This weekend “Man Child†comedian Adam Sandler brought “You Don’t Mess with the Zohan†to theaters. This is the story of an Israeli commando who has grown tired of all the fighting he does, and thereby fakes his own death to pursue his true dream of hair styling. After successfully succeeding in his plan, Zohan (Adam Sandler) goes to New York in an attempt to become Paul Mitchell’s new great hair designer.
Things don’t go as planned and instead he ends up getting a job at a Palestinian owned beauty shop. He starts to impress the owner Dalia (Emmanuelle Chriqui), when his clientèle grows as word gets out that he doesn’t just cut the woman’s hair, but will also send you home with your legs wobbly after an added quickie of sex. Things are looking good for Zohan until a Palestinian cab driver named Salim ( Rob Schneider), sees him and confirms that Zohan is very much alive. He calls up Zohan’s arch enemy “The Phantom†(John Turturro), who is believed to have killed the mighty Zohan.
Now I have been a huge Adam Sandler fan ever since I first saw Billy Madison. I thought he was the ultimate symbol for guys who didn’t want to grow up and except being an adult. His movies have always been very childish and raunchy humor, which most guys would find funny. We would laugh at the shear idiotic things he would do in his movies. From having a fight with Barv Barker in “Happy Gilmoreâ€to being a mentally challenged water boy who has a mean football tackle in “The Waterboy†to being the guy who got to smack David Hasselhoff around in “Clickâ€. Now maybe I’ve grown up or maybe he has, but whatever happened, this movie is not you’re usual laugh out load, spit out your soda, choke on your popcorn type of humorous movie we’ve grown to love from Sandler. The movie uses certain jokes a bit too much through the course of the film, especially the running joke about Zohan’s genitals. It got tired early on in the first 30 minutes of the film. Then there’s the accent that Adam uses in the movie, you really get tired of hearing it in the first ten minutes of the movie. Sandler tried to bring out all his big name celebrity comedic friends in cameos that didn’t serve a purpose when it came to adding more “funny” to this movie. There’s even a cameo by the actress who played “Mrs. Garrett†from “Facts of Lifeâ€. Yeah, I thought she had died too. Anyway, the movie had occasional funny parts, but nothing up to the standard we’ve grown to love from Sandler. Some of the jokes made at the expense of Palestinians, and Israeli people are funny, and John Turtorro gives a good effort at being as funny as he was in “Mr. Deedsâ€, another Sandler movie he was in. As far as Rob Schneider, dude just say “You can do itâ€, and we’ll laugh. He doesn’t do well with playing whole characters in Sandler’s movies. I have to sadly give this movie just 1 commando out of 4. I wanted so much for this movie to be another hit for Sandler, but unfortunately he seems to be losing his formula to just be stupid and it be funny. He’s being stupid and at times it’s rather sad. The movie is PG-13 for crude and sexual content throughout, language and nudity. It runs 1hr and 53mins. It’s a Happy Madison production, and was distributed by Sony pictures. It was written by Adam Sandler, Judd Apatow, and Robert Smigel. It was directed by Dennis Dugan.
Life is a movie be a Star, Ezo
Next weekend’s movie in Review: The Incredible Hulk
