Review of You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008) by Chads. — 08 Jun 2008

Do you remember the barenaked old ladies in the Dove adverts that ran in movie theaters last year? Do you remember the snickers and gagging noises of your neighbors, while you tried to be mature about the commercial's pro-age rhetoric that beauty is ageless? Teenage boys beg to differ, however, and they'll snicker and gag even louder as Zohan(Adam Sandler) has sex with his mature customers.

Adam's extra-cirricular activities with these senior citizens is the subtext of Dove's Real Beauty campaign; that a woman can be desirable at any age. But in a puerile movie like "You Don't Mess With the Zohan", cross-generational sex is bound to be the stuff of cheap laughs.

And the movie cheats, to get its easy laughs. Zohan attracts an older clientele because he's working from a Paul Mitchell book that dates back to 1986. The customers are at least, ten to fifteen years, too old.

"You Don't Mess With the Zohan" starts off well, as Zohan's invincibility to injury suggests that his superhero-like ability is a satire on the comic book genre. That scene in which he kicks a man in the face with his legs from impossible angles makes him a mutant, right? But the film doesn't really follow up on this potentially interesting premise.

Late in the film, the film scores a few points by showing that Zohan's destiny was to be a peacekeeper instead of a hairdresser. This is faint praise, but I've seen worse, much worse.