You Don't Mess with the Zohan

I had a few moments last night while eating dinner and finishing up a few things around the house, so I tossed in You Don't Mess with the Zohan.

The film stars Adam Sandler as Scrappy Coco/The Zohan. He is a military phenomenon for Israel. But, he no longer enjoys the fighting - he has longed for being a hairdresser under his idol Paul Mitchell.

During an assignment to track down his nemesis The Phantom (John Turturro), The Zohan allows The Phantom to believe he is dead so that he can escape to America.

Once in America, he changes his look and his name, and takes a job as a hair sweeper at a small beauty salon - after getting turned down by everyone else, including Paul Mitchell.

It isn't long before one of the salon's stylists quits, and Coco jumps at the chance to cut hair - and all of the ladies absolutely love his style - and of course the happy endings.

The owner of the salon, Dalia (Emmanuelle Chriqui), soon begins to fall for Coco and vice-versa. But, Dalia is from Palestine, the mortal enemy if Coco's Israel.

All the while this is going on, a businessman Walbridge (Michael Buffer), is trying to force out all of the local businesses in order to build a large mall. But, none of the patrons are budging - so he gets creative. He hires people to vandalize local businesses and disguise themselves as either Palestinian or Israeli.

This forces both sides to blame each other for vandalization - and again has the two countries at war, this time on US soil.

The movie was actual pretty enjoyable. I must say I was not expecting much, which is why I might have actually enjoyed it - I had low expectations. Sandler's accent is a laugh, but pretty much everyone who had to pretend to do an accent did it pretty awful.

There were also the cameos throughout the film, like Chris Rock, Kevin James and John McEnroe. Missing, however, were Sandler's usual compadres Peter Dante, Allen Covert and Jonathan Loughran.

Another person I was not expecting to see - Dave Matthews as a redneck racist, gaybasher. His roll was pretty hilarious - especially the final scene.

Is this Sandler's best work? No, but it was a pretty good watch for the most part.

Grade: