Here’s a movie that starts off right, and it does something we haven’t really seen before. Sandler plays an Israeli counter terrorist whose super human feats against futile fighting have made him bored of his life, so he dreams of going to New York to be a hair dresser. What’s great is that Zohan truly is a super hero, super human strength and all, dispatching the terrorists in his homeland with ease.
Logically what should have followed is what you see in the trailer: hair dresser by day, ass kicker by day, kind of like a Clark Kent/Superman fuelled persona. If done in the early eighties by someone like Reitman, you would have seen such a movie, ala Ghostbusters or Stripes. This could have been that movie, and looked to go that way.
About half way through the picture, it falls flat on it’s face, having tripped over a politically correct “why can’t the terrorists and Israelis just get along” message, and the fun, schlocky fighting you see in the first act is all gone, replaced by a “serious” sub plot.
There are moments of humor, to be sure, especially when Zohan is shown as an over the top sex addict. By the time the stupid sub plot takes over and the horrid cameo by Mariah Carey begins, the movie is all over, and it’s an embarrassment to say the least.
Starting with great promise, the film ends up as incomprehensible as Little Nicky by the film’s end. Too bad, because the comedic performance and action were so solid to begin with, why not just show Zohan fighting more terrorists in NY? And why do we continue to show favor to a bunch of people that killed so many on September 11?
If I was appalled by the stupidity in making this a “message” movie, imagine what those going to see the movie in NY are thinking.