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Sandler silky smooth in ‘Zohan’
Movie Review: You Don't Mess With the Zohan
By Ella Parker
2theadvocate.com
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Directed by Dennis Dugan and written by Adam Sandler, Robert Smigel and Judd Apatow, “You Don’t Mess with the Zohan” is slightly surprising — although not quite a blockbuster.
The movie opens with Israeli fighter Zohan (Sandler) spending time on the beach with lots of ladies, cooking fish, eating hummus, playing ping pong, and dancing ‘disco-disco’ — all at the same time.
Such multitasking talent is one of the many unique attribute’s that make Zohan, well, Zohan. Another talent would be how he gets the ladies to love him. But this unstoppable fighter, who kills quickly and effortlessly, does not stop for the ladies. Instead, when asked to party it up with three girls in bikinis, he clings onto his ’80s Paul Mitchell hairdressing book, wishing to escape the war and pursue his dream of cutting hair in America.
Thus, when faced with his Palestinian archenemy, the Phantom (John Turturro), Zohan fakes his death and stows away to the city of dreams, New York.
Naming himself after his first two clients, Zohan is now Scrappy CoCo. This renaming is the second step in creating his new identity, new life and new non-fighting personality. (What was his first step? Cutting his own hair, of course.)
But old habits die hard, and his first two salon interviews hilariously highlight Zohan’s military background. When he finally does get a chance with scissors and shampoo, Zohan’s ‘talent’ (for lack of a better, children-friendly word) with the ladies becomes part of New York’s latest ‘do.’
Naturally, the plotline is not this simple, and the story weaves in a number of other complications, all of which are tackled in a ‘silky smooth’ way (to use Zohan’s hairdressing terminology).
Overall, “You Don’t Mess with the Zohan” is funny, but what makes the film Sandleresque is the clever undertones, the silly dialogue and the witty scenes. Even Zohan’s choice of t-shirts throughout the film lead up to an interesting scene — so pay attention. Another ‘sneaky-sneaky’ reference (to borrow the popular phrase coined from “Mr. Deeds”) is Sandler’s own reference to his memorable ‘stop-looking-at-me-swan’ scene in “Billy Madison.”
Emmanuelle Chriqui as the hot Palestinian Dalia and actor Rob Schneider as the cab driver who rats out Zohan to the Phantom were also very pleasant surprises. Chriqui is beautiful and convincing with every line while Schneider is amusing with his slapstick mannerisms.
However, even the most dedicated of Sandler fans may be slightly offended at the different political undertones (with Bush, Hillary and McCain slaps to name a few), the seemingly simplistic portrayal of the Israeli-Palestine tension (something that realistically has little humor), the stereotypical depictions of all of the characters (in regards to ethnicities, sexuality and gender) and the often over-the-top sexual implications.
This does not mean that you should wait until the movie is released on DVD. The film as a whole will make you laugh, but immediately afterwards, you may wonder why you just laughed.
Why then is the film funny?
My answer to this is simple - the film is smooth, smart, and at times surprising.
In short, the film is typical Sandler.
