Sunday, June 08, 2008
A+E, Movies, Reviews
It’s worth messing with ‘Zohan’
A quick review of You Don't Mess With the Zohan with Adam Sandler
Tracy Bennett/Columbia Pictures
Adam Sandler in “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan”
“YOU DON’T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN”
Adam Sandler, Emmanuelle Chriqui
Directed by Dennis Dugan
Rated Pg-13
Wide release
If Hollywood waited until the Arab-Israeli conflict was resolved to make a comedy about it, none of us would live to see it. Rather than wait, Adam Sandler, Robert Smigel and Judd Apatow have written “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan,” about an Israeli counterterrorism operative who dreams of becoming a hairstylist. Tired of war, Zohan (Sandler) fakes his death and stows away on a plane to New York.
Giving himself a makeover and adopting the name “Scrappy Coco” and an Australian-Tibetan ancestry, Zohan is disappointed that hair salons large and small are reluctant to hire someone with no experience. Unfortunately, he can only find work at a salon on the Palestinian side of the street, owned by the gorgeous Dalia (Emmanuelle Chriqui).
Zohan quickly moves up from floor sweeper to stylist. He charms the shop’s elderly clientele and after he teases their hair, he satisfies them in the back room before they leave. Not since “The Producers” have senior ladies seen so much action.
“Zohan” is as much about Sandler’s midlife crisis as the Mideast crisis. While he’s no stranger to the phallocentric humor of protracted adolescence, here he shows the desperation of a man who recently entered middle age and needs to prove he’s as virile and desirable as when he was 39. With all that going on, it’s amazing that the movie has time for romance, political humor, celebrity cameos (Mariah Carey, Chris Rock, etc.,) and action scenes that veer into superhero blockbuster territory.
Only Sandler himself could be entirely pleased with “You Don’t Mess with the Zohan,” but you’d have to be part of a jihad against him not to find the movie pretty funny. 2.5 STARS—Steve Warren