| Coordinates | 38°53′33.13″N77°0′51.94″N |
|---|---|
| Name | Don't Mess with the Zohan |
| Caption | Theatrical release poster |
| Director | Dennis Dugan |
| Producer | |
| Writer | |
| Starring | |
| Music | Rupert Gregson-Williams |
| Cinematography | Michael Barrett |
| Editing | Tom Costain |
| Studio | |
| Distributor | Columbia Pictures |
| Released | |
| Runtime | 117 minutes |
| Country | |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $90 million |
| Gross | $202,518,837 |
Initially unsuccessful in getting hired at several salons, Zohan's military expertise earns him a new friend, Michael (Nick Swardson), who gives him a place to stay. Though Michael starts to regret it when he finds Zohan making out with his mother. Zohan encounters a fellow Israeli named Oori (Ido Mosseri) at a disco; recognizing Zohan but agrees to keep his identity a secret. Oori takes him to a block in lower Manhattan filled with Middle Eastern Americans, who are split between a Palestinian side and an Israeli side of the street. Zohan attempts to land a job in a struggling salon of a Palestinian woman named Dalia (Emmanuelle Chriqui). After first only allowing Zohan to sweep floors for free, she eventually allows him to be a stylist after he pleases a senior lady with a satisfactory haircut and back room sexual service. Zohan's reputation spreads instantly among the elder women of lower Manhattan. Dalia's business booms, upsetting Grant Walbridge (Michael Buffer), a corporate magnate who has been trying to force out all the local tenants on the block so that he may build a mall.
Zohan is identified by a Palestinian cab driver named Salim (Rob Schneider), who bore a grudge against Zohan for taking his goat away. Salim convinces his friends to help him kill Zohan, though is forced after a failed bomb attempt to contact Phantom and attempts to blackmail him, though he ends up getting the stiff end of the deal as he leads Phantom to pay a visit to New York to find Zohan. Meanwhile, Zohan realizes that he has fallen in love with Dalia, and comes clean to Michael and his mother about his true identity, before meeting Dalia. Dalia rejects Zohan's feelings for her after he reveals he was formerly an Israeli counter-terrorist operative. Zohan decides to leave Dalia and confront Phantom in a championship Hacky Sack game sponsored by Walbridge. Zohan's fight is cut short with sudden news of the Middle Eastern block being attacked, and quickly leaves.
Zohan arrives and calms the Israelis and Palestinians, who each blame the other for the violence, while making peace with Salim. Phantom then appears and confronts Zohan, but he refuses to fight. Dalia appears, revealing that she is Phantom's sister, and convinces her brother to cooperate with Zohan against the arsonists, revealed to be white racist rednecks hired by Walbridge to instigate an inter-ethnic riot between the Israelis and Palestinians so he can get his new mall in the aftermath. As Zohan and Phantom work to save the block, the latter admits that he always wanted to be a shoe seller rather than a terrorist. Though the rednecks are defeated and Walbridge sent to jail, Phantom accidentally destroyed all of the shops on the block. But 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, Salim gets a new goat which he gives children rides on, and Zohan and Dalia open a joint beauty parlor, Zohan having married Dalia. Zohan's parents show up approving his new life before asking that he cut their hair, which he happily does.
Cameos:
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, 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 sensilbility.
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 (Emmanuelle Chriqui, who plays Zohan's Palestinian love interest, was born and raised an Orthodox Jew). One possible explanation is that Sandler, who is known as a patron of causes for Israel, is not so popular in the Arab world.
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.
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."
On the positive side, Time claimed the film to be a "laff scuffle," 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."
Despite the mixed reception by critics, the film managed to develop a niche following of fans, and was the fourth most downloaded movie for 2008 on The Pirate Bay.
Category:2008 films Category:American films Category:English-language films Category:2000s action films Category:2000s comedy films Category:American action films Category:American comedy films Category:American action comedy films Category:Action comedy films Category:Columbia Pictures films Category:Films about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict Category:Films directed by Dennis Dugan Category:Films set in New York City Category:Happy Madison productions Category:Relativity Media films Category:Films shot in Israel
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Coordinates | 38°53′33.13″N77°0′51.94″N |
|---|---|
| Name | Adam Sandler |
| Caption | Sandler at the premiere of Funny People in Berlin, 2009 |
| Birth name | Adam Richard Sandler |
| Birth date | September 09, 1966 |
| Birth place | Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actor, comedian, musician, songwriter, screenwriter, film producer |
| Years active | 1987–present |
| Instrument | Vocals, guitar, drums, piano, bass |
| Spouse | Jackie Sandler (2003–present) |
| Website | AdamSandler.com |
Later in his career, he would draw on his earliest experiences for material for his comedy and movies. The song "Lunchlady Land" from his debut album They're All Gonna Laugh at You! is dedicated to Emalee, the lunchlady at Hayden Dining Hall at New York University.
Sandler's first starring role was in 1989, in the film Going Overboard. In 1994 he co-starred in Airheads with Brendan Fraser, and Steve Buscemi. He starred in Billy Madison (1995) as a grown, though uneducated, man repeating grades 1–12 to earn back his father's respect, along with the right to inherit his father's multi-million-dollar hotel empire. In At the Movies, Siskel and Ebert gave the film a very bad review, and said of Sandler "...Not an attractive screen presence, he might have a career as a villain or a fall guy or the butt of a joke, but as the protagonist his problem is he creates the fingernails on the blackboard" with Siskel adding "...you don't have a good motivation for the character's behavior". He followed this film with other financially successful comedies such as Bulletproof (1996), Happy Gilmore (1996) and The Wedding Singer (1998). He was initially cast in the bachelor-party-themed comedy/thriller Very Bad Things (1998), but had to back out due to his involvement in The Waterboy (1998) one of his first hits.
