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You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008)

Director: Dennis Dugan

Time Out rating

Average user rating

60 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

Combining – perhaps for the first time ever – hypersensitive geopolitics with Spandex groin-bulge jokes, this sees Adam Sandler as a swaggering, bubble-permed Mossad agent who struts around Tel Aviv in denim cut-offs and skin-tight Mariah Carey T-shirts, kicking Palestinian ass. Weary of this cycle of violence, he decides to fake his death and follow his dream of becoming a hairdresser in New York City. This undeniably captivating premise turns out to be another sloppily concocted and naggingly non-controversial pretext for Sandler to pelvic thrust his way though a succession of increasingly wacky fish-out-of-water situations, with the intricacies of the Israeli- Palestinian conflict dusted with sugar and served up as inane plot filler.

Sandler’s Zohan is a garishly sketched melange of Ali G’s gormless ladies man and Borat’s wide-eyed naïf, and despite a screenplay co-written by current comedy sage Judd Apatow, he’s such a jarringly two-dimensional creation that there’s nowhere to send him beyond that sparklingly irreverent set-up. On the plus side, the film does have an amiably dreamlike approach to cultural stereotyping, for some reason plucking hummus, hacky sack and an unspecified orange liquid called ‘Fizzy Bubblech’ from the Israeli character profile to use at the centre of numerous recurring, though frequently uninspired, sight gags. John Turturro – whose scream is one of the most joyous sounds in cinema – picks up some of Sandler’s slack as terrorist and kebab-shop franchisee The Phantom, but it’s not enough to save this odd little mess.

Author: David Jenkins

Time Out London Issue 1982, August 14-20, 2008

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User reviews of this film

sam said...

Posted on Aug 27 2011 03:51 I thought that movie was lame and sucked ass!!!
The movie promo looked amazing, but man... was I disappointed. Save your money. Trust me.

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Di Taylor said...

Posted on Mar 07 2011 11:15 I watched this with my 16 year old son, well part of it anyway. Yes, it had some funny moments, tricks galore and a plenty of interest for a teenager. My husband fell asleep and I went to bed. Brilliantly funny for teens, a yawn for older people and a total rip-off of Borat, only he's funnier. My copy says for age 12 upwards. That is completely stupid. I'd say 15+. Such trash though I don't think you should bother. There are better things to do.

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luke said...

Posted on Oct 16 2009 15:07 adam sandler is the best actor in the world.tthis is my favourite film ever . it is amazing . always makes me laugh. adam is the best in it love luke xxx

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Rob said...

Posted on Jan 22 2009 18:40 What a time to bring the DVD out...what could be more inappropriate when Adam Sandler plays a mock israeli thrusting his pelvis and joking about the palistians "starting it" when there are images in the media portraying children crying and covered in blood in the steets of Gaza. Shocking - this should have been banded and seen Sandler finally demoted to the streets of failed comedy careers

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stephen said...

Posted on Oct 21 2008 18:30 this film is a work of staggering Genius. It works on many different levels: a simple slapstick comedy, zany and surreal comedy and above all, it's a parody. You may have to be Jewish, Zionist or Palestinian to understand the extent to which it firstly parodies the cliches and stereotypesand then, secondly, tgoes on to parody itself! Even the ending (which I have to admit drags quite a bit) is a self mocking parody of the sentimental let's all love each other ending. It's zany, crazy and incredibly funny

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Devonn x :) said...

Posted on Sep 28 2008 09:39 It looks good on the adverts n all x
Might Go watch it todayy :) x

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Georgie said...

Posted on Sep 27 2008 16:21 Absolute crap. American 'comedy' jumping on the Borat bandwagon, mixing it with Zoolander and getting it totally wrong. How script-writer Judd Apatow is considered a giant of comedy is anyone's guess. Crap.

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shaun said...

Posted on Sep 20 2008 19:50 u people r just sad just cause u dnt like it dnt mean we wont i whatched it it was fab i thought but u just moan at everything

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ssnowman said...

Posted on Sep 15 2008 12:34 Awful, DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY!

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laram said...

Posted on Sep 08 2008 21:54 This film was actually very funny, i thought the ending wasnt all that but it was hilarious, go adam sandlar x

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Lam said...

Posted on Sep 08 2008 10:11 The most vile of movies. It is a z-class "comedy". There was a lot of potential for a movie with the story-line as it was to have been made so much better. My wife and I had leave hafl-way through. Cheap, nasty, untasteful.

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usman khawaja said...

Posted on Sep 07 2008 13:41 DO NOT MESS WITH THESE SEXUAL PERVERTS -this was a more appropriate title for this spoof on israel-arabs -jews and muslims alike ,sandler plays a secret agent with a padded crotch who thinks that jokes about the penis ,female anatomy,dirty old women ,and the tight purses of arabs and jews are very funny .
the men here keep their cash in their padded briefs rather then wallets and call their private parts schnitzels ,this could almost be anti-semitic until it emarks on showing white people as even more evil stereotypes ,all white grannys are nymphomaniacs wanting sex with younger middle eastern studs with foreign accents and all white men become greedy conglomerate businessmen with their suits and ties ,
the political views of this fraternity are restricted to how desirable the wives of american presidential candidates are and of course everyone from mckay to hilary herself crops up in the sex talk ,
sandler really runs out of steam here as he should have devised some jokes before taking such an ambitious project of making a spoof on the arab-israeli conflict which is ongoing now for 2000 years ,this falls apart after 20 minutes .
a typical dialogue describes hummous as a white diarrhea -like substance in the opinion of an american -
rather painful and perverted

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Aggie said...

Posted on Sep 06 2008 14:12 Adam Sandler at his best. Really funny movie, definetely not for kids, only for those adults who like to laugh, for those who know something about Israel and Jews. Really enjoyed it and so did my friends. Laughed all the way through the movie. Just a note: I am not a ditsy blonde with IQ below 100.

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daisy webster said...

Posted on Sep 02 2008 23:32 that was also from orla

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Karen said...

Posted on Sep 02 2008 21:36 The biggest load of rubbish I have ever seen in my life! I love Adam Sandler, but this really was awful. I went with friends and our 13 yr old lads, who both wanted to leave as it was cringeworthy. It should have been a 15 with all the rude inuendos flying around. Very disappointing.

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