{"id":830,"date":"2008-06-06T15:36:00","date_gmt":"2008-06-06T15:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2008\/06\/you-dont-mess-with-the-zohan-the-reviews-up\/"},"modified":"2008-06-06T15:36:00","modified_gmt":"2008-06-06T15:36:00","slug":"you-dont-mess-with-the-zohan-the-reviews-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2008\/06\/you-dont-mess-with-the-zohan-the-reviews-up.html","title":{"rendered":"You Don’t Mess with the Zohan — the review’s up!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>
My review<\/a> of You Don\u2019t Mess with the Zohan<\/a><\/i> is now up at CT Movies.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are several points I toyed with making in this review but never got around to, either for word-count reasons or because my writing just got into a certain groove and I didn\u2019t feel I could shoehorn them in. These include:<\/p>\n

The sheer abundance of hummus.<\/p>\n

The fact that Zohan has posters of KISS frontman Gene Simmons<\/a>, who was born in Israel, and eyepatched Israeli general Moshe Dayan<\/a> on his bedroom wall \u2014 which neatly sums up the film\u2019s proudly political yet frivolously hedonistic spirit.<\/p>\n

The parallels with Steven Spielberg\u2019s Munich<\/a><\/i> (2005), which likewise revolves around an Israeli who kicks ass but gives it all up for a life of obscurity in New York.<\/p>\n

The fact that this, like Munich<\/i>, is a film about a Jew who kicks ass<\/a>, and thus might be the sort of film that would please the Seth Rogen character in Knocked Up<\/a><\/i> (2007) \u2014 which, incidentally, was written and directed by Judd Apatow, who also co-wrote Zohan<\/i>.<\/p>\n

The way this film\u2019s reversal of all stereotypes except for the evil rich white man and the evil poor white redneck parallels a similar double standard in Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay<\/a><\/i>.<\/p>\n

The multiple celebrity cameos.<\/p>\n

The way this film is yet one more example of how the cast members of the original Star Trek<\/a><\/i> (1966-1969) have devolved into parodies of themselves<\/a>, such that they could probably never play those characters again without getting sucked into a fair bit of ironic nudge-nudge wink-wink self-referential humour. (I could go into more detail<\/a> about that, but I don\u2019t want to spoil the joke.)<\/p>\n

The fact that Emmanuelle Chriqui<\/a>, the actress who plays the Palestinian love interest to Adam Sandler\u2019s Israeli super-agent, is apparently not Arabic herself but is, rather, the daughter of \u201cJewish French Moroccan immigrants of Sephardic Moroccan descent\u201d.<\/p>\n

And probably some other stuff that I don\u2019t remember at the moment.<\/p>\n

For more insights, if that\u2019s the word, into the film and the way it fits into its cultural moment, see the New York Times<\/a><\/i> . . .<\/p>\n

Mr. Badreya said that the comedy in \u201cZohan\u201d was not quite evenly divided between ridiculing Arabs and ridiculing Jews. \u201cThe jokes are not 50-50,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s 70-30. Which is great. We haven\u2019t had 30 for a long time. We\u2019ve been getting zero. So it\u2019s good.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

. . . and Variety<\/a><\/i>:<\/p>\n

Since the 1970s, most \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d alumni with film careers have made spoofs of sex, sports, schools and spies, but left the topical laffs to TV\u2019s sketch comedies. In contrast, Sandler tackled gay marriage in his \u201cI Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry<\/a>\u201d and, as an actor for hire, made films about immigration (\u201cSpanglish\u201d) and Sept. 11 (\u201cReign Over Me<\/a>\u201c). OK, not exactly the definitive word on these issues, but he\u2019s making films about something<\/i>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Indeed he is, and this is why I find it impossible to dismiss Sandler out of hand as easily as I would often like to do.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My review of You Don\u2019t Mess with the Zohan is now up at CT Movies. There are several points I toyed with making in this review but never got around to, either for word-count reasons or because my writing just got into a certain groove and I didn\u2019t feel I could shoehorn them in. These […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nYou Don't Mess with the Zohan -- the review's up!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"My review of You Don't Mess with the Zohan is now up at CT Movies.There are several points I toyed with making in this review but never got around to,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2008\/06\/you-dont-mess-with-the-zohan-the-reviews-up.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"You Don't Mess with the Zohan -- the review's up!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My review of You Don't Mess with the Zohan is now up at CT Movies.There are several points I toyed with making in this review but never got around to,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2008\/06\/you-dont-mess-with-the-zohan-the-reviews-up.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-06-06T15:36:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_MwnH1kpbPRM\/SEnE-fZ3ZqI\/AAAAAAAABn0\/zg8toz_YMtA\/s400\/youdon%27tmesswiththezohan-a.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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