The ideas and some of the individual bits in Zohan work, but the crudeness of the execution undermines the results.
Comment
10/18/08
You Don't Mess With The Zohan (2008)
37
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:35
Fresh:13
Rotten:22
Average Rating:5.2/10
Consensus: You Don't Mess With the Zohan features intermittent laughs, and will please Sandler diehards, but after awhile the leaky premise wears thin.
Theatrical Release:Jun 6, 2008 Wide
Box Office: $100,018,837
Synopsis: Dennis Dugan (BIG DADDY, HAPPY GILMORE) directs this comedy co-written by Adam Sandler, Judd Apatow, and Robert Smigel. Disco- and hummus-loving Zohan (Sandler) is the Israeli army's best weapon.... [More]
Starring: Adam Sandler, John Turturro, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Nick Swardson
Director: Dennis Dugan
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Reviews for You Don't Mess With The Zohan
Top CriticZohan is both exponentially stranger than Larry and about twice as amusing.
07/18/08
Top CriticThis moviegoer has no trouble with lowbrow comedy. The problem with Zohan, however, is that it’s like a kid who tells you a silly joke, gets a laugh, and immediately tells the same joke again.
06/16/08
Top CriticI’m all for politically incorrect humor, but there has to be humor in the political incorrectness, and I didn’t get it here.
06/16/08
Top CriticDirector Dennis Dugan knows his way around shin-whacking slapstick, and Sandler is mesmerizing.
06/09/08
Top CriticIt's a difficult feat to manage irony without antecedent, so rather than opt for knowing caricature -- like, say, Adam Goldberg's The Hebrew Hammer -- Zohan mostly opts for empty farce: topical humor for people unfamiliar with the topic.
06/06/08
Top CriticYou Don't Mess With the Zohan is as messy as comedies come. Much of it, though, is an inspired, hilarious mess.
06/06/08
Top CriticIf one-note jokes that drag on too long or are worked into the ground aren't enough to trigger comic nausea, then perhaps the myriad uses of hummus will do the trick in You Don't Mess With the Zohan.
06/06/08
Top CriticThere's a lot to be said for consumerism as a salve for historic wounds. Of course, there's also a drawback to our free market ways -- we get shoes made in China and movies like You Don't Mess with the Zohan.
06/06/08
Top CriticIt is simultaneously a little bit vulgar and a little bit sentimental and comes out as a virtually bullet-proof blend for the mass, summertime audience.
06/06/08
Top CriticWhat might have been an ambitious effort becomes another lousy Sandler movie, endless and tiresome with a handful of funny moments.
06/06/08
Top CriticYou can tsk-tsk Sandler's penchant for dumb, crass humor all you want, but there's some meaning behind his madness. Is there nothing more human, more humbling, than the idea of smelly feet?
06/06/08
Top CriticThe result is another flabby comedy that gets its biggest laughs from thinly-covered penises and bare buttocks.
06/06/08
Top CriticThe direction by Dennis Dugan is flabby and dull -- like most of the hacks-for-hire who end up bringing a Sandler opus to the screen, and whose chief qualification seems to be the ability to shout 'Great, Adam! Great!'
06/06/08
Top CriticHow much you like this will depend upon your appreciation for repeated jokes about hummus, gays, Zohan's crotch and his fondness for older women.
06/06/08
Top CriticHis humor works best when it's throw-away, but Zohan throws everything up to get a yuck. It's a shock to see how many 'yuck!' moments Sandler settles for.
06/06/08
Top CriticZohan tries for a message of social relevance with a nod to America as the land of multicultural coexistence, but its real value is in air-fluffing our cares away for a couple of hours.
06/06/08
Top CriticNot that You Don't Mess with the Zohan is meant to be taken seriously, nor is it meant to be an intelligent discussion of world politics. But even as a zany comedy whose backdrop kinda-sorta happens to have some heft to it, it falters.
06/06/08
Top CriticEvidently there's something even harder to pull off than Middle Eastern peace: a steady run of jokes that deserve our laughter -- if You Don't Mess With the Zohan is an indicator.
06/06/08
Top CriticYou mess with the Zohan at the risk of your own IQ. But anyone who realizes or cares about such hazards has likely crossed the movie off the to-see list already.
06/06/08
Top CriticLatest News for You Don't Mess With The Zohan
October 05, 2008:
This counter-terrorism satire is its own worst enemy. Especially whenever Sandler's whining geek turned combo swaggering assassin hair stylist's too-much-information bulging prosthetic crotch pops up. 
More...
August 19, 2008:
Arab Censors Mess With The Zohan
In a move that will leave some American filmgoers seething with jealousy, censors in Egypt, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates have banned Adam Sandler's You Don't Mess With... More...
August 16, 2008:
NewFilmReview: This counter-terrorism satire is its own worst enemy. Especially whenever Sandler's whining geek turned combo swaggering assassin hair stylist's too-much-information bulging prosthetic crotch pops up.
More...
July 13, 2008:
Box Office Guru Wrapup: Moody Superheroes Rule the Box Office
Hellboy II: The Golden Army nudges Hancock out of first place while Murphy debuts as the summer's biggest flop. More...
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