The makers of "I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry" have a strange way of dealing with the inevitable criticisms the film will receive for its setup, which has two straight New York firefighters faking a same-sex relationship to get domestic-partner benefits.

Whatever gay stereotypes exist in this movie -- and they probably number in the hundreds -- the writers of the comedy are much tougher on morbidly obese people, hot women, the homeless, mailmen, unattractive women and particularly Asians. Even the band Journey probably deserves a bigger apology from the makers of "Chuck & Larry" than anyone in the gay community.

The Adam Sandler and Kevin James vehicle also has the ultimate defense against the political-correctness police: It's often pretty funny. Sandler has stopped doing that weird baby-voice thing, and he actually has better romantic chemistry with James than on-screen love interest Jessica Biel. And whenever things get slow, cue a toe-tapping song by George Michael, who is totally underrated.

But despite the fact that the movie covers some new cinematic territory, much of the humor feels recycled, mostly from the "Seinfeld" episodes "The Boyfriend" (the one where Jerry has a man crush on Keith Hernandez) and "The Outing" ("not that there's anything wrong with that ..."). The plot turns are unnecessarily ridiculous -- and at nearly two hours, "Chuck & Larry" is also about 20 minutes too long.

Sandler is womanizing Chuck and James is widowed father Larry; the men are best friends at their Brooklyn firehouse. Worried that he'll die in a fire and leave his children without benefits, Larry convinces Chuck to sign domestic-partnership paperwork. When city fraud inspection agents start digging through the trash, the friends have to maintain their ruse marriage -- even after they're outed in the New York Post.

The middle part of the film is the most satisfying, when the once-homophobic Chuck slowly becomes a much better partner to Larry than he was to any woman. Despite a constant stream of stereotype-driven humor ("How about some conditioner for dry hair," Chuck says, during a supermarket trip. "That's pretty gay."), "Chuck & Larry" for the most part contains pro-tolerance messages. It's only a little surprising that a GLAAD executive, who went to advance screenings, has publicly supported the film.

Note that the producers didn't invite any Asian American groups to check out the movie, which features Rob Schneider as an Asian minister who is a racially offensive Abercrombie & Fitch T-shirt come to life. This is also a film where every attractive woman -- even Larry's physician -- is certain to end up in lingerie, for a multi-partner sex romp in Chuck's bachelor pad. And Biel's rear end seems to get more screen time than her face. Wasn't she in "The Illusionist"?

The screenwriters, shockingly, include Oscar-winning scribes Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor ("Sideways"), and it wouldn't be more odd if Martin Scorsese got behind the camera for a Steven Seagal movie. Assuming you don't walk out midway through, though, it's hard to find fault with their final message -- which has most of New York cheering for gay rights.

Sandler and James are here, and they're queer. We may as well get used to it.

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