Seven movie review: You Dont Mess with The Zohan

Written by James Sherwood
Sunday, 17 August 2008 00:00

Film - North America

Directed by Dennis Dugan

It has been argued that Adam Sandler has had a ‘dip in form’ with regards to his more recent films, but in collaboration with fellow writers Robert Smigel (Saturday Night Live) and THE comedy writer of the moment Judd Apatow (Superbad, Knocked Up, Forgetting Sarah Marshall) the trio have come up with a hilarious new character in ‘The Zohan’.

Zohan Dvir (Adam Sandler) is an Israeli counter terrorist who is almost single handedly responsible for the protection of the Israeli people from the Palestinian terrorist network, and in particular his nemesis The Phantom (John Turturro). Zohan is a highly skilled combatant who’s well endowed, impressive physique is as much a hit with the ladies, but what his fans don’t know is his secret yearning to end the fighting and pursue his dream to make people ‘silky smooth’; he dreams of becoming a hair stylist, and his most prized possession is his 1987 Paul Mitchell style book!

So after faking his own death in battle against The Phantom, Zohan heads to America taking on the identity of the half Australian, half Mount Everest ‘Scrappy Coco’ and finds himself working at (of all places) a Palestinian hair salon. Emmanuelle Chriqui (TV series Entourage) plays salon owner Rafaela who is initially dismissive of Zohan’s ability to cut hair, but once he gets his chance his sensual and arousing approach leaves her senior citizen clientele extremely ‘satisfied’ as business starts to boom. Unfortunately for Zohan though he cannot escape his past, especially when recognised by aggrieved Palestinian taxi driver Salim (Rob Schneider) who plans to capture him and seize his own moment of glory.

The film’s success is not only in its ‘laugh out loud’ moments but also the satirical elements that it offers on the subject of Jewish/Arab relations. Although these are people who are at war back in their homeland, in this thriving neighbourhood in Manhattan they live side-by-side being brought together by circumstance and amongst other things their mutual love of Mariah Carey and hacky sack; of course there is also the continued ridicule for the small minded ‘everyone’s a terrorist’ American! With a whole host of cameos throughout the movie, including Mariah Carey, Chris Rock and Henry Winkler to name a few, this is definitely a return to form for Sandler with a character who combines Mike Myer’s Austin Powers with Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat in a scenario similar to Eddie Murphy’s Coming to America; doesn’t that SCREAM ‘success’?!

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