If you’ve seen the trailer for Adam Sandler’s new movie You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, it may be tempting to write it off as yet another low-brow comedy aimed at fifteen-year-old boys and best avoided by everyone else. But wait. After Hollywood’s recent spate of dour axe-grinding films about Iraq, a fun movie featuring an Israeli counter-terrorist as the protagonist is a refreshing change, even if it is no more serious or realistic than a cartoon.
Sandler plays Zohan, an elite Israel Defense Forces commando who feels no pain, can do push ups with no hands, and can catch bullets fired at him in his nostrils. He’s a superhero, basically, and his oddly likable Palestinian nemesis (“the Phantom,” played by John Turturro) is an equally indestructible comic book arch-villain who also feels no pain and can defy gravity. Zohan’s trouble is that he’s tired of chasing bad guys, even though he’s very good at it. He would rather live in the United States and work in a hair salon. So he fakes his own death and smuggles himself to New York to get away from it all and live the American dream. There’d be no movie, though, if it were that easy. Zohan is spotted by a Palestinian taxi driver, and buffoonish Arab terrorist wannabes plot to take down the Zohan at his place of employment.
The film’s lead actor and co-author is a Republican, but of the Rudy Giuliani-supporting “South Park Republican” variety. Andrew Sullivan coined the phrase after South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker outed themselves as irreverent anti-leftists a few years ago. Matt Stone is a registered Republican, and Trey Parker famously said “I hate conservatives, but I really f***ing hate liberals.”
This, then, is no Mel Gibson movie. Gibson’s politics, in fact, are swiped at in this movie. No cultural conservative could possibly have written You Don’t Mess with the Zohan. Sandler’s character becomes the most sought-after hairdresser in New York City because he joyfully includes sexual favors for senior citizens as part of his salon service package. At no point in the film is there even the slightest suggestion that there’s anything wrong with promiscuous sex or brazen prostitution.
There’s a seriousness, though, beneath the surface of what is otherwise a ridiculous and crude cartoon with live actors. Israelis are portrayed as the good guys, which is not exactly what might be expected from Hollywood these days. Jokes are made at their expense, but the humor is not politically charged. Zohan brushes his teeth with hummus, for instance. His dad stirs it in his coffee.
"Sandler plays Zohan, an elite Israel Defense Forces commando..."
Why'd you stop writing right here? All i see after this is a series of dots and blobs.
Fun game- name an Adam Sandler movie where he doesnt kick somebody's ass. Billy Madison he loses but its against a girl.
Think somebody might have some insecurity issues?
Spanglish? I’m just guessing but based on the preview it didn’t seem like a movie where someone would get their ass kicked.
Based on Mr. Totten’s description though, the movie seems every bit as crude and stupid as it appeared from the trailer.
If you want to see a good superhero movie, skip the latest garbage from Adam Sandler and go see Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk instead.
Why'd you stop writing right here? All i see after this is a series of dots and blobs.
I didn't stop writing right there. Hit the Refresh button on your browser or something.
We also saw the Zohan and thought it was funny and kinda charming. Crude, yes - but the basic values made pretty much fun of everyone. The fact that political debates among the New York Israelis and Palestinians devolve quickly into violent arguments over which female politician - or politician's wife - is more 'tappable' was brutally sexist but hysterical.
We're all the same, it kinda suggests - and there's a good germ of truth in that.
A.L.
Israelis are portrayed as the good guys, which is not exactly what might be expected from Hollywood these days.
Is this true, or only true in the rightwing imagination? I'm talking maintstream movies, not arthouse ones?
Munich was pretty sympathetic to Israelis.
Certainly movies about the typical Jewish yuppie women - also tend to be portrayed favorably.
Harold and Kumar, I loved the two Jewish fellow school kids. They were certainly portrayed favorably, if not conservatively. Chinese, Jewish, Indian, we all smoke pot together!!
hypo - Israeli =! Jewish, or not the last time I checked.
Munich? You mean the movie about the man who loses his soul and then finds it again by dropping out of the Mossad and moving to New York (the Zohan parallels are a bit obvious, so I skipped them...)?
A.L.
We're all the same, it kinda suggests - and there's a good germ of truth in that.
Under what circumstances would you find yourself handing out candy to the neighborhood kids to celebrate the news that five thousand people on the other side of the planet died in a fire?
"Munich was pretty sympathetic to Israelis."
Munich???
MUNICH???
You think that was sympathetic to Israelis? Normally, this is the point where you say, 'You have got to be kidding me?', or something along the same lines but more crass. However, I've long since gotten over incredulity at the sort of things people will say or believe.
A.L. - good, good point. Bad on me.
Celebrim - yes, I happen to think that Eric Bana, the protagonist of the film, was portrayed very sympathetically. Not that what he was doing, wasn't ethically questionable of course. But he is portrayed as a good man, a loving husband, caring father, who while attempting to do his tasks, gets ripped up inside.
Don't you remember the desperate change in plan, to cancel a bombing, when the Israeli group realizes there are children present? And their huge shuddering sighs of relief?
You may disagree - but that you are "incredulous" that people could think the portrayal sympathetic, THAT is what is hard to believe. You can clearly see a case can be made.
hypocrisyrules: Don't you remember the desperate change in plan, to cancel a bombing, when the Israeli group realizes there are children present? And their huge shuddering sighs of relief?
I remember that, and I agree with your characterization of it.
There are problems with Munich, but making the Israelis out to be the bad guys isn't one of them. The Palestinian terrorist characters came off much worse, as they should have.
Anyway, I was not thinking of Munich when I wrote that Zohan isn't what might be expected from Hollywood at the moment. I was thinking of films like Redacted.