• the217
• Movies + TV
• Feel free to mess with the Zohan

Related Media

There is a soft spot in my heart for Adam Sandler, as I grew up loving his comedies of the mid-90s. Happy Gilmore and Billy Madison can still make me howl with laughter to this day, and The Wedding Singer was such a sweet little movie as it took Sandler’s typical humor and added a dash of genuine romance to the mix. Sandler followed these with Big Daddy and The Waterboy, both of which I admired but felt were not as strong as his previous efforts at comedic success. Soon, though, Sandler’s films started to dismiss his random, off-the-wall humor for more commercial laughs and for lame morals that, although admirable, were not what fans of Sandler really wanted to see. Anger Management, The Longest Yard, Mr. Deeds, and Click all were commercial successes, yet nobody really remembers them in the same way that Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore are remembered. Sandler even named his production company Happy Madison, a nod to two films which comedy aficionados hold in high regard. Finally, with last year’s abysmal I Now Pronounce you Chuck and Larry, it seemed as though Sandler had hit rock bottom.

What is my point? Well…after all that Sandler background, I am so pleased to announce that he is back in old, crowd-pleasing form with You Don’t Mess with the Zohan. The story of an Israeli counter-terrorism agent who longs to go to the United States and become a hairdresser at Paul Mitchell, Zohan does not take itself seriously for one moment. Take, for example, how Zohan gets his new, American name. As he stows away in an airplane headed for New York City, he meets two dogs named Scrappy and Coco. He chats with them and then does their hair, adding purple streaks to their shaggy dos. When the plane lands, the owner of the dogs sees her two pets and exclaims, “Scrappy! Coco! Who gave you permission to do this?” and as she is questioning the dogs’ new hairstyles, Zohan unscrews the crate he has been holed up in with his teeth and walks away towards American freedom. When asked his name, he immediately responds, “Scrappy Coco.”

Zohan finds no luck at Paul Mitchell and ends up working at a run-down salon at the hands of the beautiful Dalia (Emmanuelle Chriqui). Dalia is Palestinian, as is Zohan’s arch-nemesis the Phantom (John Turturro), whereas Zohan is Israeli, and the conflict between the two cultures is the one serious issue that the film attempts, somewhat unsuccessfully, to bring forth. As Zohan finds success at the hair salon (he has sex with elderly women after cutting their hair), he must also face the Phantom and save the day against a big corporation that wants to demolish the ethnic neighborhood that Dalia’s shop resides in to make room for a gigantic shopping mall.

All plot aside (because it really doesn’t even matter), the film is very, very funny. The jokes come tenfold, and they appease all senses of humor, from those who find goat jokes funny to those who enjoy seeing Dave Matthews as a racist villain who threatens to blow up three adorable beagle puppies as he exclaims, “I HATE THESE PUPPIES!” The film revels in the ridiculous. Even Mariah Carey has some funny one-liners in a three minute cameo. If you like your laughs plenty often and plenty dumb, Zohan is for you. Just leave your brain at the door. You’ll be glad you did. I haven’t had more fun at the movies all summer.

Welcome back, Adam Sandler. I’ve missed you.