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October 11, 2008 1:18:58 AM CDT

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Zohan Sticks to the Lowbrow

Posted Jun 6, 08 1:34 PM CDT in Arts & Living 

(Newser) – The Adam Sandler comedy You Don’t Mess With the Zohan may be fun, but it probably won't do much for those outside the usual Sandler audience of teenage boys. The story of an Israeli commando-turned-hairdresser is full of “missed opportunities for sharpening silliness with satire,” writes Peter Travers in Rolling Stone. Sandler’s “need to service his fan base” clashes with his “nascent maturity,” notes Mark Olsen in the Los Angeles Times.

Richard Schickel is more forgiving in Time. While he notes that the film is “slightly rickety,” it’s still a “virtually bullet-proof blend for the mass, summertime audience,” he writes. “It’s just out for a good, slightly silly, time.” As a satire, Olsen says, “it misses more than it hits. As another run-of-the-mill Sandler movie, it is better than most.”

Sources Rotten Tomatoes, Rolling Stone, Los Angeles Times, Time

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Adam Sandler rides on the back of a car as he shoots a scene from "You Don't Mess with the Zohan" under production on Park Avenue in Manhattan, Monday, July 30, 2007.   (AP Photo/Larry Levine)
Emmanuelle Chriqui, left, Adam Sandler, center, and Rob Schneider pose for a photo during a special screening of "You Don't Mess With The Zohan" at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York Wednesday.   (AP Photo/Starpix)
In this image released by Columbia Pictures, one-time counter-terrorist and now-hairstylist Zohan, played by Adam Sandler, practices his technique in a scene from "You Don't Mess with the Zohan."   (AP Photo/Columbia Pictures, Tracy Bennett)
Actor Adam Sandler makes an appearance on MTV's "Total Request Live" at MTV Studios on Tuesday, June 3, 2008 in New York.   (AP Photo/Evan Agostini)
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