You Don't Mess with the Zohan

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You Don't Mess with the Zohan
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Dennis Dugan
Produced by	Adam Sandler Jack Giarraputo
Written by	Adam Sandler Robert Smigel Judd Apatow
Starring	Adam Sandler John Turturro Emmanuelle Chriqui Nick Swardson Lainie Kazan Rob Schneider
Music by	Rupert Gregson-Williams
Cinematography	Michael Barrett
Editing by	Tom Costain
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	June 6, 2008
Running time	117 min.
Country	United States
Language	English Hebrew Mock Arabic
Budget	$90 million
Gross revenue	$201,780,186 (domestic)

You Don't Mess with the Zohan is a 2008 comedy film, directed by Dennis Dugan and starring Adam Sandler. The film is about Zohan Dvir (Hebrew: זוהן דביר), Israel's hero and its greatest counter-terrorism army commando who, after growing tired of his Israeli post-draft's standing service, fakes his own death in order to pursue his dream: becoming a hairstylist in New York City. The story was written by Sandler, Judd Apatow, and Robert Smigel. Sandler's production company, Happy Madison, produced the film, and it was distributed by Columbia Pictures. It was released on June 6, 2008 and in the UK on August 15, 2008.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 4 Cultural context 5 Soundtrack 6 Critical reception 7 Box office 8 DVD and Blu-ray Disc release 9 References 10 External links

[edit] Plot

Zohan Dvir (Adam Sandler) is a disillusioned Israeli Special Forces soldier who wants to be a hairdresser rather than a soldier. Since not even his parents place much belief or faith in his plans, Zohan fakes his own death during another pursuit of his Palestinian arch-enemy, "Phantom" (John Turturro), and smuggles himself into a flight to New York City, giving himself an Avalon hairstyle and taking the name "Scrappy Coco" after the two sheep dogs he shared the flight with.

Initially unsuccessful in getting hired at several salons, Zohan's military expertise earns him a new friend, Michael, who gives him a place to stay with his mom, after Zohan manhandles an angry businessman into a pretzel for him. Later, when Michael is looking for something and goes to ask his mom, he finds her having anal sex with Zohan (who calls it making sticky).Later, while taking Michael out to get him a girlfriend, Zohan runs into a fellow Israeli named Oori (Ido Mosseri) at a disco who recognizes him but agrees to keep his identity a secret, offering him a job at the electronic store Going Out of Business, located within a block in lower Manhattan filled with Middle Eastern Americans, split between a Palestinian side and an Israeli side of the street. Though he turned down the offer, after some failed attempts for part time jobs, Zohan decides to get the job. But Oori refuses to let Zohan's dream die as he takes him to attempt landing a job at the struggling salon across the street, owned by a Palestinian woman named Dalia (Emmanuelle Chriqui). After first only allowing Zohan to sweep floors for free, Dalia eventually allows him to be a stylist after he pleases a senior lady with a satisfactory haircut and making sticky in the back-room with her. Zohan's reputation spreads instantly among the elder women of lower Manhattan.

Dalia's business booms, upsetting Grant Walbridge (Michael Buffer), a corporate magnate with the "perfect woman", with "the perfect ass to breast ratio", who has been trying to force out all the local tenants on the block so that he may build a mall. Eventually, seeing that he couldn't buy them out, Walbridge decides to take illegal measures. Meanwhile, Zohan is eventually identified by a Palestinian cab driver named Salim (Rob Schneider), who has a grudge against Zohan for taking away his goat and convinces his friends to help him get revenge while being recognized as a hero. After a failed bombing attempt, as he ended up with neosporin instead of liquid nitroglycerin due to his accent. Meanwhile in Israel, Phantom is running a booming business called "Phantom's Muchen Tuchen", which only became popular due to everybody's beliefs of him being a hero. Salim gets an idea to gain a good business opportunity by "negotiating" with Phantom and giving him two choices: Either Phantom meets with his demands, or Salim tells everybody that Phantom is no hero, and did not kill Zohan. Blackmailed into it, but outwitting Salim in deal making, Phantom pays a visit to New York to find Zohan. Meanwhile, after spending a day at the park with her, Zohan realizes that he has fallen in love with Dalia. But Dalia rejects Zohan's feelings for her after he reveals he was formerly an Israeli counter-terrorist operative despite he shares her feelings towards the senseless fighting back in their home country. Later, learning that Phantom has come to New York, Zohan decides confront his nemesis at the championship Hacky Sack game sponsored by Walbridge.

