Even though I'm far from being a fan of Adam Sandler, since this movie was written by Judd Apatow, I thought I should give it a try. Futhermore, the concept actually did have some potential. Well, eventually, even though I don't think it was Sandler's worst movie, far from it, I still can't say I really enjoyed the damned thing though. Basically, the whole point of the movie was to throw at the viewers every 5 seconds the most preposterous, outrageous, ridiculous and tasteless jokes. Unfortunately, most of the time, the whole thing just looked stupid and not funny but I have to admit that I couldn't help laughing during some scenes. Indeed, some supporting characters were actually really funny but, as usual, the biggest issue was that the main character portrayed by Sandler who was supposed to be stupid/funny but the guy was in fact just obnoxious/moronic and he got on my nerves during the whole duration. As I mentioned before, I think the whole concept had some potential, more than your usual Sandler vehicles, but they handled the subject so badly, it was just a terrible waste. Eventually, I have seen worse, especially starring Adam Sandler but I’m afraid this comedy was still really average and definitely not really worth a look.
You Don't Mess with the Zohan Reviews
An average movie
Posted : 12 years, 6 months ago on 21 October 2011 12:430 comments, Reply to this entry
You Don't Mess with the Zohan review
Posted : 13 years, 9 months ago on 18 July 2010 01:470 comments, Reply to this entry
You Don't Mess with the Zohan review
Posted : 14 years ago on 20 April 2010 06:560 comments, Reply to this entry
It´s not a Movie. It´s a roll of CRAP.
Posted : 14 years, 8 months ago on 5 August 2009 07:351) This movie is SO bad, that it has really redefined the concept of "TERRIBLE" for me;
2) This movie is SO f*ckin annoying that I would rather to watch any nonsense repetitive flash or gif animation with freaking sounds for two and a half hours in any cinema.
3) This movie doesn´t deserves even the minimum rating. To be perfectly fair with those weird Bollywood´s movies (not pretending to offend anyone), It should have a NEGATIVE RATE for us to vote.
4) My record (wasting time) watching "You Don´t Mess with the Zohan" is precisely - unbelievables - 21 minutes and 23 secs. I´ll never forget those claustrophobic, panic and painful seconds... OBS: For my mind protection this attempt wasn´t uniniterrupt.
The 4 is just a joke. Believe it or not, unfortunetely I do really watched it ALMOST entirely... (I was forced to.)
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Lather. Rinse. Save the world.
Posted : 14 years, 8 months ago on 30 July 2009 12:01Salim: And... I want some of your wives.
The Phantom: How many wives you want?
Salim: Twenty.
The Phantom: No.
Salim: I sleep with one wife.
The Phantom: No.
Salim: She give one pee-pee touch.
The Phantom: Okay.
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If only the Zohan hadn't messed with us!!!
Posted : 15 years, 5 months ago on 2 November 2008 02:58
Adam Sandler's excruciating, lethargic comedy routine stopped being funny around the beginning of his career. With You Don't Mess with the Zohan, Sandler and his usual partners in crime against cinema have actually managed to make a film more agonisingly unfunny than their appalling 2007 film I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry. Adding further insult to injury, the beloved super-producer Judd Apatow (he must have aggressive insomnia at the rate he produces movie) has defiled his (predominantly impressive) CV with this ghastly Adam Sandler vehicle. 2008 is the year for movies that are DOA. Mike Myers ruined his career with The Love Guru, Brendan Fraser embarrassed himself with The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, Will Smith relegated his career to cheap blockbusters with Hancock, and even the much-anticipated The Lost Boys sequel was doomed before its release. During the 110-minute running time of You Don't Mess with the Zohan there's plenty of time for you to focus your anger on everyone involved with the film as you won't be doing any laughing.
Zohan (Sandler) is an Israeli counterterrorist who excels at his profession. The film is marred lethally by the capabilities of Zohan: he's like Superman and is able to do all sorts of ludicrous things, from catching a bullet to swimming like a dolphin. He's the Chuck Norris jokes brought to life...yielding depressingly unfunny, lifeless results.
Anyway, the film mixes comedy with a global political issue; in this case the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Zohan is stuck in the middle of all this fighting and is the finest counterterrorist the Israelis have to offer. But he grows tired of this senseless conflict, and fakes his death in order to escape to America to achieve his dream...he wants to be a hairdresser. His initial dream of working for Paul Mitchell doesn't materialise, thus he settles for working at a small-time beauty salon threatened by a Trump-like real estate developer. Before you know it, Zohan increases the popularity of the beauty salon. He cuts hair sensually - ejaculating shampoo and acting sexually - before sexing old birds in the back room.
