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Sandler a loose cannon as `Zohan'.


Byline: Daniel M. Kimmel

COLUMN: Movie review

"You Don't Mess with mess with
Verb

Informal, chiefly US to interfere in, or become involved with, a dangerous person, thing, or situation: he had started messing with drugs 
 the Zohan" will annoy some viewers as much as it makes others laugh. It's not just that Adam Sandler engages in his usual lowbrow humor. It's that this time he's gotten into politics. In spite of his good intentions, partisans on both sides will likely find reason to complain.

Sandler plays Zohan, an ace Israeli counter-terrorism expert with seeming super powers. He's grown tired of the violence and longs to change professions. What he really wants to be is a hairdresser. So in a battle with the Phantom (John Turturro John Michael Turturro (born February 28, 1957) is an Emmy Award-winning American actor noted for his performances in To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), The Color of Money (1986), Five Corners (1987), Men of Respect (1991), ), Hezbollah's super-terrorist, Zohan fakes his own death and surfaces in New York New York, state, United States
New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of
, ready to take the salon world by storm.

However, the folks at Paul Mitchell (who has a cameo) aren't interested. Instead he finds himself among a number of Israeli expatriates who are running an electronic store that is perpetually going out of business. In this cartoonish New York, a number of Palestinians work across the street, and somehow they avoid bringing their disputes here. When they do argue, it's over which American politician they want to bed. This is an Adam Sandler movie, after all.

Zohan is hired by Dalia, a comely come·ly  
adj. come·li·er, come·li·est
1. Pleasing and wholesome in appearance; attractive. See Synonyms at beautiful.

2. Suitable; seemly: comely behavior.
 Palestinian woman who runs a salon on their side of the street. He soon becomes one of the hottest stylists in New York. The plot has him leading both the Israelis and the Palestinians in defeating an evil WASP land developer who wants to tear down to demolish violently; to pull or pluck down.
- Shak.

See also: Tear
 all their stores to build an upscale mall. It's all pretty silly and you'll either find this hilarious, if you're a Sandler fan, or intermittently amusing, if you're not.

The problem is that Sandler has a message. While the hope for peace is certainly unobjectionable, when Zohan and Dalia fall in love and wish the fanatics and killers on "both sides" back home could be stopped, it ought to raise eyebrows. The notion that both sides are equally responsible for the intentional killing of civilians requires total ignorance of what's actually transpiring tran·spire  
v. tran·spired, tran·spir·ing, tran·spires

v.tr.
To give off (vapor containing waste products) through the pores of the skin or the stomata of plant tissue.

v.intr.
1.
 in the region. (Interestingly the terrorists here are identified as the Lebanese Hezbollah and not the Palestinian Hamas, which has been shelling civilian communities from their Gaza stronghold for months.)

Of course there're also stereotypes galore to offend anyone wanting to be offended. Rob Schneider pops up as a Palestinian cab driver cab·driv·er also cab driver  
n.
One who drives a taxicab for hire.

cab driver ntaxista m/f

cab driver n
 with a second job as a telephone solicitor that he conducts while he's driving his cab. It's a cinch cinch

a saddle girth on an American stock saddle. Tightens with a knot on a ring instead of with straps and buckles.
 this film won't be winning any awards from the Arab-American Anti-Defamation Committee. One can only guess what they'll make of the Phantom's Middle Eastern fast food franchises.

No topic should be beyond the scope of comedy, but the Middle East turmoil requires a sharp satirist, not a slapstick slapstick

Comedy characterized by broad humour, absurd situations, and vigorous, often violent action. It took its name from a paddlelike device, probably introduced by 16th-century commedia dell'arte troupes, that produced a resounding whack when one comic actor used it to
 comic who thinks have Zohan having sex with his old lady customers is the height of wit.

Ironically "Zohan" may serve the same purpose as the movie's fictional developer: bringing enemies together in common cause.

`You Don't Mess with the Zohan'

**

A Columbia Pictures release

Rating: PG-13 for crude and sexual content throughout, language and nudity

Running time: 1 hour, 53 minutes

ART: PHOTO

CUTLINE: Adam Sandler as Zohan.
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Title Annotation:LIVING
Publication:Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, MA)
Article Type:Movie review
Date:Jun 6, 2008
Words:531
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