It is the fourth film to include a collaboration of Sandler as actor and Dugan as director. The film tells the story of an Israeli super soldier and counter-terrorist commando who fakes his own death to pursue his dream of becoming a hairstylist in the United States while contending with a crooked businessman, a superhuman terrorist arch-rival, and the grudge of a certain taxi driver.
Produced by Happy Madison Productions, You Don't Mess with the Zohan was released by Columbia Pictures in the United States on June 6, 2008. Despite the film's mixed reviews, it was a box office success, grossing $204.3 million worldwide from a $90 million budget.[2]
He is tasked with capturing his long-time arch-rival, Fatoush "Phantom" Hakbarah, a Palestinian militant who also possesses superhuman traits. After engaging Phantom in a fight, Zohan fakes his own death and subsequently smuggles himself to New York City. Phantom's supposed success in killing Zohan garners him much fame across the Arab world, leading him to open the "Phantom Muchentuchen" restaurant chain.
After arriving, Zohan immediately seeks a job at the local Paul Mitchell salon, but is turned down. Later, Zohan witnesses a traffic collision involving two motorists and a cyclist named Michael. One of the motorists starts bullying Michael and yells anti-Arab slurs at Zohan, who promptly beats him up. Michael subsequently befriends Zohan and takes him to his apartment, where he lives with his mother Gail.
At Oori's suggestion, Zohan attempts to secure a job at the struggling salon of a Palestinian woman named Dalia. Because he lacks experience, she only allows Zohan to sweep the salon's floors and he will not receive any pay because her salon is facing financial difficulties. When a stylist unexpectedly quits, one of the customers asks Zohan to cut her hair, and he accepts. Zohan's reputation rapidly spreads, causing Dalia's business to prosper. Dalia makes her rent payments in full, upsetting a corporate businessman, Grant Walbridge, who has been trying to buy out all the local tenants to build a mall.
Zohan is identified by a Palestinian-American taxi driver, Salim, who recognizes him. He meets with his friends Hamdi and Nasi, convincing them to help him kill Zohan. After unsuccessfully attempting to contact Hezbollah, Salim contacts Phantom in Amman, Jordan. He threatens to publicly disclose the truth about Zohan being alive, but Phantom makes a deal with him and prepares to find Zohan himself.
Meanwhile, Zohan has fallen in love with Dalia, but she rejects Zohan because of his military service. Zohan decides to quit, hoping to keep her safe from any inter-ethnic strife. He later confronts Phantom in a championship Hacky Sack game sponsored by Walbridge. However, the confrontation is cut short when he learns that the Middle Eastern neighborhood is being attacked by unknown assailants.
As their businesses burn, Zohan calms the Israelis and the Palestinians, as both sides are blaming each other for the violence. When Phantom appears, he confronts Zohan, who refuses to fight after being deeply inspired by Dalia's pacifism. Dalia then discloses that she is Phantom's sister and convinces her brother to cooperate with Zohan against the arsonists, who are revealed to be a group of white supremacists on Walbridge's payroll. The Phantom works with Zohan to save the block. The arsonists are defeated, and Walbridge is arrested by the police; however, the overexcited Phantom accidentally destroys all the remaining shops with his superhuman screams.
With the Israelis and Palestinians now working together, the block is rebuilt and transformed into a collectively-owned mall. Zohan and Dalia, having now married, open a beauty salon together. Zohan's parents visit from Israel and approve of his new job and lifestyle.
Cast
Adam Sandler as Zohanele "Zohan" Dvir (Hebrew: זוהן דביר), a superhuman counter-terrorist who aspires to be a stylist and fakes his death to pursue his dream under the alias of "Scrappy Coco".
John Turturro as Fatoush "Phantom" Hakbarah (Arabic: فتوش حكبرة), a superhuman terrorist and Zohan's rival, who, after Zohan's supposed death, opens a chain of kebab Muchentuchen restaurants named "Phantom Muchentuchen". He aspires to sell shoes.
Emmanuelle Chriqui as Dalia Hakbarah (Arabic: داليا حكبرة), the owner of a hair salon who becomes Zohan's love interest and is revealed to be Phantom's sister.
Nick Swardson as Michael Klayman, a tenant who invites Zohan to stay over after he saves him from a disgruntled motorist. He often disagrees with his tactics.
Lainie Kazan as Gail Klayman, Michael's mom whom Zohan started a sexual relationship with.
