Movie Review: You Don’t Mess With the Zohan
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Starring: Adam Sandler, Rob Schneider, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Nick Swardson, John Turturro
Director: Dennis Dugan
Writer(s): Adam Sandler, Judd Apatow, Robert Smigel
Studio: Sony
Rating: PG-13
Official Bar Score: 
Adam Sandler’s latest finds him starring as Israel’s Greatest Secret Service Agent Zohan. He is a master at killing people, however he has begun to grow bored with. When an altercation with his arch rival, the Palestinian terrorist The Phantom (Turturro), affords him the opportunity to fake his death and escape to the US, he decides that it’s time to follow his lifelong dream: to become a hairdresser, despite anything that may get in his way.
I’ve seen better from Sandler and co. (”Happy Gilmore”, “Bulletproof”) and much worse (”Little Nicky”). “Zohan” is a return to the pure slapstick Sandler film, which was kind of cool to see. It’s been a while, as Sandler has played more mature roles even in his comedies, and was hoping that “Zohan” would be on the level of “Happy Gilmore”. Alas, it wasn’t, but it didn’t suck either. Most of the jokes work very well. Everyone involved with the project is Jewish, and they do an excellent job poking fun at themselves, and at the people who hate them. These jokes, and the slapstick of Sandler’s Zohan wreaking havoc on evildoers, keep the movie going and make it an enjoyable experience. That and the fact that Emmanuelle Chriqui is smoking hot.
But one of the main jokes, Zohan becoming a hairdresser, is executed pretty poorly and ends up being quite stupid. Way too much time was wasted on Zohan’s progression as a hairdresser, time that could have been spent on Zohan clashing with the hilarious John Turturro and Rob Schneider, or giving more time to the criminally underused Nick Swardson. Swardson’s lack of presence was a thorn in my side, as he spends most of his face time making disgusted looks in Adam Sandler’s direction, and that’s about it.
All in all, the film is definitely worth watching at least once. It’s not anything particularly special, but it doesn’t really try to be. It came off as a bunch of people having fun, which is admirable in and of itself. It’s worthy of wasting a couple of hours of your life.
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Yeah Nick Swardson is the shit, being cracking me up since he started popping up on Reno 911, I still want to check out his comedy album.
Good to hear the movie was decent, as decent to you will mean good to me since I tend to be a little easier to please when it comes to this type of comedy.
I kinda want to see this
It’s funny, typical Apatow/Sandler slapstick, but with a PG-13 filter. That kind of takes a little away, but it works.
Absolutely Holarious! Adam Sandler is at his comical best.
Finally saw it thought it was pretty good but the whole banging old chicks bit got old quick.
I think if it focused more on the over the top action it would’ve been better, I’d still give it a 3 1/2 though
Lot of really random cameos, my favorite being Dave Matthews