YOU DON'T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN

Hair Stylist/ Kung Fu Terrorist Parody Stumbles with Kinks and Knots, But Gently Instills Outrageous Social Commentary

By Tony Rutherford
Like the advertising states, expect a cluttered concoction when you take your seat at Adam Sandler's , "You Don't Mess with the Zohan." Stretching outside his usual comedic range, Sandler plays Zohan a supremely talented, screwed up Israeli counter terrorism agent. Yet, the counter intelligence super-hero/kung fu master has burnt out on bustin heads and dodging bullets. He yearns to let his fingers sensually shampoo the soapy manes of over the hill ladies seeking a silky smooth do's and scalp rejuvenation.



For a long period, the film seems stalled just a jagged pair of dull cutting scissors; the languishing set ups of Sandler's imaginative and rowdy parody come to suffocating from too many kinks, knots, and unlayered execution before about midway through shaking off excess dandruff and tossing on the high potency shampoo and conditioner.



Awash in improbability, "Mess With the Zohan" dances erratically hampered by splintered perspectives. Sandler flakes from a sandy sensual beach bum to indifferent bionic spy of a thousand contortions and reflexes allowing him to leap from tall structures and land feet first with no broken bones. But, that portion of the story crosses a forbidden line, farcical plot on or not, it skips the prerequisite origin for his extraordinary gifts, be they swatting Palestinians or snipping follicles with such precision.



Once settled in New York, Sandler's gyrations rapidly shape the film's structure into both a foolish farce and a subtle, laughable, yet on target social commentary about the tiredness of war. Soaked with assorted raunchiness for the sake of raunchiness, you have to ignore most of these mocking intimacy pieces. The tips Sandler bestows upon prudish old ladies favorably work and those bits that shrivel and shrink includ repeated allusions to the nature of what's inside his trunks.



If you giggle then abandon the cheap sexual shock gags, you start gaining appreciation for the sleek social satire spiked so outlandishly that you laugh at the ethnicity barriers rather than scream political insensitivity. Skirting (temporarily) direct terrorist threats, "Zohan" gently mocks the Hezbollah and Hamas in Palestine simply inferring that their dislike of one another shot so off the extreme of logic that now fresh battles ensue from a stolen goat or a hastily tossed and misdirected sandal landing on the head of the opposing ethnicity. The multiracial neighborhoods of New York score perfectly for setting a small scale rivalry between enemies who admit they are tired of war. Their knack for blending into the Big Apple multi-cultural society further punctuates that their prejudices of hate come from ancestors and places now far away.



Personally, I think Sandler plays Zohan a little too over the top, especially for the rapid mood changes which the character faces. I'd purchase his razor sharp hair styling blades, but his exaggerated kung-fu superman persona breaks the suspension of disbelief barrier on more than one occasion.

Binges of superficial satisfaction should --- with the novel premise --- beam with continuous laughter, rather than displaying more moods than a manic depressive avoiding their medicine.



**1/2 out of *****