I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry

by Aaron 7/23/07

We’ve all seen the preview, so we know that Chuck (Adam Sandler) and Larry (Kevin James) are two firefighters who get married so they can get couples benefits. Larry is paranoid about dieing because due to an insurance quirk, he can’t make his kids his beneficiaries. When Larry saves Chuck’s life and Chuck promises to do anything for him, Larry thinks that means getting hitched. Frankly, there isn’t much more to the movie.

I was expecting a little bit more from Sandler, after he started making “legit” movies: dramas like Reign Over Me and Spanglish, and more intelligent comedies like Click and The Longest Yard as well as providing some twists on old Sandler fare (50 First Dates). Instead the movie barely gets by on stupid humor I thought Sandler had finally graduated from. Further, when Sandler seemed to be branching out to different types of stories with actual plots, this movie just does not make any sense.

We have Sandler (a forty two year old) playing a hunk bachelor who has slept with over twenty women in the last year, including numerous orgies with Hooters girls. While every guy might dream of this, it seems highly unlikely that someone like Sandler’s Chuck could be pulling that down. Additionally, Jessical Biel’s Alex (a lawyer) is INCREDIBLY stupid. That last bit needs almost no explanation – she just does not have any clue on ANYTHING through the whole movie. The clichéd, miraculous transition from homophobe to sensitive and understanding is a little stretched, especially when all of their attempted jokes on slurs fall flat – more often offending then laughing.

The rest of Sandler’s flunkies make up most of the other auxiliary characters and firemen, and it’s getting to the point where I just do not want to see those guys anymore. Most of them were good in Big Daddy, but now they’re just awful. Plus, Dan Akroyd is totally wasted in a role that should have been hilarious. Instead, the writers try to make everything that comes out of Steve Buscemi’s mouth hysterical – and they fail miserably. The only really good actor who does well in his bit part is Ving Rhames, but he is always good.

What embarrasses me about my stinging criticism of the movie is that I was consistently laughing. There were a bunch of funny parts but the movie really spreads itself thin. Of course this is for many reasons beyond character development, but Jessica Biel could have really used some screen time. When she is on screen, she is tantalizingly hot, which is one of the few aspects of the movie that works – because we know why Sandler is falling over himself. And while I thought Kevin James was not nearly as funny as he had to be and barely pulls his own weight. That makes for a pretty weak movie because Sandler seems to just be going through the motions. 6/10 salty stix

Could “Avatar” Win Best Picture?

By Brett Hogan

 

Last week, the trailer for James Cameron’s sci-fi experiment “Avatar” debuted. While initially unimpressed with the teaser, I began to wonder: Could this film win best picture? 

 

Buzz has been generating for this movie for years. Years. The technology to make this movie didn’t exist when Cameron conceived it, so he invented it. When is the last time you heard of a director spearheading the invention of anything? The casting started in 2005. Most movies these days, even epics, are done in half that time. I could go on. 

 

The most important thing to take away from all of this is that people are saying this will be the future of movies. Now, I don’t agree with the idea that CGI will become more prevalent than it already is. But I do believe that this will set the bar miles higher for sci-fi. I mean, that is what Titanic did. And that won some awards if memory serves.

 

I’ll bet you’re asking yourself, how can you even suggest that a film like this will win Best Picture when the initial trailer was nothing better than visual stimulation? Well, there are a couple of reasons. First, the Academy has expanded Best Picture to ten films. This doesn’t guarantee anything other than improved chances for most films on the cusp.

 

Second, after last year’s Oscars debacle, which saw the best film of the year, “The Dark Knight,” not only get shafted in awards but nominations as well, the Academy is pulling out all the stops to appease those with the loudest voices in the film industry, the fanboys. Now, the Academy probably didn’t lose anything because of that other than some viewers of the award show. Perhaps if people are again outraged with the winners or nominees, the heads of the Academy would lose their jobs. So this is all about the Academy protecting itself, which is not so outrageous.  

 

 

Third, there is an economic motive here. I’ve heard this film will cost $190 million, not counting the R&D costs associated with Cameron’s inventions or the cost of getting 3-D cameras into every theater in the country. The Academy will do everything in its power to get people into the seats and make this the next “Titanic” or “The Dark Knight.” But the Academy doesn’t have much power, besides nominating and awarding, so they will slap the “Nominated for Best Picture” moniker onto every commercial and print ad to get the people who didn’t believe the critics to relent and see this movie.

 

Of course, all of this is pure conjecture, and no revolutionary film (Terminator 2, Jurassic Park, etc.) has ever won the Best Picture category because it changed the game. Except maybe Titanic. But still, could this movie actually win? My answer is no but a nomination is certain and who knows what could happen from there. We’ll know more come February 2010.