Rob Schneider as Salim Yousfobdal (Arabic: سليم يوسف عبد), a taxi driver who holds a vendetta against Zohan after he stole his goat which Salim presumes is dead. In reality, Zohan took it in as a pet.
Ido Mosseri as Oori Shulimson (Hebrew: אורי שולמזון), the Israeli owner of the electronics shop "Going Out of Business" (intentionally named such because he believes it would help increase interest from shoppers) who helps Zohan pursue his dream.
Michael Buffer as Grant Walbridge, a crooked businessman, Lower Manhattan landlord, and proprietor of the Walbridge Hotel who aspires to open a roller coaster mall and tries to force the tenants (Oori, Dalia, etc.) out of the land.
Charlotte Rae as Mrs. Greenhouse, a woman who goes to Dalia's salon
Robert Smigel as Yosi, a man who works at "Going Out of Business" where he originally wanted to be a hand model until he got too comfortable at "Going Out of Business".
John Paul DeJoria as an alternate version of Paul Mitchell. Dejoria was one of the original founders of the Paul Mitchell Salon. In this version, Paul Mitchell is still alive and opened the chain alone.
Alec Mapa as Claude, a man who works at Dalia's hair salon and gets embarrassed when Zohan tries to give advice to him.
Ahmed Ahmed as Waleed, a man who works a clothes store on the Israeli street and whom the fellow shop owners say looks "Mexican".
Henry Winkler as himself (uncredited), a client of Zohan's first job as a limo driver who ends up being the subject of speeding.
Production
Filming of one of the scenes while in Mexico
Sandler, Robert Smigel, and Judd Apatow wrote the first draft of the script in 2000, but the movie was delayed after the events of 9/11 because those involved felt that the subject would be too sensitive. Apatow left the project after the first draft in 2000 to work on his show Undeclared and had, for the most part, not been involved in the project since.[3] The film is based in part on the story of Nezi Arbib, an Israeli soldier who after his service moved to southern California and opened a hair salon. Sandler trained with Arbib and his brothers, also former soldiers, for two weeks to learn hairstyling and work with clients.[4]
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 sketch 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, and Little Nicky, but this was the first time in which he was credited for helping to write the script. He was an executive producer on the film which allowed him to further contribute to the movie's comedic sensibility.[5]
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz commented that the movie was known in Hollywood circles as "the Israeli movie". Haaretz noted that while "Israeli actors were rushing to audition [for the movie]," the response among Arab actors was far from enthusiastic.[5]Emmanuelle Chriqui, who played Zohan's Palestinian love interest, was raised as an Orthodox Jew.[6] The film poked fun at the popularity of hummus in Israeli culture. In the movie, characters used it to brush their teeth and as a method to douse the flames of a fire,[7][8] as well as a hair care product.[9]
The soundtrack contains (near the end) music re-arranged for the movie by Julius Dobos, based on the song "Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy Aaja" from the Bollywood movie Disco Dancer (1982) starring Mithun Chakraborty.
Reception
Rotten Tomatoes gives You Don't Mess with the Zohan a score of 37% based on 190 reviews. The site's consensus is that the film "features intermittent laughs, and will please Sandler diehards, but after a while the leaky premise wears thin."[11]Metacritic gives the film a rating of 54 out of 100, based on 37 reviews—indicating mixed or average reviews.[12] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B− on scale of A to F.[13]
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."[6]Entertainment Weekly gave the movie a C+ grade, calling it "another 'mess' from Sandler" which is, unlike Monty Python, a "circus that never flies".[14]
On the positive side, Time called the film to be a "laff scuffle".[15]Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, and called it "a mighty hymn of and to vulgarity, and either you enjoy it, or you don't." Ebert admitted "I found myself enjoying it a surprising amount of the time, even though I was thoroughly ashamed of myself."[16] David Edelstein of New York Magazine went as far as to say "Adam Sandler is mesmerizing".[17]A.O. Scott of The New York Times said it was "the finest post-Zionist action-hairdressing sex comedy I have ever seen."[18]
Box office
You Don't Mess with the Zohan grossed $38 million on its opening weekend, ranked second behind Kung Fu Panda. As of September7,2008[update], it reached a US tally of $100 million. The film grossed $204.3 million worldwide.[2]
Home media
The film was released on DVD on October 7, 2008, with a 2-disc unrated edition, a single-disc unrated edition, and a theatrical edition, as well as a Blu-ray edition and UMD for PSP. It has sold over 1.2 million DVD units gathering revenue of $26 million.[19]
Related Research Articles
Adam Richard Sandler is an American actor and comedian. Primarily a comedic leading actor in films, his accolades include nominations for three Grammy Awards, five Primetime Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2023, Sandler was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
Robert Michael Schneider is an American actor, comedian and anti-vaccine activist. After several years performing stand-up comedy, Schneider achieved wider success as a cast member for the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1990 to 1994, which earned him three Primetime Emmy Award nominations.
