You Don't Mess With the Zohan
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DVD Review
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Review
You don’t mess with the Zohan tackles a very tricky political and humanitarian nightmare with absolutely no sensitivity at all………and is much the better for it! For those who haven’t heard anything about the film, The Zohan (Adam Sandler) is an Israeli special forces commando. He’s not just any commando though, he’s the best, a legend, national hero and almost superhuman. He’s one of those guys that’s amazingly good at everything. He struts his stuff on the beaches of Israel with total self assurance. The ladies love him and the men want to be him. Life, you would think, is good for The Zohan.
The Zohan however is not happy. He’s not totally fulfilled with his role of rounding up Palestinian terrorists. The Zohan has a secret wish………….he longs to cut and style hair! When he tells his parents his yearning they make fun of him, and so on his next mission to catch his nemesis, The Phantom (John Turturro), he fakes his own death and runs off to America to be a hair stylist.
After entering the country and taking on the name of Scrappy Coco (the name of two dogs he shared a crate with on the flight over) he’s first laughed at by the stylists in the trendiest New York salon and then turned down by pretty much every other New York salon. These knockbacks make The Zohan start to doubt his dream, but a fellow Israeli, who recognises him as The Zohan, makes him stick to his dream and sends him over to a salon on the Palestinian side of the road. Initially only getting a job sweeping up the hair, he’s content to bide his time until he gets the chance to grasp a pair of scissors and make someone ‘silky smooth’.
All is still not well for The Zohan however. The salon is in danger of closing. The new landlord has increased the rent in an attempt to drive them out so he can build a new mall on the land. Unbeknownst to him he’s been recognised by a Palestinian he crossed before and he’s out to get him. Can The Zohan save the salon, win over the salon owner and survive the Palestinians?
I’ve seen a lot of Adam Sandler movies in my time and have always found them quite funny. When I saw the trailer for this I remember thinking it looked like it had real potential. I’m sure we’ve all had those comedies that had great trailers, but when you watched the full film you found that all the funny bits were in the trailer. Thankfully I can definitely say that isn’t the case with You Don’t Mess With the Zohan, there were enough funny bits here to make ten trailers. In terms of laugh-out-loud moments, this was the best comedy I have seen in a long time. The comedy is silly, outrageous (sometimes REALLY outrageous) and over-the-top, so if you like your comedy high-brow you probably won’t like it, but if you don’t mind a little silliness you’ll love this film. It doesn’t handle the subject matter with any kind of sensitivity at all, basically it’s one big piss-take from the off. Some of the gags may stray a little into uncomfortable territory, and there may be a couple that fall a bit flat, but I’ll forgive the film those for the many other funny moments that work nicely.
Sandler as writer, producer and actor is on top form, and Dennis Dugan, the director, does a good job, keeping the gags coming thick and fast. Funny as this film is the overall plot could have done with some work. The threat posed by the landlord wasn’t defined very well and clashed with the other threat posed by the Palestinians that have seen through his new identity. Some of the cast you’ll recognise from previous Sandler movies (John Turturro, Rob Schneider and Dennis Dugan) and some are new (the standout has to be Emmanuelle Chriqui as Dahlia, the salon owner).
This DVD edition is presented in widescreen 1.85:1 Anamorphic video with a Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track. I watched this on a 37” LCD upscaled through a PS3 and the picture was clear and crisp, with bright and vivid colours. Some of the darker, night time, scenes were a bit murky but I’ve no major complaints. The sound was perfectly acceptable, comedies are never going to make the best use of a surround sound setup, but in the action scenes where it did kick into life it performed quite well, although personally I think the rear channels were a little underused.
There are a shed load of special features on this DVD version and you’ll find a brief description of each below. My only gripe with the extras is that Emmanuelle Chriqui barely makes an appearance at all!
Special Features
Commentary with Adam Sandler, Robert Smigel, Rob Schneider & Nick Swardson
Commentary with Director Dennis Dugan
Featurettes:
Look Who Stopped By – A run through of the cameos, basically whoever dropped by the set they strapped a costume on and got them in the film.
Dugan: The Hands on Director – A look at Dennis Dugan on the job and a look at his cameo in the film, who didn’t cameo in this film!
The Stunts of Zohan – Behind the scenes look at how they did the over-the-top action. It’s mainly the stunt coordinator, Scott Rogers, going through a few of the stand-out sequences with some behind the scenes footage.
Dougan Espanol – A video journal of Dennis Dougan during the portion of shooting in the fall of 2007 in Baja California. Dougan armed with an English to Spanish dictionary and a couple of years of intermediate Spanish, tries to communicate with the locals. Basically Dennis tries to communicate his needs as director (in some sort of Spanish) and then someone that can actually speak Spanish steps in and clears things up for the bewildered cast.
Zohan Vs. The Phantom – The details between the rivalry between The Zohan and The Phantom. Mainly an interview with John Turturro, not that interesting really.
Shooting Baja for Tel Aviv – The early part of the film that was supposed to be set in Israel was actually shot in Baja California. This featurette is a behind the scenes look at their time there. Basically shows them having a nice time shooting a film in the sunshine and messing about on the water. A bit of repetition from earlier featurettes.
All American Red-Neck – A look behind Dave Mathews role as a white supremacist sent to drive out the people in Zohan’s neighbourhood. Dave’s game for a laugh and before he knows is has a harness on and is being shpt through the air.
From Guns to Scissors – The film is about the conflict between Israel and Palestine and it seems that they had some Israeli and Arab actors for real on set and this featurette details their interaction. In actual fact they became friends and were willing to laugh at themselves, lets face it to be in this film and how it deals with the situation, they had to be!
The Robot – Bit of a piss-take here I think. A robot talks through in an interview what was supposed to be its role in the film, but all of his scenes ended up being cut. No idea what the hell it’s about, but it has its funny moments.
Laughing is Contagious – Some behind the scenes zany goofing off set to some dodgy music, followed by the gag reel and some funny improve.
Deleted Scenes – Exactly what it says on the tin. Certainly a decent number of scenes here, a few are pretty good and could’ve been included, most though, you can see why they hit the cutting room floor.
Zohan’s Doubles – During the making of the film the makers think that 15 people doubled for Adam Sandler due to the range of different skills required for the stunts (and one as a naked butt double).
News on 3: Missing Goat – Piss-take news report of the goat abduction by Rob Schneider’s character.
News on 3: It’s Very Good – Piss-take news report by one of the Israeli workers from the Electronics store.
Getting Sticky – The term used in the film for having sex. A short feature on some of the cruder scenes in the film.
Adam Sandler and Ray D’Arcy Interview
I really enjoyed this film, it made me laugh a lot more than a lot of other comedies lately. It’s very silly and quite crass so if you don’t like that sort of thing then stay away. If you liked the Airplane movies then I think there’s a very good chance you’ll like this, the comedy’s not exactly the same, but the silliness isn’t far off. I think this has to rank up there as pretty much my favourite Adam Sandler movie. Go watch it!
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