You Don't Mess With the Zohan is Sandler's latest comedy to hit theaters. I have to say though, this isn't necessarily his strongest movie. I'm not saying it's bad... I'm just saying it's not something I'd want to watch a second time. Normally I'm a Sandler fan; I loved Anger Management, Happy Gilmore, Billy Madison, and Big Daddy to name the ones I HAVE seen. This one... just felt a bit TOO wacky I suppose. It was the good kind of wack at first, but it soon became a repetitive wack that just became dull.
PLOT
----
As most of you know from the trailers, this is a movie about an Israeli counter-terrorist named Zohan (Sandler) who fakes his own death at the hands of a super-terrorist by the name of The Phantom (John Turturro), in order to start his new life as a hair stylist. I think as a main plot, it was serviceable as a Sandler one. It was goofy, something that didn't have to be taken seriously, and for the most part succeeds in the beginning. However, watching this with my father (who for the most part is another Sandler fan), we noticed the story eventually became uneven, throwing in several other story arcs, including a revenge plot from an Arab who had his goat taken from him after insulting the Zohan, The Phantom trying to kill the Zohan sub plot (which occurs in the beginning and continues near the end), the romance sub plot, and the growing tensions on the street between Arabs and Israelis... and an evil corporate tycoon trying to use that tension to his advantage to buy out everything. Basically, it suffered from the Spider-man 3 syndrome (aka too much is going on at once). It made the story feel uneven and disjointed. Really, the tycoon story felt kinda thrown in there, as it really served no purpose to the plot. Although Rob Schneider was a funny character, his character and plot really didn't fit in there as well, making it drag on. The fact that it constantly went here and there with everything just threw the balance. Then again, given the fact that there were 3 writers, its safe to say it was bound to happen.
COMEDY
------
I will admit it, the humor was stupid, but it was the good kind... at first. I admit that in the first hour, I laughed my head off as the movie progressed. However, as they basically used the same joke over and over again, I found myself laughing less and less... to the point where I was lucky to even chuckle. So basically what I'm saying is that the humor wasn't bad, it was just overdone. That was the key difference I found in this Sandler movie; usually it wasn't the same joke over and over again, and if they did repeat a joke, they gave it some time before they went back to it.
I have to say the cameos were probably the best part of the movie; seeing people like Chris Rock, Kevin James, and Mariah Carey pop up was delightful. I found it humorous how Mariah Carey was a complete self-absorbed diva (she might be, I don't know, but she did a good job acting out of character), and seeing Kevin James just compare Johnny McEnroe, who we all remember being a total "bad boy" in Mr. Deeds, to the terrorists was funny as well. I have to say though that seeing a red-neck fall into a gay party with George Takei and Dom Deluise just took the cake. I busted into laughter at Takei's reaction to his entry (if you've ever seen the Family Guy episode where Peter sues Dr. Hartman, you know exactly what to expect).
OTHER NOTES
-----------
Granted, there are less things to talk about then my other reviews, but in a movie that begs to be taken seriously, you have to focus more on the acting, direction, and other factors compared to a movie such as this. I would like to talk about the movie's message though. Something that I did find decent was that it constantly tried to show a message of peace, comparing the Arabs and Israelis and showing how ridiculous the fighting really is. It's definitely on of the riskier group to preach this message to, seeing how tense the relationship is between the two nationalities. It's even riskier given how the movie makes fun of them. So in closing, it's a funny movie, and it gives a message... but it only stays funny for a little while. The unfocused and uneven plot really didn't help either.
Score: 4.5 out of 10
No comments:
Post a Comment