You Don't Mess with the Zohan review

Again with the bet hedging; You Don't Mess with the Zohan is neither as good as it could have been nor as bad as you'd expect it to be.

First the bad: The movie is about half an hour too long. Thanks to jokes that never seem to end, Zohan loses a lot of comedic luster all because Sandler and the gang didn't know when to leave well enough alone. There are some belly laughs here, but quite a bit of the funny stuff gets lost in the ten minute hair-sex-styling montages.

Now the good: Adam Sandler, for one. His Zohan is sincere and well acted...Well, for what it is, anyway. Also, Zohan sported quite a few surprisingly valid statements concerning the years of upheaval between Israel and Palestine. Unfortunately, the movie just wasn't smart enough to warrant such sobering moments.

For fans of Sandler, you can't really go wrong here. Think old-school jokes with a slightly more sophisticated edge. If you've never been a Happy Madison fan, though, this will not change your mind.

As for me, I laughed quite a bit, and that's all that matters.