The Wedding Singer is a 1998 American romantic comedy film directed by Frank Coraci, written by Tim Herlihy, and produced by Robert Simonds and Jack Giarraputo. The film stars Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore and Christine Taylor, and tells the story of a wedding singer in 1985 who falls in love with a waitress. The film was released on February 13, 1998. Produced on a budget of US$18million, it grossed $123million worldwide and received generally positive reviews from critics. It is often ranked as one of Sandler's best comedies.
Robert Smigel is an American actor, comedian, writer, director, producer, and puppeteer, known for his Saturday Night Live "TV Funhouse" cartoon shorts and as the puppeteer and voice behind Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. He also co-wrote the first two Hotel Transylvania films, You Don't Mess with the Zohan, and Leo, all starring Adam Sandler.
Punch-Drunk Love is a 2002 American absurdist romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, and starring Adam Sandler, Emily Watson and Philip Seymour Hoffman. It follows an entrepreneur with social anxiety who falls in love with his sister's co-worker. The film was produced by Revolution Studios and New Line Cinema, and distributed by Columbia Pictures.
They're All Gonna Laugh at You! is the debut album by American actor and comedian Adam Sandler, released in 1993. The title comes from a repeated line in the track "Oh Mom...", which is a parody of a scene in the film Carrie. Several of the tracks on the album feature adult humor, a departure from the material in his films, which were generally rated PG or PG-13. This is a trend that would continue on his subsequent comedy albums and live tours.
Kevin George Knipfing, known professionally as Kevin James, is an American comedian and actor. He began his career by performing stand-up comedy at clubs on Long Island in the 1980s. He rose to prominence for his portrayal of Doug Heffernan on the CBS sitcom The King of Queens (1998–2007), for which he received the nomination for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in 2006.
Steve Koren is an American writer/producer and screenwriter. Most notably, he has written for Saturday Night Live, Seinfeld, and Veep. He also wrote or co-wrote the movies Bruce Almighty, Click, A Night at the Roxbury, and Superstar.
Emmanuelle Sophie Anne Chriqui is a Moroccan Canadian actress. She is known for playing Sloan McQuewick on HBO's Entourage (2004–2011), Claire Bonner in Snow Day (2000), Dalia in You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008), Lorelei Martins on CBS's The Mentalist (2008–2015), and Lana Lang on The CW's Superman & Lois (2021–2024).
Dennis Barton Dugan is an American film director, actor, and comedian. He is known for directing the films Problem Child, Brain Donors, Beverly Hills Ninja and National Security, and his partnership with comedic actor Adam Sandler, for whom he directed the films Happy Gilmore, Big Daddy, The Benchwarmers, I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, You Don't Mess with the Zohan, Grown Ups, Just Go with It, Jack and Jill and Grown Ups 2. Dugan is a four-time Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Director nominee, winning once.
Nicholas Roger Swardson is an American actor, stand-up comedian, screenwriter, and producer. He is best known for his recurring role as Terry Bernadino in the comedy series Reno 911!, for his work with Adam Sandler's Happy Madison Productions, and for his own personal sketch comedy series Nick Swardson's Pretend Time.
Donna Feldman is an American model, actress, and TV host. Feldman is known for her role in the American soap opera Fashion House. She also made a cameo appearance in the 2008 American comedy film You Don't Mess with the Zohan.
John Patrick Farley is an American actor and comedian. He is the youngest brother of actor and comedian Chris Farley.
Ido Mosseri is an Israeli actor, voice actor, musician, director, and television presenter.
Maysoon Zayid is an American actress and comedian. Of Palestinian descent, she is known as one of America's first Muslim women comedians.
Yisrael Borochov, is an Israeli musician, composer, and arranger.
The following is a list of recurring Saturday Night Live characters and sketches introduced between September 26, 1992, and May 15, 1993, the eighteenth season of SNL.
Guri Weinberg is an Israeli-American actor. He is known for playing Stefan in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 (2012), from The Twilight Saga film series based on the novels of the same name by Stephenie Meyer.
Dina Peskin, known professionally as Dina Doron and Dina Doronne, is an Israeli film and stage actress.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
