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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
67
$9.99
75
24 City
66
Adoration
74
Afghan Star
48
Alien Trespass
56
American Violet
82
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
57
Away We Go
77
Beaches of Agnes, The
62
Big Man Japan
28
Big Shot-Caller, The
78
Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
55
Brothers Bloom, The
82
Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
xx
Call of the Wild
63
Cheri
62
Cherry Blossoms
63
Dead Snow
65
Departures
18
Downloading Nancy
58
Easy Virtue
71
End of the Line, The
77
Every Little Step
64
Examined Life
80
Food, Inc.
38
Gigantic
53
Girl from Monaco, The
67
Girlfriend Experience, The
87
Gomorrah
89
Goodbye Solo
63
Great Buck Howard, The
79
Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
xx
Home
82
Hunger
91
Hurt Locker, The
25
I Hate Valentine's Day
81
Il Divo
54
Is Anybody There?
72
Jerichow
54
Julia
74
Lemon Tree
36
Life is Hot in Cracktown
40
Limits of Control, The
42
Little Ashes
64
Lymelife
50
Management
57
Merry Gentleman, The
64
Moon
xx
New York
62
Not Forgotten
xx
Offshore
78
O'Horten
64
Outrage
40
Paris 36
54
Pontypool
71
Pressure Cooker
52
Quiet Chaos
83
Revanche
67
Rudo y Cursi
86
Seraphine
62
Sex Positive
70
Shall We Kiss?
77
Sin Nombre
59
Sleep Dealer
74
Song of Sparrows, The
53
Stoning of Soraya M., The
82
Sugar
84
Summer Hours
61
Sunshine Cleaning
27
Surveillance
42
Tennessee
63
Tetro
64
Throw Down Your Heart
80
Tokyo Sonata
63
Tokyo!
xx
Tony Manero
74
Treeless Mountain
88
Tulpan
74
Two Lovers
83
Tyson
83
U2 3D
60
Under Our Skin
69
Unmistaken Child
69
Valentino: The Last Emperor
22
What Goes Up
47
Whatever Works
54
Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love
91
Hurt Locker, The
89
Goodbye Solo
88
Tulpan
87
Gomorrah
86
Seraphine
84
Summer Hours
83
U2 3D
83
Revanche
83
Tyson
82
Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
82
Sugar
82
Hunger
82
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
81
Il Divo
80
Tokyo Sonata
80
Food, Inc.
79
Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
78
Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
78
O'Horten
77
Beaches of Agnes, The
77
Every Little Step
77
Sin Nombre
75
24 City
74
Treeless Mountain
74
Afghan Star
74
Two Lovers
74
Song of Sparrows, The
74
Lemon Tree
72
Jerichow
71
Pressure Cooker
71
End of the Line, The
70
Shall We Kiss?
69
Valentino: The Last Emperor
69
Unmistaken Child
67
$9.99
67
Rudo y Cursi
67
Girlfriend Experience, The
66
Adoration
65
Departures
64
Outrage
64
Examined Life
64
Moon
64
Throw Down Your Heart
64
Lymelife
63
Tokyo!
63
Cheri
63
Dead Snow
63
Tetro
63
Great Buck Howard, The
62
Cherry Blossoms
62
Sex Positive
62
Big Man Japan
62
Not Forgotten
61
Sunshine Cleaning
60
Under Our Skin
59
Sleep Dealer
58
Easy Virtue
57
Away We Go
57
Merry Gentleman, The
56
American Violet
55
Brothers Bloom, The
54
Is Anybody There?
54
Pontypool
54
Julia
54
Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love
53
Girl from Monaco, The
53
Stoning of Soraya M., The
52
Quiet Chaos
50
Management
48
Alien Trespass
47
Whatever Works
42
Little Ashes
42
Tennessee
40
Limits of Control, The
40
Paris 36
38
Gigantic
36
Life is Hot in Cracktown
28
Big Shot-Caller, The
27
Surveillance
25
I Hate Valentine's Day
22
What Goes Up
18
Downloading Nancy
xx
Tony Manero
xx
Call of the Wild
xx
Home
xx
New York
xx
Offshore
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
You Don't Mess with the Zohan
Columbia Pictures (Sony)
FILM:
MPAA RATING: PG-13 for crude and sexual content throughout, language and nudity
Starring
Adam Sandler,
John Turturro,
Emmanuelle Chriqui,
Nick Swardson,
and
Rob Schneider
Zohan is an Israeli commando who fakes his own death in order to pursue his dream: becoming a hairstylist in New York. (Sony Pictures)
| GENRE(S): |
Action
|
Comedy
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Adam Sandler
Robert Smigel
Judd Apatow
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Dennis Dugan
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: October 7, 2008
Theatrical: June 6, 2008
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
83
Christian Science Monitor
Peter Rainer
As hig concepts go, You Don't Mess With the Zohan" takes the cake.
80
New York Magazine
David Edelstein
Director Dennis Dugan knows his way around shin-whacking slapstick, and Sandler is mesmerizing.
80
Time
Richard Schickel
The result is a laff riot. Well, all right, a laff scuffle -- a picture that isn't quite as funny as it might be, but is as funny as it needs to be.
80
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
The movie "Munich" should have been. At the very least, it's got to be the first picture to use smelly-feet jokes as a means of parsing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But more than that, it's a mainstream movie that dares to make jokes about the kinds of complex political realities that most of us don't dare bring up at dinner parties.
80
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
On screen it looks crazed, but the comic energy is huge, if indiscriminate, and Mr. Sandler's performance -- think Topol doing Charles Boyer -- can be as delicate as it is gleefully vulgar or grotesque.
75
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
Sandler works so hard at this, and so shamelessly, that he battered down my resistance. Like a Jerry Lewis out of control, he will do, and does, anything to get a laugh. No thinking adult should get within a mile of this film. I must not have been thinking. For my sins, I laughed.
