“You Don’t Mess With the Zohan,” Adam Sandler’s latest effort, is really two different movies. One is typical Sandler schtick, juvenile, crude, and definitely not funny. The other, a narrative about a superspy who becomes weary of nonstop violence and wants to change his life, has promise. Unfortunately, the stupid stuff interferes. Zohan (Sandler) is an Israeli James Bond who loves disco music, hummus and Fizzy Bubbly, and wants to style hair. After staging his death, he moves to New York, assumes the name of Scrappy Coco and goes to work in a Palestinian hair salon. He graduates from unpaid worker to star stylist, as his hair technique (along with loud animal sex in the backroom) makes him a top attraction with older female customers.
The script would have been less schizophrenic (and more engaging) if director Dennis Dugan had focused on Zohan trying to escape his past with circumstances forcing him to continually use his superspy abilities to defeat the bad guys. We see a little of this, but not enough. Regrettably, Dugan tries to juggle too many tiresome and boring elements such as subplots involving a terrorist taxi driver (Rob Schneider) and another terrorist called the Phantom (John Tuturro). Trimming about 30 minutes from this movie would have resulted in a better movie. As it is, it’s really not worth the time and money to see it. (6/6/08)
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