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Zany Sandler Misses the Mark in His Semi-Amusing 'Zohan'

Posted on: Thursday, 5 June 2008, 06:00 CDT

The secret agent comedy "You Don't Mess With the Zohan" should go into hiding.

In a tiresomely zany tale, Adam Sandler plays an Israeli terrorist hunter who fakes his own death so he can move to New York and become a hairstylist. The movie falls into Sandler's goofy-accent genre, which includes "Little Nicky" and "The Waterboy." As Zohan, a disco-obsessed, hummus-slurping, impossibly athletic dynamo with the social graces of Borat, Sandler adds Hebrew-sounding prefixes and suffixes to his speech. It's a performance only a Jewish man could give without seeming insensitive.

At least Sandler practices equal opportunity offensiveness, mocking stereotypes of Jews and Arabs with equal aplomb, and taking several digs at Mel Gibson and his raging xenophobia.

What little there is of a story has Zohan flee to the U.S. after confronting his Palestinian nemesis the Phantom (John Turturro). Zohan finds work at a salon, working under the tutelage of a Palestinian love interest named Dalia (Emmanuelle Chriqui), who disapproves of Zohan's idea that full-service treatment includes post-haircut sex with clients in the back room.

The Phantom surfaces in New York as a businessman, and a cadre of cab-driving terrorists discovers Zohan's true identity and works to bring him down. Also, as in all dumb comedies, there's an evil land developer.

The movie is reminiscent of the beloved 1970s Woody Allen comedies "Bananas" and "Sleeper," which is not a compliment. Have you tried watching those films lately? "Zohan" harkens back to the dated approach of hurling a dozen nonsensical sight gags at the screen a minute, hoping four or five register.

It doesn't help that Sandler tosses in bizarre, simplistic political commentary on par with a social studies report a second-grader would write based on episodes of "Sesame Street."

Also, the jokes are incredibly repetitive. You get a sign of things to come in the opening sequence when Zohan tosses up an object and catches it with his butt cheeks, then does the same thing a couple minutes later.

It's weirdly amusing the first seven times you see Adam Sandler put the moves on willing, old, overweight women as he cuts and styles their hair. But by the eighth instance of the overdone joke, you're saying, "All right, all right. Move on."

The random cameo of the year award goes to Mariah Carey, who shows up singing the national anthem at the Israel-Lebanon hacky sack match. Yes, a hacky sack match.

Yet with all its faults, "Zohan" is eminently watchable because of its unpredictability.

And although Sandler has been off his game in the past decade, every now and then a ray of his old genius parts the clouds and shines through. For that reason I'll watch every minute of every film Sandler makes until he retires.

But I won't watch "Zohan" twice.

Review

You Don't Mess With the Zohan

**

--Rated: PG-13 for crude and sexual content throughout, language and nudity.

--Cast: Adam Sandler, John Turturro, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Rob Schneider.

--Director: Dennis Dugan.

--Family call: Parents and teens will have trouble watching the voluminous sexually suggestive material together.

--Running time: 113 minutes.

Source: The Arizona Daily Star

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