 1-800 number, it's my favorite.

Betty Butterfield fan, too.
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Post by flipp525 »

Eric wrote:
flipp525 wrote:I mean, "homosexicals" is what Shirley Q. Liquor calls gay people and her character is meant to be a completely ignorant (albeit, hilarious) buffoon.

I knew one of these days something would surface as a shared love between you and I.

I've practically worn out my iPod listening to Shirley's "Hood Olympics". Funniest. Shit. Ever. Next to her call to the Greyhound 1-800 number, it's my favorite.

Betty Butterfield fan, too.




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Post by Eric »

flipp525 wrote:I mean, "homosexicals" is what Shirley Q. Liquor calls gay people and her character is meant to be a completely ignorant (albeit, hilarious) buffoon.
I knew one of these days something would surface as a shared love between you and I.
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Post by Penelope »

flipp525 wrote:And considering the fact that Sandler is a right-wing Republican whose been known to financially support anti-gay candidates in the past, I think there is good reason to suspect the motives of this film.
I see that he's contributed to Ghouliani's campaign, but he's demonstrated gay friendliness in some of his movies, notably in Big Daddy, where he berates a friend for expressing disgust at a gay couple kissing.
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Post by flipp525 »

Okay, I just saw the preview for this and, honestly, I have to say, besides looking trite and derivative, nothing about this movie amuses me. It trivializes the very real issue of gay marriage, reducing it to a ridiculous plot contrivance, plays up various lame stereotypes of gay men in order to affirm its straight audience's own outdated perceptions about homosexuality and single-handedly looks to set back the gay equal rights movement another 5-10 years. Granted, I haven't seen it and the movie probably ends with the two straight men "coming to terms and identifying with their gay counterparts" in an after-school special kind of epiphany, but on the surface this looks like a piece of homophobic tripe. I mean, "homosexicals" is what Shirley Q. Liquor calls gay people and her character is meant to be a completely ignorant (albeit, hilarious) buffoon.

Couldn't they produce a movie where two men "marry" each other for pension benefits and convenience, only to discover that they're really in love? Sure, it'd be sappy and Green Card-ish but at least it would be unexpected.

And considering the fact that Sandler is a right-wing Republican whose been known to financially support anti-gay candidates in the past, I think there is good reason to suspect the motives of this film.

See the trailer and judge it for yourself.

Let the flame war begin. I just don't think we need this movie right now.




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Post by Penelope »

Here's the trailer; personally, I thought the Knocked Up trailer was way funnier.
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Post by VanHelsing »

The trailer is out. I heard it's very funny.

Remember, this is an Adam Sandler comedy. So please take it as it is and not as some Oscar-worthy type of film. But maybe, just maybe, the uber hot Jessica Biel could make it for Best Supporting Actress?! WOW!!!
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