Chuck Levine (Sandler) and Larry Valentine (Kevin James) are New York firefighters and life-long friends. Larry is a single father who finds out that there is a problem with his pension. In order to solve the problem, he has to get married and that's where Chuck comes in. The two friends pretend to become domestic partners, but the ruse is questioned by the city. To prevent the city investigator (Steve Buscemi) from prying too deeply, they hire a lawyer, Alex McDonough (Jessica Biel).

The movie is credited as being written by Barry Fenaro, writer and producer of "The Golden Girls," and Oscar award-winning writers Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor. It seems like none of Payne's nor Taylor's writing made it to the final shooting draft of the script. These are the guys who brought us top-notch comedy hits like "Sideways," "About Schmidt" and the dark comedy "Election."

Instead, the script has Adam Sandler-isms all over it. One has to assume that he and his "Happy Madison" writers perused the original script and made it their own. On a more positive note, Dennis Dugan, director of "Happy Gilmore" and "Big Daddy," has done a fantastic job of getting the pacing right for an Adam Sandler vehicle.

In the movie, Chuck is a self-proclaimed man-whore and Mr. February in the New York Firefighters calendar. Sandler has taken his past movies' fantasy sequences and turned them into reality. Imagine a sequence like Happy Gilmore's "Happy Place" with scantily clad women in white sitting by a sprinkler that just happens to be on. Add four Hooters girls and you've got Chuck Levine's life.

Larry is a stereotypical widower, suffering from the inability to let go and move on.  Kevin James became a star in Will Smith's romantic comedy "Hitch" and is freshly off of the hit sitcom, "King of Queens." In "Chuck and Larry," he is the butt of literal and comedic slaps from Chuck. By the end of the movie, you find yourself taking his side in arguments with Sandler's character. This role isn't much of a stretch for him; it's very much pieces of his Kings and Hitch characters combined.

Jessica Biel's role in the movie is one of eye candy alone. Her character has very little substance. Just as the movie trailers portray, she shimmies down to her underwear with a stuttering Sandler trying to act like he's not attracted to her. Playing off of the stereotype that all women are just fine with gay men fondling them, she lets him test the authenticity of her breasts. Are they real? Sandler should be able to answer that question for us now.  It's not the funniest scene, but one of the defining moments of the movie.

The supporting actors bring most of the authentic laughs in the movie. Nick Swardson (Terry in Comedy Central's "Reno 911") steals every scene he's in as the overly flamboyant "Butterfly." Ving Rhames shows a bit of his comedic side and uses his rough looks to get a few laughs as well. Rob Schnieder brings humor to the uncomfortable situation of two overly straight men tying the knot. You'll recognize the majority of minor characters as usual suspects from any Happy Madison production. They are back and still funny.

As most of Sandler's movies, the last 20 minutes or so drag on. The goal of the movie is to show the effects of two guys who have been ostracized from their friends and colleagues for being gay. Chuck goes from being an overly macho man who doesn't mind spouting the word "faggot," to admonishing others for using the term and likening it to the term "kike." The transition from being homophobic to becoming tolerant is not portrayed well. It seems that Chuck goes from gay bashing to teaching Larry's son to tap dance.

"I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry" opens July 20th in wide release. It is rated PG-13 for crude sexual content throughout, nudity, language and drug references. It will be playing at Salem's Regal Santiam 11 and Regal Movieland 7 as well as Independence Cinema in Independence.