You Don't Mess With The Zohan

Rating:

* *

Verdict:

Full of silliness, and lacking in much needed satire.

Watching this crude,  lightweight comedy from Adam Sandler is like watching a crazy combination of

Zoolander

and

Borat

, and unfortunately what you  take away most is a renewed appreciation for the genius of Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat).

You Don't Mess With The Zohan

is based on the character of Israeli counter-terrorist agent Zohan, a character originally from a sketch on American TV's

Saturday Night Live

. Played by Sandler, he's heavily accented, stuck in the 80s, with a love of disco and hummus which he smothers on everything. When he's not naked and catching things between his butt cheeks, Zohan is wearing cut-off jeans and T-shirts featuring Mariah Carey, who puts in a surprisingly watchable cameo performance.

Zohan might be like a bionic one-man army as he captures terrorists in Israel, but he harbours a secret dream of moving to America and becoming a hairdresser. When his parents laugh at this idea, he fakes his death while trying to capture his nemesis, the terrorist "Phantom" (Turturro), and heads to New York to start his new peaceful life making people "silky smooth".

High-flying co-writer Judd Apatow (

Knocked Up

) hasn't been unable to pull Sandler up out of the gutter, with a script devoid of clever ideas and which largely relies on Sandler's accent, sock-packed crotch and retro dress sense for laughs.

It's also heavily reliant on cultural references to Jews and Palestinians and cliched views of how Americans see Middle Eastern immigrants. It shows   Sandler at his silliest, and has occasional amusing moments, but you have to be a very forgiving fan  to cope with its near two-hour running time.

Francesca Rudkin

Cast:

Adam Sandler, John Turturro, Rob Schnieder

Director:

Dennis Dugan

Running Time:

113 mins

Rating:

M (Offensive Language & Sexual References)

Screening:

SkyCity, Hoyts, and Berkeley Cinemas