Although his earlier films did not receive critical praise, his more recent films, beginning with Punch-Drunk Love (2002), have received more positive reviews. Roger Ebert, in his review of Punch-Drunk Love, concluded that Sandler had been wasted in earlier films with poorly written scripts and characters with no development. Sandler has moved outside the genre of slapstick comedy to take on more serious parts such as the aforementioned Punch-Drunk Love (for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe), Spanglish (2004) and Reign Over Me (2007). He played a loving father figure in Big Daddy (1999). During filming, he met Jacqueline Samantha Titone—his future wife and mother of his two daughters -— who was cast as the waitress from The Blarney Stone Bar.
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At one point, Sandler was considered for the part that went to Jamie Foxx in Collateral (2004). He also was one of the finalists along with Jim Carrey and Johnny Depp for the role of Willy Wonka in Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005). He returned to more dramatic fare with Mike Binder's Reign Over Me (2007), a drama about a man who loses his entire family in 9/11 and rekindles a friendship with his old college roommate (played by Don Cheadle). He starred in the film I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (2007) alongside Kevin James, as a New York City fireman pretending to be gay to keep up an insurance scam so that his best friend's children can have benefits. Sandler headlined You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008), a comedy about a Mossad agent who fakes his own death and moves to the United States to become a hair stylist. The film was written by Sandler, The 40-Year-Old Virgin writer-director Judd Apatow (who was an old roommate of Sandler's when both were starting out), and Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog creator Robert Smigel, and was directed by Happy Gilmore director Dennis Dugan.
"Like Will Ferrell, Sandler has layers of tenderness under layers of irony under layers of tenderness—plus a floating anger like Jupiter’s great red spot," wrote David Edelstein of New York magazine in a review of You Don't Mess with the Z. "Some performers become stars because we can read them instantly, others—like Sandler—because we never tire of trying to get a fix on them."
Sandler starred in Bedtime Stories (2008), a fantasy film directed by Bringing Down the House director Adam Shankman, about a stressed hotel maintenance worker whose bedtime stories he reads to his niece and nephew begin to come true. This marked Sandler's first family film and first film under the Walt Disney banner. Keri Russell and English comedian Russell Brand co-starred.
In 2009, Sandler starred in Judd Apatow's third directorial feature Funny People. He played a very successful stand up comedian who finds out he has a terminal illness and he takes a young inexperienced comic, played by Seth Rogen, under his wing. Other co-stars included Eric Bana and Apatow's wife, Leslie Mann. The film contained more dramatic elements than Apatow's previous efforts. Filming began in October 2008 and finished in January 2009. The film was released on July 31, 2009. At one point, Sandler was in talks to star in Quentin Tarantino's World War II film Inglourious Basterds, which he confirmed, but he did not appear in it due to a scheduling conflict with Funny People. Following the release of Funny People, it, along with Punch-Drunk Love were cited in the June 2010 announcement that Sandler was one of 135 people (including 20 actors) invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Sandler appeared in Grown Ups, teaming up with Kevin James, Chris Rock, Rob Schneider, and David Spade (all of whom have worked with Sandler before) for a film about five best friends from high school who reunite 30 years later on the 4th of July weekend. Other costars include Salma Hayek (playing Sandler's wife), Maria Bello (playing James' wife), and fellow SNL alumna Maya Rudolph (playing Rock's wife), Colin Quinn, Tim Meadows, and Norm MacDonald. Sandler and Dickie Roberts scribe Fred Wolf wrote the script and Dennis Dugan directed the film.
Sandler finished filming Just Go with It with Jennifer Aniston, a romantic comedy written by Allan Loeb and Tim Dowling and directed by Dennis Dugan. He plays a plastic surgeon who asks his office manager, played by Aniston, to pose as his wife in order to prove his honesty to his much younger girlfriend, played by Brooklyn Decker, after telling her he's been married to avoid commitment. Sandler will also provide the voice of a capuchin monkey in Kevin James' Zookeeper, set to be released on July 8, 2011.
Sandler is known for consistently working with a core group of friends and associates through Happy Madison, frequently casting fellow SNL performers in various roles in his films. Sandler and Happy Madison produced SNL contemporary Rob Schneider's vehicles (1999), The Animal (2001), The Hot Chick (2002), and (2005), and The Benchwarmers (2006), with Sandler making cameo appearances in the middle three. Meanwhile, Schneider has appeared in cameo roles in Sandler films The Waterboy, Little Nicky, Mr. Deeds, Click, The Longest Yard, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, and Bedtime Stories. Schneider had larger roles in Sandler films Big Daddy, 50 First Dates, Eight Crazy Nights, You Don't Mess with the Zohan, and Grown Ups.
Happy Madison produced David Spade's Joe Dirt, , and The Benchwarmers, which also featured Rob Schneider.
In June 2008, it was announced that Sandler will be executive producer for a horror thriller titled The Shortcut under a nascent genre label for Happy Madison called "Scary Madison".
In October 2009, it was announced that Sandler and Happy Madison will produce the Richard Pryor biopic Richard Pryor: Is It Something I Said? for Sony, the company's first major dramatic production. The film was written by Bill Condon, who is set to direct, and Pryor will be played by Marlon Wayans, who is replacing Eddie Murphy.
In 2007, Sandler made a $3 million donation to the Boys and Girls Club in his hometown, Manchester, New Hampshire. He also donated $2,100 to Republican Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign the same year, and is a registered Republican.
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This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