His fight is cut short with sudden news of the Middle Eastern block being attacked. Zohan arrives and calms the Israelis and Palestinians, who each blame the other for the violence. The Phantom then appears and confronts Zohan, but he refuses to fight back as Dalia appears, revealing that she is the Phantom's sister and encourages both sides to make peace. By then, the actual arsonists are revealed to be a group of white supremacists led by James O'Skanlon, who were hired by Walbridge to dress up as Arab and Jewish stereotypes and instigate an inter-ethnic riot between the two sides, allowing him to take over their stores. After Phantom decides to cooperate with Zohan against the arsonists, he voices his desire to live out his dream as a shoe salesman. Working together, Zohan and Phantom lead the united Israelis and Palestinians of the block to save their shops, defeating O'Skanlon with Walbridge exposed and going to jail after his perfect woman's bust deflated to his horror.

However, Phantom ended up unintentionally destroying all of the shops on the block. With the Israelis and the Palestinians united, the block is transformed into a collectively-owned mall called the Peace and Brotherhood Fire Insurance Mall, in which Phantom opens a shoe store and Salim has a new goat for his ride the goat business. As for Zohan and Dalia, they get married and open a joint beauty parlor with the first of their customers being Zohan's parents who finally accepted their son's career choice, and able to accept his Palestinian wife as well.

[edit] Cast

• Adam Sandler as Zohan Dvir (Hebrew: זוהן דביר) aka "Scrappy Coco"
• Emmanuelle Chriqui as Dalia Hakbarah
• John Turturro as Fatoush "Phantom" Hakbarah
• Nick Swardson as Michael Gunders
• Lainie Kazan as Gail Gunders
• Rob Schneider as Salim
• Ido Mosseri as Oori
• Alec Mapa as Claude
• Ezra as Hassan
• Kelson Henderson as Man with Bicycle
• Michelle Langstone as Stylist at Children's Salon
• Dave Matthews as James O'Skanlon
• Michael Buffer as Walbridge
• Charlotte Rae as Mrs. Greenhouse
• Ahmed Ahmed as Waleed
• Sayed Badreya as Hamdi
• Daoud Heidami as Nasi
• Robert Smigel as Yosi
• Tony Cox as himself
• Dina Doron as Mrs. Dvir
• Shelley Berman as Mr. Dvir
• Chris Rock as Taxi Driver
• Kevin Nealon as Community Watch Member
• Henry Winkler as himself, riding in the limo driven by Zohan
• Kevin James (actor) as himself (cameo appearance)
• Mariah Carey as herself
• John McEnroe as himself
• George Takei as himself
• Bruce Vilanch as himself
• John Paul DeJoria as Paul Mitchell
• Kevin Farley as a board member
• Ilias Jones as the studio man

[edit] Production

Sandler, Smigel, and Apatow wrote the first draft of the script in 2000, but the movie was put on hold after the events of 9/11 because those involved felt that the subject would be too sensitive. During an interview, Smigel indicated that Apatow left the project after the first draft in 2000 to work on his show Undeclared and that he has, for the most part, not been involved in the project since.^[1]

The movie features elements that first appeared in the SNL sketches "Sabra Shopping Network" and "Sabra Price is Right", which starred Tom Hanks and were written by Robert Smigel. They originated lines such as 'Sony guts' and 'Disco, Disco, good, good'. The first is also notable for featuring one of Adam Sandler's first (uncredited) television appearances while the second featured Sandler, Schneider, Smigel and Kevin Nealon in supporting parts.

Robert Smigel worked with Sandler on past films including Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, Little Nicky, etc, but this is the first time in which he has been credited for helping to write the script. He was also an executive producer on the film which allowed him to further contribute to the movie's comedic sense.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz commented that the movie was known in Hollywood circles as the "Israeli movie." Haaretz also noted that while "Israeli actors were rushing to audition [for the movie], the response among Arab actors was far from enthusiastic.^[2] (Emmanuelle Chriqui, who plays Zohan's Palestinian love interest, was born and raised an Orthodox Jew.^[3]) One possible explanation is that Sandler, who is known as a patron of causes for Israel, is not so popular in the Arab world." Arab actor Sayed Badreya was quoted as saying that "Adam Sandler, in the Arab and Muslim communities, is not having a good reputation." But Sayed then noted that "When it came to working with Adam, I was like, 'Eh, well, I don't know.' My prejudice was bigger than me."^[2]

[edit] Cultural context

Scattered amid the more puerile humor of the film are some "good and unexpectedly sophisticated jokes" revolving around Israel-Arab conflicts in the Middle East, according to critic John Podhoretz. One joke involves the frequent trading of prisoners from Israel with prisoners held by Arab states or groups, another is about preparations for future fighting even as peace talks are ongoing. Some material is taken from Israeli culture, including a running joke about hummus. The Zohan character is a pushtak — a stereotypical figure of "punk" in Israel, mostly in the 1970s and 1980s, and the equivalent of a Guido in the United States. "The classic pushtak saunters down a Tel Aviv street with a pack of cigarettes rolled up inside his T-shirt sleeve," according to Podhoretz. "He believes he is God's gift to the world, especially to the ladies, and he takes himself with the utmost seriousness even as others laugh at him."^[3]

However, many of the supposedly typical "Israeli" behaviors depicted in the movie are entirely fictional, and have no parallel in actual Israeli or Middle Eastern culture. Hacky Sack is virtually non-existent in Israel and certainly not a popular sport as depicted in the movie. There is no popular Israeli drink that inspired the "Fizzy Bubblech" in the movie, though the bottle does vaguely resemble that of various Israeli drinks. Yiddish, often used in the movie in daily conversation and as source of product names, is rarely found in mainstream Israeli culture. And the name "Zohan" is not an Israeli name.^[4] Although Zohan appears to be a corruption of the name s Zohar and Cohen, two popular Jewish names.

Sandler researched the role and took inspiration from Nezi, Shaoul and Shalom Arbib, three brothers who are former Israeli soldiers and hairstylists in California. Nezi Arbib runs Shampoo Too in Solana Beach, California, and Shaoul and Shalom Arbib continue to run Shampoo, the brothers' original salon in West Hollywood, California.^[5]

According to Podhoretz, the film was the second major Hollywood studio release in 3 years to feature an Israeli protagonist, the other being Steven Spielberg's film Munich. Before that, the last such film was the 1960 Exodus. Israeli characters in Hollywood films, though rare, have more often been villains, including hit men in Last Embrace, a lascivious wife of an arms dealer in Internal Affairs, bodyguards for a Jewish gangster's gay son in Lucky Number Slevin, and murderous Zionist conspirators in both Eyewitness and Homicide.^[3].

The film features actors of both Arab and non-Arab descent playing Arabs. Egyptian-American comedian Ahmed Ahmed plays a bit part as a Palestinian-American, whereas Jewish-Filipino Rob Schneider plays Salim Husaamdiyaa, a Palestinian American who recognizes Zohan in New York. The movie begins with comments from Zohan dismissing his Palestinian adversaries' complaints that Israel encroached on Palestinian lands, but moves toward a conciliatory tone where Palestinian and Israeli-American characters say they don't want to fight any more.

Some of the characters in the film work for "Moishe's Moving", a real-life New York City moving company.^[6]

Numerous times throughout the film, a conversation among Israelis and Palestinians who live on Zohan's street begins with some sort of accusation against one or the other, but the animosity ends up becoming more mundane - for example, a Palestinian accuses the Israelis of spraying anti-Arab graffiti on his shop, but the argument eventually transforms into a joint discussion on their preferences regarding politicians' wives.

The movie also addresses stereotypes held by Americans regarding Middle Easterners and Arabs in particular. Zohan is mistaken for an Arab by an angry commuter, who tells him to "get back to his pretzel stand". A traditionally clad and bearded Palestinian (Bashir) complains that all Arabs have been stereotyped as terrorists, but a fellow Arab points out that even he wouldn't get on the same plane as Nasser due to his appearance. Similarly, one of the Israelis complains to the Arabs that "people don't like us, they think we're you!"

Among other stereotypical depictions noted in the film, according to Middle Eastern Film critic AbdulRahman El-Taliawi, the 'Phantom' (John Turturro) was made to hide behind cameo star Mariah Carey in reference to constant Israeli allegations against Militant Islamist groups that they use human shields in battle; a concern that both sides blame at each other as reason for civilian casualties.

Despite this conciliatory and humorous take on the Arab-Israeli conflict, though perhaps due in part to the film's sexual humor, the film was banned in Egypt, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates.^[7]

[edit] Soundtrack

The score to the film was composed by Rupert Gregson-Williams. He recorded his score with the Hollywood Studio Symphony at the Sony Scoring Stage in April 2008.^[8] The soundtrack contains many songs in Hebrew, mostly by the popular Israeli band Hadag Nahash, the Psychedelic Trance duo Infected Mushroom and Dana International.