As with 2007's I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, Sandler attempts to explore a serious political issue. In the case of You Don't Mess with the Zohan (as I said before) it's the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Why explore a sensitive issue in a light-weight, fluffy mainstream comedy? What does Sandler hope to achieve? The script plays it safe, ultimately exploiting this issue for a string of low-brow gags. Nothing subversive is present in the script, and it simply offers nothing more than a simplistic "can't we all get along?" message. There's also the matter of the obnoxious product placement. Whenever Zohan expresses his obsession with hummus the label is always conveniently facing the camera.
Offensive low-brow gags pervade the film. Like when Zohan and two mates play hackeysack with a live, screaming cat! Adam Sandler is too self-indulgent. He seems to be having an absolute ball, but we're certainly not having a good time. If we were examining a simple Sandler vehicle like Happy Gilmore, he does a few funny things but the film lasts about 90 minutes. In this case, the film runs about 110 minutes and it's devoid of anything genuinely funny. I chuckled, but what's missing are the meaty laugh-out-loud moments. The script frequently resorts to cultural stereotypes and ethnic humour for laughs. None of this even works! It's misfired gags united with offensive misfired gags and boring moments. At times the film even seems like a drama. This is undermined, however, by Zohan's complete inability to offend anyone no matter what he says to them. Sandler's Zohan is a garishly sketched melange of Ali G and Borat, however (despite a screenplay co-written by Sandler and Judd Apatow) he's such a jarringly two-dimensional creation. Sandler's accent is even more offensive. That he has to become a foreigner for laughs is a reflection on how desperate this talentless "comedian" has become. He tries to be of the standard of Borat, but he doesn't have the talent as a writer or as an actor to pull it off adequately. And then there's Sandler regular Rob Schneider as a Palestinian cab driver. Seriously, it's awful stuff!
You Don't Mess with the Zohan appears to lag too much as well. There's a dreadful, contrived romantic sub-plot tossed in for the sake of some romance. It's barely developed and too sudden; hence we seldom care about it. Zohan has been screwing woman ages 60 and above throughout the whole film, yet cringe-worthy true love intervenes. The sign of this "true love" warrants more groaning: Zohan can't get an erection unless he's talking to this girl. The film plays out like an action flick and as a comedy. But Zohan is too unrealistic and overplayed for this to be a serious action film. And there most certainly aren't adequate gags for this to be considered a comedy. It's in the line in between...and this is certainly not a favourable line to be sitting on. The film cooks up is 80s-ish action, trite blather and ceaseless scenes of Sandler making sexy with grannies in the salon run by Palestinian bombshell Dalia (Chriqui). That she lets him continually run amok before eventually falling in love with him is about as insolent as the jaw-droppingly excruciating attempts at comedy, such as dudes discussing which First Lady they'd tap or a montage mirroring Rocky during which cracked eggs reveal developed young chickens and a live cow hanging upside down is used as a punching bag.
If only the Zohan hadn't messed with us! I never thought it'd be possible, but Adam Sandler has made a movie more painful than I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry and has further demonstrated his ability to reinvent the term "unfunny comedy". One golden star for a few chuckles...and I have no idea why in hell I'm being that nice!
1.5/10
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WTF?
Posted : 15 years, 7 months ago on 11 September 2008 05:04Not even worth wasting another word on...
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You don't mess with the Zohan. Are do you?
Posted : 15 years, 9 months ago on 8 July 2008 10:23The story was sub-par with several flaws however. It was a bit rushed and had some pretty dull moments and plot holes.
Adam Sandler has always been known for acting as bizarre yet hilarious characters in is films throughout his career. He has been successful in most of them and most are real crowd pleasers. He has really made his mark in the film industry. If you are looking for one of those films. In other words one of his classic comedy films, then I am sorry to say, you will not find it in Zohan. This film is more of a spoof film than any others. Sandler has his mildly funny moments, but after watching this film you will not feel that classic Sandler spark. It is more of a film for pure entertainment, not winning an oscar type.
Well now the final verdict. Is Zohan really a film worth spending 1 hour and 45 minutes on? or is it pure garbage?. Well, I say it is somewhat entertaining with some decent action scenes,and Pretty good acting. And one more thing. I was never bored while watching it. Those are the positives. Now, here are the negatives. Throughout the film you will most likely not be laughing at certain scenes. The reason I say that, is because there are so many horribly laid out jokes that just fail on every level. And they have bad timing as well. Some of them are also just too old to use these days. There is only one more negative aspect. The film is rather corny. Some of the lines could be drastically improved and the acting can at a lot of times be cheesy. I think Zohan is worth the watch, but only for fun with friends.
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Not what I expected
Posted : 15 years, 10 months ago on 12 June 2008 12:060 comments, Reply to this entry