You Don't Mess With The Zohan

It’s been a while since Adam Sandler has crafted a truly funny movie. While You Don’t Mess With The Zohan isn’t nearly as good as his early films, it is certainly the funniest thing he’s done in a long time and almost a return to form, with his absurd sense of surrealist humour present throughout. As with some of his more recent works, Zohan is essentially a comedy built around a message: in this case, peace in the Middle East. Sandler plays Israeli anti-terrorist super-agent the Zohan, a man capable of fantastical feats, who finally decides to follow his dream of moving to America to become a hair stylist. Trying to fit in and remain incognito, the Zohan (excuse me, Scrappy Coco) is eventually exposed and forced into a head-on confrontation with his arch nemesis, Palestinian terrorist the Phantom. Along the way he finds love, compassion and the American dream. A spoof of James Bond-style spy thrillers, the over-the-top action sequences are often worth the most out loud laughs, as are the surreal moments of comedy, but way too often the movie suffers from long, dull moments. Whoever would have thought the action sequences would far outweigh the comedy in an Adam Sandler film? And it’s especially weird considering the number of talented actors/comedians that make cameos and guest appearances. The two-disc Fully Loaded Extended Version contains an exhaustive array of featurettes covering everything from the stunts to the guests to the director to blah, blah, blah, along with deleted scenes, the now mandatory digital copy and two commentary tracks. The first features Sandler and fellow cast members Robert Smigel, Rob Schneider and Nick Swardson talking about the country of origin of many of the actors and scenes, as well as the origins of most of the jokes. The second features director Dennis Dugan, who gets just a little more technical. Frankly, it’s all just a bit more than this decent video rental really deserves.