by Sarah Huth

Created on: July 13, 2008

Adam Sandler is known for wacky, somewhat strange comedies, full of obscenity and fairly smart jokes. Movies like "Happy Gilmore", "The Waterboy", or "The Wedding Singer" became instant classics, with memorable original characters and the occasional touching moment. All of the central characters are played by Sandler himself, who brings a somewhat lovable quality to these otherwise idiotic slackers. I must say though, that I was disappointed by his latest venture, this summer's "You Don't Mess with the Zohan". The character of Zohan himself seemed more of a ripoff of Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat than anything else, and while the movie wasn't unbearable, it wasn't very good either. It got a few laughs out of me, but like I said, this felt more like a cheap imitation than an original feature.

The film follows the story of Zohan Dvir (Adam Sandler), an Israeli soldier who dreams of being a hair-stylist in America. Though he is loved and worshiped by almost everyone (including a harem of bikini-clad ladies), he is tired of the hatred and fighting that goes along with his job. So when he is asked to re-capture the evil Palestinian terrorist, The Phantom (John Turturro), he fakes his death, making it seem as if the Phantom has blow him up during combat. Zohan catches a ride on the next plane to America, hiding out in the cargo-hold with two dogs, Scrappy and Coco. After giving himself a new haircut (the "Avalon"), and creating a new alias for himself by "brilliantly" combining the names of the two dogs he met on his trip (thus, Scrappy Coco), Zohan is ready to begin looking for work. Unfortunately, this is harder than he thought it would be. It seems that Americans don't respect "the Zohan" nearly as much as the people at home did. After he is laughed out of a Paul Mitchell salon, he stumbles into Michael (Nick Swardson), a nerdy nobody that's about to get his butt kicked. Zohan takes it upon himself to step in, and in order to thank him for saving his life, Michael takes Zohan home with him; where Zohan subsequently thanks Michael by "pleasing" his mother. While Michael is clearly disturbed by this, he doesn't throw Zohan out, and the two shrug it off and go to a "disco" club later.

Zohan keeps his identity "cleverly" masked by claiming that he is Australian, allowing him to get a job sweeping up hair at a salon run by the beautiful Palestinian, Dalia (Emmanuelle Chriqui). Soon, Zohan is promoted to hairdresser, though his clients tend to leave with more than a new hair-cut.

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