Review: Messing With The Camp Of "Zohan"

David Edelstein Has A Few Words About Adam Sandler, Masculinity And Off-Color Jokes

(CBS)  Kevin James and Adam Sandler kept 'em laughing in their recent movie, "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry." And so it is with Sandler's brand new film, which David Edelstein is about to review ... once he gets a certain matter off his chest:

---

My last time on this program, I spoke of liking "Sex and the City." Then, a few days later, my manliness was impugned by the very magazine I write for, New York, which asked typical men what they'd rather do than sit through the movie.

Answers ranged from "Eating someone else's booger" to being "mauled by one of Michael Vick's pit bulls."

Now, I happen to be comfortable enough with my masculinity to enjoy seeing how the female half lives, loves, and wears fabulous outfits …

… And that brings me to Zohan, as in the new Adam Sandler comedy, "You Don't Mess with the Zohan."

The hero is an Israeli super-warrior, a master of hand-to-hand-to-foot combat, and a babe magnet who can satisfy harems of chicks as well as grateful septuagenarians. But he also dreams of being a hairdresser. He especially loves the pouffy, feathered look big in 1985.

Yeah, okay, it's a parody, I get it. But Sandler, in his smutty, anal-expulsive way, is at the forefront of a cultural revamping of masculinity.

His last film, "I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry," was more powerfully in-your-face about homophobia than even "Brokeback Mountain," something many critics missed, perhaps on account of there being other things in your face.

Even with its fart jokes and racial jokes and look-at-the-bazooms-on-that-hot-babe jokes, "Chuck & Larry" is a humanist classic. Sandler and Kevin James play hero firemen who fake a gay relationship for the sake of James's kids' death benefits.

And while they don't actually turn gay - not with Jessica Biel directing Sandler to inspect her cleavage - the film demonstrates that not only can real men dig other real men but that men disgusted by men digging men maybe aren't such real men.

"Zohan" isn't in the class of "Chuck & Larry." Some of the sight gags are gangbusters, but the characters are nowhere near as rich. The film is metrosexual camp, "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" for meatheads.

But there's something mesmerizing about Sandler's messiah fantasies, stuff that only a big movie star could peddle. He's a Biblical Jewish warrior who builds bridges between Israelis and Palestinians. He's a stud-muffin whose sexuality is so generous and all-encompassing he could take those manly New York magazine guys with both hands and a foot tied behind his back - and be first in line for "Sex and the City."

[sharednotion]

I don''t think of myself as a prude when it comes to occassional *** jokes and other "off-color" humor. But I do wish that those who make comedies would stop relying so heavily on such humor just to get an easy laugh. ...Also, in the cases of some movies whose makers KNOW would be enjoyed by "tweens" (in the case of certain movies), or would be considered very funny by teens & young adults (in the case of certain other movies) the movie-makers may mistakenly presume that a G rating will be the kiss of death with tween audiences; and that a PG rating will be the kiss of death for a comedy directed toward a teen /young adult audience: therefore, in order to get these audiences to buy tickets & SEE these movies, could it be that movie makers throw in some cheap laughs & gratuitous content, just to ensure a "cool" rating?

[decondo]

How about a little more review and a little less Edelstein personal therapy and problems with masculinity, about which I do not care. I expected a review of Zohan, not a commentary on Chuck and Larry or *** in the City. Maybe I mistakenly thought this was an entertainment segment,