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Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Jessica Biel, Ving Rhames with Steve Buscemi and Dan Aykroyd. Comedy. Written by Lew Gallo, Barry Fanaro and Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor. Directed by Dennis Dugan.

FILM SYNOPSIS: Chuck Levine (Sandler) and Larry Valentine (James) are the pride of their fire station. Grateful Chuck owes Larry for saving his life in a fire, and Larry calls in that favor big time when civic red tape prevents him from naming his own two kids as his life insurance beneficiaries. All that Chuck has to do is claim to be Larry’s domestic partner on some city forms. Easy. Nobody will ever know. But when an overzealous bureaucrat becomes suspicious, the new couple’s arrangement becomes a citywide issue and goes from confidential to front-page news. Forced to improvise as love-struck newlyweds, Chuck and Larry must now fumble through a charade of domestic bliss under one roof.

PREVIEW REVIEW: The message: the gay lifestyle should be accepted and respected in today’s America. And in case you missed the message due to the comic pratfalls and the immature humor that ranges from fat jokes to gay jokes to juvenile daydreams about scantily clad twin sisters kissing one another, the stars repeat the message over and over.

There’s some funny stuff, these two guys being proven talents, but most of the wit is based on sophomoric or crude humor, and the message becomes not only the central theme, but one accompanied by a subtle threatening.

There’s a scene where a religious group is picketing a gay club. The hostile minister calls one of the leads a “faggot.” (There are some zealots who actually behave this way.) He is rightly punched in the mouth for his disrespectful name calling. My problem with the scene is that it is the only one having anything to do with Christian behavior. Gay groups have been verbally attacked by church groups more concerned with America’s culture than Christ’s teachings. And now it’s payback time. It’s as if those involved in this production are saying “We are gunning for you, Christians.”

We Christians blew it when it came to reaching out to the gay community. There are haters in religion, for sure, but most of us just simply don’t know how to express our perspective without it appearing to be pious finger pointing. Now everybody lives by a perspective. Everybody. But if your perspective is that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, you are perceived as intolerant. Of course, there are a couple hundred different denominations, with lots of takes on the Christian perspective. Therefore, I hate to offer mine, knowing it won’t sit well with some. But it just seems to me that if the two most important commands are to love God and to love one another, as Jesus instructed, shouldn’t we be attempting to satisfy those two directives? Won’t all the other commands fall into place if we keep our thoughts on those two? “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments,” Matthew 22:36-40. And won’t the desire to follow His leading be our most effective witness?

Watching this pivotal scene is unnerving. For it slyly depicts an anti-Christian conviction. It states that we followers of Christ are the enemy – not just the haters with a disguised objective, but all of us. In this one scene, in this rather silly movie, it becomes clear that in the eyes of those who seek the rights of the downtrodden, we Christians are the threat to American justice. We are the Hitlers. And since we are seen as a jeopardy to the pursuit of homosexual happiness, we must not only be challenged but vanquished. I think things are going to get a little tough for the faithful in America’s future. Is it because we showed too much of Christ’s concern, or not enough?

Distributor: Universal