In 2005 Steven Spielberg deftly and depressingly gave us a microcosmic view of the Mossad (Israel’s intelligence agency) as it related to the events of Munich. Now it’s Sandler’s turn because, man! Is that Mossad ever funny!
Actually, it’s more a comedy threesome, as Sandler is colluding with Judd Apatow and Robert "Triumph the Insult Comic Dog" Smigel to bring the film You Don’t Mess with the Zohan to a theater near you. The script for Zohan, which sounds like a typical line from all of the Sandler movies stock thug bullies, was co-developed by the trio at Revolution studios and is now being moved on by Columbia for production by the house that Sandler built, Happy Madison.
If past is any indicator of future,the film will follow the crap on your face followed with the sugary sincerity formula of the past few Sandler movies, more recently Click. Zohan,a Mossad agent, just wants to fulfill his dream of becoming a hair stylist. Naturally, being Mossad, he fakes his own death, moves to New York and lets craziness ensue. Time to place bets on how many silly and exaggerated homosexual characters we’ll get, how pissed the love interest will be when she finds out he lied to her and how sappy the "I learned my lesson" ending will be.
We all know the kudos Jud Apatow won for Freaks and Geeks and the frat-house respect earned by the 40 Year Old Virgin. Knocked Up is next on the list, which will prove whether 40 Year Old was a fluke or Fun With Dick and Jane got screwed in translation. He’s definately produced some great stuff with Talledega Nights and Anchorman, but I’m not 100% convinced of comedic genius– and this project makes me wonder even more. [Note from Devin: No, it’s genius.]
Naturally, Adam Sandler will be getting lots of screen time as the death dealing, hair-styling agent. I’ve cut Sandler a lot of slack over the years, but that all ended at Click. I don’t know if it’s the fact I’m getting older, but while I appreciated the Click message (despite it’s one-dimensional portrayal of the work/family situation), Sandler couldn’t figure out what kind of movie to make. Any stab at sentimentality was completely crapped on a completely out of place slap-gag or fart joke, which made the attempt at a heartrending finale utterly ridiculous.
Regardless, America eats these movies up for the most part and I doubt this will be much different. We can only hope.