Adam Sandler is White Ladies Man in Judd Apatow’s ‘You Don’t Mess With the Zohan’

HollywoodChicago.com — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 22:01:00 -0700

Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – In the relatively anemic anthology of recent Adam Sandler flops, “You Don’t Mess with the Zohan” hangs above with comedic charm and a nonsensically amusing plotline. The story is divisively intermingled with racial and ethnic sensitivities between the Israelis and Palestinians.

At first, it even feels like a scribe sat down for a few weeks, slammed back a few brewskies and toked daily on the good ganja while attempting to ink a forcefully novel plot.

Emmanuelle Chriqui as Dalia in “You Don’t Mess with the Zohan”.
Photo credit: Columbia Pictures

Surprisingly, its idiosyncratic nature tends to work as you build esteem for the libidinous man Adam Sandler has transformed into.

While Sandler has played the full gamut of roles in recent memory, this time he’s actually a Thor who beckons women to his sexual mercy.

Sandler as Zohan is the white version of the legendary Tim Meadows character The Ladies Man from “Saturday Night Live” but with a thick Israeli accent.

Zohan is an Israeli counter-terrorist commando who fakes his own death in order to pursue his unlikely and embarrassing dream of becoming a hairstylist in New York.

To make matters more outlandishly canned, Zohan’s arch nemesis, Phantom (played by John Turturro), has a similarly humiliating reverie: selling shoes.

Lainie Kazan is welcome motherly relief – except when she’s revealed utterly nude from the rear and causes an eruptive audience gasp – and Rob Schneider, of course, can’t let an Adam Sandler flick make it to the big screen without joining him on it.

As well, you might have noticed Dave Matthews in the film, but I didn’t.

In “You Don’t Mess with the Zohan,” Adam Sandler stars as Zohan: an Israeli commando who fakes his own death in order to pursue his dream of becoming a hairstylist in New York.
Photo credit: Columbia Pictures

Hollywood hands Sandler a bone throughout the course of his reinvented, Jason Bourne-like ways and affords him the moves, styles and suave demeanor even Sandler in real life would envy.

Indeed, he epitomizes making love and not war and even isn’t shy about “making sticky” with women who had to be pushing 80. Whew.

The one woman he fancies the most and doesn’t return your stomach’s digestive matter is the beautiful and enormously unlikely love interest Sandler would never actually touch with a 100-foot stick: Emmanuelle Chriqui.

The Israeli Zohan begs the Palestinian siren to work for her in her New York hair salon.

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She quixotically accepts – because Sandler’s co-written script with the on-fire Judd Apatow told her to – despite his having zero experience and initially thinking Paul Mitchell himself would hire him.

Mitchell later is wasted with an unnecessary cameo where he absurdly calls Sandler to implore his employment.

Due to Zohan’s Hollywood-blessed ability to rack in the female clientele with his sexual deviance, Sandler denies what was once his ultimate fantasy in an ultimately scripted act of employer loyalty.

This script worked its magic best when you temporarily forgot it was trying ever-so delicately to roil you silly out of your seat but fell flat when its corniness unnaturally tried much too hard.

While one could respect the amped-up Hacky Sacking, Hacky Sacking a live and meowing cat? Now come on. That’s even more cruel than squirrel fishing.

“You Don’t Mess With the Zohan” opened everywhere on June 6, 2008.

By ADAM FENDELMAN
Editor-in-Chief
HollywoodChicago.com
adam@hollywoodchicago.com

‘Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story’ Taps Best of Must-See TV Kings of Comedy

HollywoodChicago.com — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 10:41:14 -0700

CHICAGO – The makers of “Scary Movie,” “Date Movie” and “Epic Movie” should be kicking themselves right now for never thinking to make “Musical Bio-Pic Movie”.

John C. Reilly in “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story”.
Photo credit: IMDb
Writer and director Jake Kasdan and producer and writer Judd Apatow have beaten them to the punch with “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story”.

The duo, who collaborated on some of the funniest TV shows network television has cancelled (“Freaks and Geeks,” “Undeclared”), lampoon the entire genre of the true-story biographical movies and fall nothing short of brilliant all the while.

The entire “Walk Hard” narrative is told as a flashback before late-in-life fictional music legend Dewey Cox (John C. Reilly) takes the stage. His band mate and frequent drug pusher, Sam (Tim Meadows), tells a stagehand: “Dewey Cox must rethink his entire life before he plays.”

Jenna Fischer and John C. Reilly in “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story”.
Photo credit: IMDb
A direct send-up of “Ray,” Cox’s troubled past stems from the day as a youth he cut his music prodigy of a brother in half during a playful machete duel. The top half us his dying brother’s last request is for Dewey to be twice as great for both of them.

Dewey must spend his whole life never getting respect from his father who constantly returns to remind us that “the wrong kid died”.

John C. Reilly in “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story”.
Photo credit: IMDb
At the age of 14, Dewey sets off on his musical career with his teenage bride, Edith, who is played by Kristen Wiig. On the road, he has a Johnny Cash/June Carter Cash romance with his backup singer, Darlene, who is played by Jenna Fischer.

Award-winning, Chicago-native actor John C. Reilly – who is best known for roles as a pathetic cuckold in movies like “The Hours,” “Chicago” and “The Good Girl” – redefined himself as a comedic actor in 2006’s “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby”.

John C. Reilly in “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story”.
Photo credit: IMDb
In “Walk Hard,” Reilly takes the lead and steers every scene with impeccable comedic instincts as if he’s channeling Will Farrell. Even when Reilly wasn’t hitting, the rest of the cast reads like the who’s hot in comedy 2007 edition.

Not only did Apatow run through his personal Rolodex, but he also tapped some of the Frat Pack and most of NBC’s Thursday must-see TV lineup. Moviegoers who are expecting comedy in the vein of “The 40 Year-Old-Virgin” or “Knocked Up” are in for a surprise.

The film plays more like “Airplane!” with quick one-liners and snappy puns. It even goes as far to call itself out by having Reilly verbalize his age throughout the film despite looking consistently the same.

John C. Reilly performing in Chicago in Dewey Cox character on Dec. 6, 2007.
Photo credit: Joseph Mohan for Pitchfork
It slices through the formula built by biographical blockbusters (“Does Dewey seem a little down to you?” “Of course he is! This is middle-period Dewey where he’s dark and reflective.”) At times, it even feels like a VH-1 “Behind the Music”.

The year 2007 has been stellar for Apatow and comedies in general. “Walk Hard” is an excellent way to go out with a bang. Comedy “A”-listers and brilliant satire make for the perfect combination. “Walk Hard” is a spot-on spoof that sings at a hilarious pitch.

“Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story” opened on Dec. 21, 2007.
By Dustin Levell
Senior Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com