Hamlet 2

The House Bunny

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Elegy

Bottle Shock

Pineapple Express

Step Brothers

Brideshead Revisited

Tropic Thunder

The Dark Knight

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Hancock

Israeli counterterrorist Zohan (Adam Sandler) can stop a bullet with his nostril, catch a fish in his ass crack and tie his enemies into pretzel knots. But when he confides to his proud parents his secret dream -- to cut hair in New York City -- his disbelieving father kvetches, "You keep digging the faigelah hole deeper and deeper!" So, Zohan fakes his death, gives himself a 1987 Paul Mitchell "Avalon" hair cut and reinvents himself as Scrappy Coco, hair stylist to Manhattan's lovelorn blue-hairs. The retired assassin now makes his killing, incognito, in a Palestinian-owned salon giving the seniors his "full-service" treatment: shampoo, cut, style, shtup. "I feel like Hugh Hefner with all you little Bunnies around here," he tells his fawning octogenarian clientele. All's going well until he's recognized by a Palestinian cab driver (Rob Schneider) and Zohan's arch-enemy The Phantom (John Turturro) is summoned to New York to finish him off. At the same time he loses focus when he falls for the pretty young Palestinian salon owner (Emmanuelle Chriqui).

With his 1970s-stalled patois and fondness for the disco-dance, super-spy Zohan occasionally channels Austin Powers or Borat (he wants to "make the bang-boom" with the ladies), but Sandler's suave old-ladies man is a foreigner all his own, from Scrappy's weird (but effective) fighting technique and indiscriminate sexuality to his cut-off jean shorts, sandals and abundant pubic 'fro whence his energy radiates. Co-written by Sandler, Robert Smigel (a.k.a. Triumph the Insult Comic Dog) and Judd Apatow (Knocked Up), the lowbrow cultural humor won't smooth relations between Israelis and Palestinians -- Israelis brush their teeth with hummus; Palestinians wait on hold with the Hamas Terrorist Supply Hotline -- but stereotypes be damned, some scenes set in an Israeli-owned electronics store strategically named Going Out of Business are hysterically funny. Here, the smooth-talking salesmen insist that an off-brand receiver has "Sony guts" and that a rogue cell phone receives HBO with a push of a button. When the landlord's goons come to strong-arm them for increased rent, they dispatch them with merciless, unflinching negotiation. Happy Madison devotees should be pleased with the silly humor. Un-P.C. Jewish jokes, immigrant cracks, "hair homo" barbs and a cavalcade of cameos -- Chris Rock as a Jamaican cab driver; Henry Winkler as a carsick passenger; Mariah Carey as herself -- will amuse broader audiences. But despite its harmonious resolution, You Don't Mess with the Zohan won't be winning best picture at the Palestine Film Festival.

by Rob Walton

credit: Tracy Bennett/©2008 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All rights reserved.