Fridae

I Now Pronounce This A Piece A Crap. Chuck and Larry, you guys suck.

Although this purports to be a gay-friendly film and its ultimate message is gay tolerance, the route to getting there is littered with homophobic jokes and offensive stereotypes about gay men.

Stereotypes like the screaming, flailing gay men in pink bunny costumes and leather outfits at a party who, when insulted by anti-gay demonstrators, have to rely on a straight man (in this case, Adam Sandler) to defend them.

Stereotypes like the toe-tapping, showtunes-singing gay boy - a character shamelessly stolen from TV show Ugly Betty, but minus the charm and fully-fleshed characterisation.

Stereotypes like those found in the communal-shower scene that hinges on the joke that any straight man who drops his soap will be automatically raped by a gay man the minute he bends over.

This is a movie that only straight people with no genuine knowledge, understanding or sympathy of LGBTs would make and enjoy. At a recent screening, the largely straight male audience was certainly enjoying themselves, knee-slapping at every lame joke and antic.

Now every one of those boys will be encouraged to think that gay men are easily-excitable sodomites who run around in pink leg warmers and occasionally break into Chaka Khan's "I'm Every Woman." Now every one of them will think it's okay to ridicule and laugh at gay people.

Tragic.

If you must know the plot, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry is about two firemen played by Adam Sandler and Kevin James. When single father Larry (Kevin James) finds out that his two young children cannot be named his insurance beneficiaries due to some regulation, he persuades his best friend Chuck (Adam Sandler) to pretend to be his gay partner.

That way, if Larry were to die in a fire, Chuck can inherit that money and use it to take care of Larry's kids. The men start to live together to convince the insurance company that they really are a gay couple - and that is when all manner of annoying gay stereotypes come rattling in.

But it's not just gay men who are stereotyped as dance-party queens and musical lovers. The women get stereotyped too - as pornographic sex-hungry minxes who run around in bikinis and can't keep their hands of Chuck.

Oh, and let's not forget the Chinese stereotypes. In its worst instance, Rob Schneider (Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo) plays a short, nerdy, buck-toothed, slit-eyed, unhealthily yellow Chinese man who speaks incredibly bad English.

Indeed, the movie takes relentless potshots at everyone - except at the straight white men.

White men are portrayed as loyal friends, brave firefighters, caring fathers, virile lovers, wise bosses and fair judiciary members. Sure, there is some depiction of small-mindedness and disloyalty among some of the white men, but the positive depictions far outweigh the negative ones.

All in all, the white male characters come across as three-dimensional and sympathetic human figures, while the rest of us look like one-dimensional morons.

On my knees, I beg you, don't pay a cent to watch this movie.