The Cinema of the Four

You Don’t Mess With The Zohan

It has long been known to me that the movie investigators of the Yard do not do well with certain cases. Just bring up the name of any perpetrator affiliated with the infamous “Saturday Night” organization, and they bluster, puff up, and spout all sorts of nonsense, but will rarely give you the answers you seek in the case at hand.

I expect this will be the same with the latest escapade of Mr. Adam Sandler, “Don’t Mess With The Zohan.” What is he up to this time? Well, to say it’s all based upon the Israeli-Palestinian conflict might give you the wrong idea, but basically, it is. It’s also a comedy, of that sophmoric sort that Sandler excels at, in the fish-out-of-water type of story he built his career with. Instead of a hockey player on a golf course, or a pizza guy in a millionaire’s mansion, this time Sandler gives us an Israeli counter-terrorist as a hair stylist.

Perhaps, in this day and age, we could use a little less counter-terrorism and a little more hairstyling, and if anyone can put out a “Hey, lighten up!” vibe in a movie, it’s Adam Sandler. “Don’t Mess With the Zohan” is a fast-paced, idiotically silly, goof-fest with an amazingly mixed-up cast, the sort of movie that will just let one let go of one’s troubles for a couple of hours and indulge one’s pawky side (if, indeed, one has a pawky side).