The soundtrack contains (near the end of the movie) the music from the song "Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy Aaja" from the Bollywood movie Disco Dancer (1982) starring Mithun Chakraborty.

[edit] Critical reception

The film opened to mixed reviews. As of June 30, 2008, Rotten Tomatoes reports that 34% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 138 reviews—with the consensus that the film "features intermittent laughs, and will please Sandler diehards, but after a while the leaky premise wears thin."^[9] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 54 out of 100, based on 35 reviews—indicating mixed or average reviews.^[10]

John Podhoretz, in The Weekly Standard, wrote that the movie has a "mess" of a plot and features, "as usual for Sandler, plenty of dumb humor of the sort that gives dumb humor a bad name, but that delights his 14-year-old-boy fan base". But the film also has an "unusual" amount of "tantalizing comic ideas" so that "every 10 minutes or so, it makes you explode with laughter."^[3]

On the positive side, TIME claimed the film to be a "laugh riot", and Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3 out of 4 stars. David Edelstein of New York Magazine went as far as to say "Adam Sandler is mesmerizing" and A.O Scott of The New York Times said it was "the finest post-Zionist action-hairdressing sex comedy I have ever seen". Entertainment Weekly gave the movie a C+ grade, calling it "another 'mess' from Sandler" which is, unlike Monty Python, a "circus that never flies".^[11]

Despite the poor reception by critics, the film managed to develop a cult following of fans, and was the fourth most downloaded movie for 2008 on The Pirate Bay^[12]

[edit] Box office

You Don't Mess with the Zohan went on to gross $38 million on its opening weekend, ranked second behind Kung Fu Panda. As of September 7, 2008, it has reached a domestic tally of $100,018,837, continuing Sandler's streak of making over $100 million at the domestic box office. The film grossed $199,740,170 worldwide.

[edit] DVD and Blu-ray Disc release

The film was released October 7, 2008 featuring a 2-disc unrated edition, a single-disc unrated edition, a theatrical edition, a Blu-ray edition, and will be available on UMD for PSP. It sold 1,270,062 units and gathered revenue of $24,345,386 ^[13].

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official site
• You Don't Mess with the Zohan at the Internet Movie Database
• You Don't Mess with the Zohan at Allmovie
• You Don't Mess with the Zohan at Box Office Mojo
• You Don't Mess with the Zohan at Rotten Tomatoes
• You Don't Mess with the Zohan at Metacritic
• Scoring Session Photo Gallery at ScoringSessions.com
• The "You Don't Mess with the Zohan" glossary
• Zohan and the Quest for Jewish Utopia by Michael Oren, Azure, Autumn 2008.

v • d • e Films directed by Dennis Dugan Problem Child (1990) • Brain Donors (1992) • Happy Gilmore (1996) • Beverly Hills Ninja (1997) • Big Daddy (1999) • Saving Silverman (2001) • National Security (2003) • The Benchwarmers (2006) • I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (2007) • You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008) • Grown Ups (2010)

v • d • e Works of Judd Apatow Director The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005) · Knocked Up (2007) · Funny People (2009) Writer Heavyweights (1995) · Celtic Pride (1996) · The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005) · Fun with Dick and Jane (2005) · Knocked Up (2007) · Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007) · You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008) · Pineapple Express (2008) · Funny People (2009) Producer Heavyweights (1995) · The Cable Guy (1996) · Celtic Pride (1996) · Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) · Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie (2004) · Kicking & Screaming (2005) · The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005) · Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006) · The TV Set (2006) · Knocked Up (2007) · Superbad (2007) · Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007) · Drillbit Taylor (2008) · Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) · Step Brothers (2008) · Pineapple Express (2008) · Year One (2009) · Funny People (2009) · Get Him to the Greek (2010) Television The Ben Stiller Show (1992–1993) · The Critic (1994–1995) · The Larry Sanders Show (1993–1998) · Freaks and Geeks (1999–2000) · Undeclared (2001–2002) Actors Seth Rogen · Jonah Hill · Paul Rudd · Leslie Mann · Jason Segel · Bill Hader · Michael Cera · Russell Brand · Ken Jeong Directors Adam McKay · Greg Mottola · Jake Kasdan · Steven Brill · Nicholas Stoller · David Gordon Green · Harold Ramis Studios Columbia Pictures · DreamWorks · Universal Studios · 20th Century Fox · Lionsgate · Paramount Pictures Related articles Apatow Productions