Someone, Anyone? for the love of decent Hummus make please make Adam Sandler STOP! Sandler who was once a very funny comedian has drifted far, far, far off the path any self-respecting individual would take. In Zohan, Sandler continues his streak of abysmal attempts to merge humor with some sort of message for tolerance and acceptance of those who are different, failing miserably at both. Zohan is a two joke film in which the two jokes would not amuse a 10yr old let alone his target audience of 20-30 something pot-heads. And for those who find his character voices annoying then your in for a special treat with this film. His Austrailian/Tibetan/I'm guessing Jewish accent makes his voice in Little Nicky sound like music to the ears. This film was awful from the opening scene onwards with nary a laugh or even a cracked smile to be found. I reccomend that you Don't Bother With the Zohan.

Grade F

I really thought you'd love it too.

Pink doesn't like anything.

Extremely ridiculous and stupid, but it also had a few good laughs. It's an average comedy I would probably recommend waiting for DVD to watch, but it will please the diehard Sandler fans. I will say that the montage of Zohan's "sessions" with the various old women in the salon was hysterical. C+

A significant improvement over Chuck & Larry simply because it tries. I thought C&L was okay, but it was lazy comedically. Here, although the comedy is sometimes hit and miss, the screenplay by Apatow, Sandler and Robert Smigel will try anything to make you laugh. How many movies are you going to see where people play hacky sack but with a cat? Zohan for the most part made me laugh and that's all I asked for.

There are a couple of problems with Zohan though, one being that it's too long. This seems to be somewhat of a problem for anything with Judd Apatow's name on it (I say somewhat because his films are still good despite the length) and ten minutes probably needed to be cut somewhere in the middle. Although it's funny, the montage scene with Zohan and his clients seem to go on forever. Another problem I had was with the relationship between Zohan and Dalia (Emmanuelle Chriqui). They never quite sold me on their relationship one of the reasons being the age difference. Sandler is eleven years older than Chriqui is. What's that line from Dazed and Confused, "That's what I love about these high school girls, man. I get older, they stay the same age."? Adam, you're no longer 27, time to move on.

Anyways back to the film. I had fun for the most part. And for the first time in a long time with a Sandler film, it's kind of clever. Zohan won't be for everyone, but it made me laugh.

***

I was tired and fell asleep for much of the middle.

But I really liked the first 10 minutes - that "super everything" was very funny but then the next parts before I dozed off were either boring or repetitive.

This sounds very funny. Thanks for posting.

It's funny enough to make up for it's flaws (which mostly include Rob Schneider). None of the good parts were spoiled by the ads either. That's really rare for a Sandler movie. I didn't even see Chuck and Larry (though might watch it on cinemax tonight). Let's disco and play hackey-cat. Biggest surprise of the year so far for me. A-

Apatow has to have a bad one eventually doesn't he? I thought Sandler's people would fuck this up for sure.

I loved Citizen Kane


Sandler's been hit and mostly miss for me since the truly awful Little Nicky.

This is a true Sandler comedy here. Pure fun entertainment and side-splitting laughs. I really enjoyed it and this goes up into one of my all-time favs from Sandler.

A

I can't believe that it's almost a week into it's run, and there's still only seven reviews for Zohan!

Here's one theory, which I posted in one of the hater clubs over in the Box Office Bash forum:

Ugh.

Unfunny. Boring. Stupid. The only good part was the cameo by Mariah Carey, at least she knows how to actually be funny.

D

movie gets C-
Emmanuelle Chriqui gets A+++++++++++ simply gorgeous.

A

What he said.

Anyway, this film is ridiculous. Not as hilarious as some other Sandler films, but it's solid. The random moments where people started to disco killed me.

**1/2

It was exactly the kind of stupid but often funny hit-and-miss comedy we've come to expect from Sandler. After what seemed like a fairly subdued in last summer's I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (and the straightforward dramatic turn in Reign Over Me that came before that), Sandler lets loose and has a hell of a good time as Zohan. It is a pretty welcome spin on his typical "average man-child" getup, though some of the same types of jokes (the sex ones in particular) are recycled. John Tuturro also manages to steal scenes as "The Phantom." The action is pretty fun to watch, with the showdown in Israel at the start being the highlight. For the first hour or so, the movie has more energy and laughs than any Sandler movie has in a while, but things really seem to cool off in the second half. The collapse is mostly to do with the romantic subplot and a climax too odd for its own good (apart from the Mariah Carey cameo and the "redneck profile," both of which I found to be quite funny). Like most of Sandler's other work, You Don't Mess with the Zohan is uneven and not destined to be remembered as a classic of any variety of cinema, but it gets the job done.

Grade: B

For every one laugh that lands (and, make no mistake, there are some really good gags in here), about six fall flat. When it's funny it's very funny, so I hate to say that it's not ultimately successful. But it's not.

There's a whole bunch of different movies fighting for face time in there. The cock-eyed Munich parody that starts off strong and ends well but is death in the middle portions. There's also the standard Sandler-pic sweet underdog story that needs tending. Don't forget the strange family guy-esque parade of non-sequitur that fills in the margins. They needed a strong filmmaker with a sense of style to make this work- not Dennis Dugan, who has no business working outside of primetime television. If there. His staging is terribly flat (poor John Turturro), the film is shapeless because there's no vision behind the camera, and I can't count the number of scenes that a) simply ended or b) ended with the biggest clunker in a series of decent gags.

I applaud the effort of mining a situation that isn't very funny- and one people don't seem to want to hear about- for a goofy comedy. But the filmmakers, hedging their bets on tackling such a touchy subject, hide behind their safety curtain of endless but harmless Jewish ethnic jokes; I swear, ten minutes in, and there had already been 20 distinct Hummus jokes. And, oh god, it does not end there.

Sandler lets loose as Zohan and is mostly funny. Except the sex gags. Those were just sort of unpleasant. John Turturro is so not funny as to be alarming. He is given nothing to play with. It's telling that the only laugh his character gets comes not from his performance, but from the montage he happens to be in. You know the one. There's also way too much Rob Schneider in a titanically unfunny turn. But, in keeping with the 6:1 bad gag/good gag ratio, his anguished cries of "goat!" get a big laugh.

Good premise poorly executed. A miss.

Very funny beginning (One of the most absurd films or randomness I've ever seen. And I was cracking up a lot, once he falls in love it begins to get a little less jokey)

As a result, I'd give it a B+ becuse I did laugh a lot right now, but I feel like I'll never watch it again because I get the feeling repeat viewings will kill it. So my grade is if you want to laugh and like absurd humor, this is definitely for you.

B+

I laughed three times in 120 minutes. Eck.

I feel sad for you.

I wish Zohan could have brought you the same joy that it brought to me.

I feel sadder for the friend with me. He's a huge Sandler fan and he laughed less than I did. At least I was in a semi-bad mood going in.

it was fun. step up from chuck and larry

B+