Ok here's the deal. From the first time i saw the preview i have to say i was impressed by a premise for a Sandler movie in which he plays an israeli commando turned budding nyc hairdresser, but i thought it would be stupid, crass, and filled with shameless sexual innuendoes. The cool part is this movie nails its genre. It is stupid and crass and unabashedly sexual- and most importantly its hilarious. Not since billy madison have i had such a mindless and visceral joyride with sandler. The opening scene establishes Zohan as big man on campus on the lovely beaches of israel (not usually a part of that country thats really hyped) when he puts on a hackysack clinic that ends with a hilarious butt crack stall. Soon after we find that Zohan is tired of being the "Jewish Bond" and goes to NYC. To make a long story short he falls for a Palestinian Salon shop owner while working his way up to hairdresser in her shop and lives happily ever after. I'm not going to bore you with anymore plot because there isn't any, but what really comes through to me is that this was a really fun time at the movies.
Now, briefly i'd like to go a through a few things that made this one work well for me. First off this movie was co-written by Robert Smigel (Tv Funhouse on SNL) and Judd Apatow (40 year-old virgin) along with Sandler. I think that these guys realized that this isn't going to be Wedding Singer 2. In other words the jokes are cheap and the main character is a buffoon, the movie is completely outrageous and if you can deal with that you'll end up happy. Second i liked the characters and casting, especially John Turturro as the Phantom, who has his own chain of Hummus gorging restaurants in Palestinian areas. i also really enjoyed Nick Swardson (Grandma's boy) as Zohan's bud and Rod Schneider as a man torn apart by his memories of Zohan stealing his goat. Lastly, i liked this movie because it took a very serious subject and shed a little light on how stupid it is. Now i took a class on the Arab-Israeli dispute in college and let me tell you, you could learn about this stuff for years and not figure out why they are really fighting. Sure it's about land, religion, whatever, but as we see in the movie once these people move to America they forget about fighting over Israel (yay capitalism). Some middle east expert will probably rip me apart for this, but seriously there are stubborn and unrealistic people on both sides. If there's one thing to be taken away from Zohan its that life is short, laugh a little, laugh a lot, and forget about hate because its quite useless. I award You Don't Mess With the Zohan 5 out of 5 whoopie cushions because its one of Sandler's better movies and definitely his best since Mr. Deeds.
