First half soars...but second half falls with a loud THUD
Written: Jun 09 '08 (Updated Jun 10 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: For much of the film, Sandler sheds his tiresome man/child image...and it's funny
Cons: For much of the film, he returns to that tired old man/child bit.
The Bottom Line: Had more laughs than many Sandler movies...but ultimately, his usual bad habits came back to haunt the viewer.
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| rmurray847's Full Review: You Don't Mess With the Zohan |
I have to admit that I’m not a huge Adam Sandler fan. I get very tired of his mentally-challenged man/child bit (THE WATERBOY is a prime example of this work that does NOT work for me). Yet the previews for YOU DON’T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN were actually quite funny…and they showed Sandler being confident…heck, overly confident.
So I settled into my theatre seat, anticipating something a little better that usual from Sandler, and for about 60 minutes, that’s what I got.
Zohan is an Israeli counter-terrorism specialist. Heck, he’s practically a superhero, able to accomplish missions that 20 trained soldiers couldn’t pull off. He catches bullets in his nose, swims with the speed of a dolphin and can leap across tall buildings in a single bound. Yet, when off duty, he enjoys disco and barbequing in the nude (don’t ask). He’s popular with the ladies, and is an all-around good guy. This was actually a Sandler I could enjoy. He beefed up a little for the role, and is wearing some great curly hair and a beard. Honestly, he’s actually pretty convincing in what is after all, a silly part. I laughed A LOT at his early antics in Israel, enjoying Zohan’s love for life and ridiculous action moves.
But Zohan yearns to leave the conflict behind, move to America, and be a hair-stylist. When he tells his parents, and his father mocks him as a “fagola,” Zohan makes the decision to stage his own death and travel to the US. He arrives with a new name, Scrappy Coco (again, don’t ask), ready to take Paul Mitchell salons by storm. You see, for years, his prize possession has been a Paul Mitchell hair style “catalog.” Sadly, the book is more than a decade out of date, so his ideas of great hair don’t quite match current standards.
He lands a gig sweeping up in a Palestinian run salon, and eventually is allowed to cut hair. Turns out, he is particularly appealing to the older clientele, because somehow, he has an insatiable sex drive, and is able to make all these older women feel sexy again.
I’ve told you a lot about the plot, but no specifics, I think. It’s the WAY in which he gets from Point A to Point B that are fun…find out for yourself.
However, a little past midway…quite a while past the point where I’d stopped marveling that I was really enjoying a Sandler movie…the film fell flat. I can’t pinpoint the exact moment, but it was probably around the time Zohan realizes he’s fallen in love. Sandler suddenly went into his shy, awkward shtick again, AND the film started to try making statements about Israeli/Palestinian relations. (Frankly, the movie actually does a nice job of showing how in America, these two “warring” factions had absolutely no reason to hate or fight each other, and in fact, got along fairly genially. I was surprised at the relative maturity of this outlook.) Near the end, I realized it had been a LONG time since I’d laughed. The love-story was unconvincing, to put it mildly and the climactic scenes were uninspired and boring. John Torturro, normally the best thing in a Sandler movie, was somewhat lost in his over-the-top role as Zohan’s longtime arch-enemy. Rob Schneider, in offensively stereotyped “Arab” makeup, was unfunnier than usual.
So for me, when the closing credits started running, I was left with mixed feelings. I had laughed a lot…but it seemed like a long time ago. The movie soared for a long time, and then came crashing to earth with a clumsy thud. I feel director Dennis Dugan must take a lot of the blame…he has no visual imagination, and a terrible sense of pace…but the script is also to blame by trying to force this wacky premise into a rom-com mold, and the forcing THAT mold to fit into some kind of action movie mold. The molds all just broke as a result.
If you’re a Sandler fan, I guess you’ll enjoy this more than I did. If you’re not…then I think there’s a good chance you’ll feel like me…disappointed at the opportunity missed.
(By the way, the film is rated “PG-13,” but the sexual undertones…and NOT so under…really make this film an “R” in my book. We were very glad we didn’t let our 15 year old daughter attend.)
This review is also posted on amazon and at my own website: afilmcritic.com.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
rmurray847
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Location: Albuquerque, NM
Reviews written: 200
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See many more reviews of mine at www.afilmcritic.com
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