"You Don't Mess With The Zohan" movie review

This week we take a look at Adam Sandler’s latest creation, You Don’t Mess With the Zohan (PG-13). Sandler stars as an Israeli counter-terrorist who quits the army and moves to New York to become a hair stylist. Predictably, his old life eventually finds him in the city. John Turturro costars and Dennis Dugan directs.

Ryan: I know Adam Sandler comedies continue to make money but the days of Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore and The Wedding Singer are long gone (Although it should be noted that Sandler has recently made some good movies—like last year's vastly underrated, Reign Over Me). But the bottom line is that he has not made a relevant (or for that matter good or even decent) comedy in years. Unfortunately You Don't Mess With The Zohan continues that trend of extremely sub-par work.

Andy: I left Zohan a little let down and thinking that it wasn’t that great of a movie. But the more time I have to think about it, the less I like this movie. As with all comedies, there are some pretty funny moments. If you throw enough slop up on the screen, some of it will eventually stick. But the film was weak in just about every area that matters, and the acting of the lead has to be at the top of this list. For someone as talented as Sandler to repeatedly make uninspired or just plain bad movies is a little baffling.

Ryan: The biggest disappointment with the “Zohan” is that it could have been a very funny film. From the in-your-face title to the irreverent story, the movie appeared to have a Zoolander or maybe even an Anchorman-type vibe. Meaning that this is going to be a ridiculous movie but a movie that's pretty darn funny. Regrettably that is not case and I apologize for even mentioning those other two comedic gems in reference to the debacle that is You Don't Mess With The Zohan.

Andy: I think the biggest problem with Adam Sandler movies is that they allow Rob Schneider to continue to exist in Hollywood. I used to think that Schneider was just annoying, but now I’m thinking he may actually be a bad person. This is a sampling of the names of characters he’s played in Adam Sandler movies: Nazo the Italian Delivery Man, Chinese Waiter, Prince Habeeboo, and Asian Minister. And in this movie he is Palestinian cab driver, Salim. It’s embarrassing enough that he walks around representing my culture every day of his life, but to do stereotypical, imbecilic impressions of other cultures on the big screen so frequently is irresponsible and certainly not funny.

Ryan: I wasn't sure of this first but I checked and You Don't Mess With The Zohan was indeed written by professional Hollywood writers (Sandler and company). This really did surprise me because at first I thought that a group of pubescent boys who just slammed a case of Red Bull actually wrote the script. I can handle toilet humor and sex jokes but when that's all a movie has to offer than that's not a good sign. Stupid movies can be either stupid-good or stupid-bad and there's absolutely no question that the “Zohan” falls into the latter.

Andy: The concept of this movie did seem to have potential, but Ryan is right. The writing is simply awful. The story itself ends up being amazingly boring, and most of the gags are tired by one hour in. Perhaps if you had the ability to not think at all about what you are watching, Zohan would be pretty funny. But the more consideration this movie gets, the worse it seems.

You Don’t Mess With the Zohan falls short on just about every level. Sandler fans would be better off avoiding this one. Final grade: D.