Seen on: June 6, 2008

The players: Director: Dennis Dugan, Writers: Adam Sandler, Judd Apatow, Robert Smigel, Cast: Adam Sandler, Rob Schneider, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Nick Swardson, John Turturro

Facts of interest: Dugan also directed Sandler's comedies "Big Daddy" and "Happy Gilmore."

The plot: Zohan is an Israeli counter-terrorist who decides to leave the army and travel to the U.S. to launch a career as a hair stylist.

Our quick thoughts: If you’re not in the mood for an embarrassing, boring comedy this weekend, you really don’t want to mess with the Zohan. Adam Sandler’s latest big-screen escapade aims high but misses its target, providing moviegoers with nothing but ridiculous one-liners, empty characters and only a few awkwardly funny body movements. All in all, “You Don’t Mess with the Zohan” looks like a bad haircut.

Adam Sandler plays Zohan, a brilliant Israeli commando who wants to leave the army and spend the rest of his life cutting and styling hair. To fulfill his dream, he fakes his death and flees to New York City, where he kicks off his career as a hair stylist in a small salon on the verge of bankruptcy. But Zohan quickly turns profit, attracting hundreds of female customers by giving them the ultimate haircut and even satisfying their sexual needs.

Zohan’s new lifestyle may seem fabulous at first, but his past is quickly catching up with him. The silky smooth ex-agent spends the rest of the movie fending off a bunch of terrorists affiliated with Hezbolah, all while trying to sneak up to his charming boss Dalia (Emmanuelle Chriqui), who, much to his chagrin, happens to be Palestinian.

The entertaining trailer for the movie promised plenty of funky hair styling and fast-paced action, but in the actual film, all of this is kept to a minimum. The script by Sandler, Robert Smigel and Judd Apatow focuses more on the extravagance of Zohan than the actual story, leaving behind a boring plot and dozens of moronic jokes that fall flat. There’s nothing wrong with building an entire movie around its central character, unless you forget to invest creativity in everything else.

I applaud the movie’s effort in showing that Israelis and Palestinians can indeed co-exist. Other than that, the film relies too much on stereotypes in debunking controversial issues. Why do they always have to ridicule stereotypes to tackle these issues? How about approaching them with a little bit of innovation? Is that too much to ask for the price of admission? But hey, I understand that stupidity is always a lot easier to transfer to the screen than intelligence.

Some critics consider “Zohan” to be Adam Sandler’s best comedy yet, but I honestly don’t know what they smoked on the day they saw the film. Sure, he brings along a solid dose of energy and delivers some funny dances and a pretty authentic accent, but what else does he have in store for us? Not much. The rest of the cast doesn’t exactly shine either, but those of you who love cameos won’t be disappointed. Chris Rock, Mariah Cary, Kevin James and the great Kevin Nealon are all on board for a couple of quick jokes.

Freaky quote: “Soon the whole world will be silky smooth.” – Adam Sandler

The final word: I walked into this film with rather high expectations after seeing the trailer, but I left the theater disappointed after having to sit through 112 boring minutes. Although “Zohan” is still a minor improvement on Dennis Dougan’s previous flick “I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry,” it’s not original or hilarious enough to leave a mark. It’s quite simply yet another standard Adam Sandler movie. I guess that’s the best way to sum it up in just one sentence. Seriously, don’t mess with the Zohan.

Article by Franck Tabouring