75
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
Essentially, You Don't Mess With the Zohan isn't all that different in tone and sensibility from Sandler's previous films, but he's really trying in this one, and the effort pays off.
75
Boston Globe
Wesley Morris
Nothing has brought me more cheap pleasure at a movie this year than the sight of shampoo and conditioner bottles falling off a rocking wall while comedian Alec Mapa, as a fellow stylist, tries to keep a straight face. He does a much better job than I did.
70
The New York Times
A.O. Scott
Brazenly self-confident in its refusal to pander to the imagined sensitivity of its audience. In this it differs notably from Albert Brooks's "Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World," which approached some of the same topics with misplaced thoughtfulness and tact.
70
The Hollywood Reporter
Sheri Linden
The comedy star's legions of fans will welcome the cheerfully crude proceedings as a return to silliness after several earnest, lower-key character turns. The melange of Middle East diplomacy, action absurdity, sexual healing and, when in doubt, hummus, wavers between muscular and middling. It's a surefire hit.
67
Austin Chronicle
Marc Savlov
Sandler's first collaboration with co-writer and current Hollywood comedy godhead Judd Apatow, is a crazed, delightfully bizarre return to form for Sandler.
63
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
Less like "The Waterboy" and more like "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry," only funny.
63
USA Today
Claudia Puig
The laughs are hit and miss and the movie is ho-hummus.
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Rick Groen
This picture is to comedy what carpet bombing is to aerial warfare: The onslaught is so relentless that occasional direct hits on the funny bone are a statistical guarantee.
60
Los Angeles Times
Mark Olsen
As another run-of-the-mill Sandler movie, it is better than most. At this point it seems a little foolish to want, let alone expect, "more" from the guy. If he can't be bothered to put more effort into his films, why should anybody else?
60
The New Yorker
David Denby
An obscene, ridiculous, and occasionally very funny movie, and if it ever gets to the Middle East it will roil the falafel tables on both sides of the Arab-Israeli divide.
60
Empire
Ian Freer
A strange, mostly enjoyable mix of big political questions and crude comedy, Zohan overcomes its skeletal plotting and uneven gag ratio through Sandler?s sheer commitment to nonsense.
58
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
Intermittently fresh and amusing in a low-down yet schmaltzy way.
58
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sean Axmaker
Imagine Warren Beatty in "Shampoo" by way of a Jewish Rambo.
58
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Forget "Monty Python," You Don't Mess With the Zohan is a circus that never really flies.
50
Village Voice
Ella Taylor
If nothing else--and there isn't much else--You Don't Mess With the Zohan pronounces the Middle East fair game for absurdist comedy.
50
Chicago Tribune
Michael Phillips
An Israeli-on-Arab version of "Shampoo," You Don’t Mess With the Zohan is terrible in many ways, and shoddy in every way that has to do with filmmaking. But politically it's sort of interesting.
50
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
A little like watching an episode of the TV show of which Adam Sandler is an alum: "Saturday Night Live." Zohan feels like an extended collection of skits tied together by a flimsy umbrella story.
50
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Nathan Rabin
Spectacularly, unimpeachably, relentlessly preposterous.
50
Washington Post
Stephen Hunter
The movie is gross but not unfunny as it covers the Zohan's rise through hair culture, aided by his steamy heterosexuality, his lack of inhibition and his stereotypical career aggressiveness, until the old ladies are lined up all the way to the Bronx for a few minutes of bliss in the Zohan's chair.
50
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
By the end of the film, the cliché of everybody getting along is reduced to both sides working together in the ultimate monument to capitalism: a mall. Some message.
50
Chicago Reader
Andrea Gronvall
Though a bunch of the jokes are milked too thin, there are some absurdly goofy sight gags--like a hacky sack game enlisting a family pet--and a lineup of fun, silly cameos by guests from Chris Rock to Mariah Carey.
50
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
Directed with sledgehammer subtlety by Dennis Dugan ("I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry").
40
New York Daily News
Joe Neumaier
His humor works best when it's throw-away, but "Zohan" throws everything up to get a yuck. It's a shock to see how many "yuck!" moments Sandler settles for.
40
NPR
Bob Mondello
What's more annoying than the crassness, really, is the directorial sloppiness that results in a virtually mirthless first half-hour and a slow build to chuckles thereafter.
40
Variety
Brian Lowry
The off-the-wall comedy of Robert Smigel and Judd Apatow leaves a mark on the script, but it would require a talent of Peter Sellers' magnitude to conquer this material, and he's not around.
38
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
Sandler proves even a hardened Israeli secret service agent can be an imbecilic juvenile.
38
Premiere
Ryan Stewart
To find a comparison for You Don't Mess With the Zohan in Adam Sandler's filmography, you have to go back to 2000's "Little Nicky," a film with a fantasy slant that allowed for jokes of unencumbered silliness.
30
Film Threat
Pete Vonder Haar
In truth, there's not much point to reviewing Adam Sandler comedies. They're almost always widely panned, and yet still manage to earn well over $100 million domestically. Don’' Mess with the Zohan looks to continue both trends, even if exaggerated Yiddish accents and sex with the elderly only take one so far.
25
Portland Oregonian
M. E. Russell
Might actually be the stupidest movie with good intentions that I've ever seen.
25
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
Serious intent may be lurking somewhere in there, but it's buried under layers of stupidity - not just stupid jokes, which is what you want from Sandler, but also stupid, shallow thinking.
25
TV Guide
Ken Fox
At a time when the images of Arab-Americans are already largely negative, do we really need more violently temperamental, bomb throwing men in turbans and beards?
 The average user rating for this movie is 5.2 (out of 10) based on 113 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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