What exactly about the idea of making his comedies
“topical” attracted Adam Sandler in the first place? I have
nothing against humor that tackles contemporary socio-political
issues—in fact, I tend to believe that this sort of daring
combination can provide material an added kick—but the only
thing funny about Sandler’s recent attempts to be relevant is
the pathetic nature of the attempts themselves. Last year, the
popular comedian and director Dennis Dugan tried to make a
statement on the gay marriage issue—murky as that statement may
have been—with their embarrassingly hypocritical and unfunny
I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. Now, the pair is back
for second helpings in the “important statement”-genre, sharing
a few thoughts on the Israel/Palestine conflict in You Don’t
Mess with the Zohan, a movie about an Israeli
Counterterrorist who leaves his hectic military-life to go to
America and become a hairstylist.
The reason why Sandler’s brand of
comedy doesn’t mesh well with social commentary is fairly
obvious: it isn’t smart enough to do so effectively. Because all
of his trademark humor consists of facile poo-poo-gah-ga jokes,
all political additions must therefore be dumbed-down in order
to not seem out-of-place. In Chuck and Larry’s case, the
only message Sandler and director Dugan were able to reasonably
communicate was a simple and unnecessary “Why can’t we all just
get along?” (This, of course, was purported in a movie that was
meanwhile ravenously homophobic.) Sandler’s newfound blend of
the Juvenile and the Psuedo-Intellectual feels like the inverse
of, say, what The Shawshank Redemption might’ve been had
Morgan Freeman randomly joked about the size of Tim Robbins’
penis every ten minutes.
Fortunately, You Don’t Mess with
the Zohan is better than Chuck and Larry by leaps and
bounds. The reason is simple: whereas the earlier film’s sense
of comedy was constantly bogged down by heavy-handed messages
about tolerance, this one’s second act includes hardly any
political material. The viewer may have to endure an hour and
fifteen minutes’ worth of poorly-constructed hoopla about the
strife between the focal two Middle-Eastern groups—the most
painful of which involves a subplot about Sandler’s Zohan
stealing a goat from Palestinian ex-farmer,
now-NYC-taxicab-driver Salim (Rob Schneider, of course)—but they
also get to enjoy a half-hour of Pure Sandler. And when I say
Pure Sandler, I mean the Sandler of the 1990s, not the
recently-weak starrer of mediocre efforts like Click and
Mr. Deeds. Yes, the majority of this half-hour consists
of entirely vile humor—the most obnoxious of which follows
Zohan’s tendency to sleep with his elderly female clients when
he is finally hired as a hairdresser—but it’s so well played and
outrageous that it proves nearly impossible not to laugh at. (I
say this as one who hasn’t so much as chuckled at a Sandler
Comedy in at least five years.) The majority of You Don’t
Mess with the Zohan isn’t great, but the movie shows obvious
signs of life, which, as far as I’m concerned, is more than any
of the actor’s comedies since 2000’s Little Nicky have.
Even if they don’t crack a smile at
You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, Sandler’s typical male
viewers will at least be able to engage themselves in the
limitless beauty of lead actress Emmanuelle Chriqui, who plays
Zohan’s love-interest and employer. As for women audiences: they
were planning on going to Sex and the City for the second
time instead anyway. You Don’t Mess with the Zohan
certainly isn’t a success, but it’s not without its simple
merits either. Now more than any other time in recent history, I
have a feeling that Sandler may finally make a great comedy
provided that he lays off the politics. And with the
seemingly-unstoppable Judd Apatow writing and directing one of
the star’s next projects, this great comedy may be arriving in
theatres much sooner than many of us had previously expected.
-Danny Baldwin, Bucket Reviews
Review Published on: 6.8.2008
Screened on: 6.7.2008 at MovieMax Theatres in Carlsbad,
CA.
