You Don't Mess With The Zohan (Blu-ray) Official AVSForum Review

( Max score: 100 )

85

Film Synopsis:

Comedy superstar Adam Sandler is back - and funnier than ever - as The Zohan, the finest counterterrorist agent the Israeli army has. That is, until he fakes his death and travels to Manhattan to live his dream...as a hairdresser. Now this skilled fighting machine who used to clip bad guys is out to prove he can make the cut as a top stylist. All goes silky smooth until his cover is blown when he's recognized by a Palestinian cab driver (Rob Schneider). Now, The Zohan must fight to live a peaceful new life in New York in this razor-sharp action-packed comedy from Adam Sandler, Robert Smigel, Judd Apatow and Dennis Dugan.

My Take:

You don't mess with the Zohan is a film that is aimed at a particular audience and certainly is not for everyone. There are quite a few Adam Sandler films that I like but there are some that I find intolerable. This film is definitely closer to the latter but if taken with a grain of salt might not achieve intolerable status. Both the theatrical and extended versions are included on this dual layer BD-50 Blu-ray disc. I watched the extended version which adds 4 minutes to the film. Obviously this film is meant to be over the top but there are times where it seemed to take it to new levels. The crude sexual content and ethnic innuendo run rampant throughout the film. The sexual involvement of senior citizens was particularly disturbing. Sandler's garbled attempt at a Middle Eastern accent was poorly executed but was certainly better than Chris Rock's terrible Jamaican accent during his cameo as a NYC cabbie. There is a half baked hint of a love story between the Zohan and Dalia (Chriqui) which seems out of place. The characters were shallow and not particularly appealing. There were some scenes that provided a couple of laughs. Several of these involved Hamdi, Salim, and Nasi (Schneider, Badreya, and Heidami) who were plotting to kill the Zohan after discovering that he was still alive and living in NY. I just felt that much of the film relied on shock value style humor rather than clever writing which in most cases turns out to be distasteful. I am sure that there are many who appreciate it. I have seen Adam Sandler in roles where he has demonstrated a much higher level of entertainment. I much prefer him in that light.

Parental Guide:

This film contains crude and sexual content throughout, language, and nudity. This is not for younger viewers.

Audio: 84

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Video: 86

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You don't mess with the Zohan comes to Blu-ray Disc from Sony featuring 1080p AVC encoded video that has an average bitrate of 24 mbps and lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 channel audio that has an average bitrate of 1.5 mbps.

This film was shot digitally and has a bit of a smooth texture to the video that keeps it from being razor sharp. Detail and resolution are well rendered with respectable subtle nuance and three dimensional image quality that is discernible in both close-up and long distant camera shots. There appears to be some filtering applied during a large majority of the film that splashes a golden cast over the video that makes it look hazy at times. I am not sure whether it was done pre or post production but I found it distracting. This had an effect on the colors and flesh tones during those sequences. Colors appeared less saturated and complexions had a sun burnt tonality that made them look less delineated and natural. Other than that colors exhibited rich depth with vibrant textures and clean rendering. Contrast was excellent and Black levels were deep enough so that dark scenes had good dynamic range and visibility in shadowy areas. The video had a pristine quality and appeared free of any video related artifacts or blemishes.

The lossless audio presentation provided a well blended mix that featured clearly articulated dialogue and a wide front channel soundstage that reached far into the room. Surround activity was abundant and came in the form of the film's music score and a varied blend of ambient and discrete sound effects. The music sounded excellent and had an appreciable low end rhythm that pumped bass through the subwoofer. This isn't an aggressive sound mix but at times it filled the room with clean, detailed and atmospheric surround sound that heightened the experience.

Bonus Features:

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• Commentary with Adam Sandler, Robert Smigel, Rob Schneider, Nick Swardson
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• Commentary with Director Dennis Dugan
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• Translating the Zohan: graphics in picture track - A feature that when enabled translates the words spoken during the film

Featurettes:

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2. (HD) Look who stopped by
   
3. (HD) Dugan: the hands on Director
   
4. (HD) The stunts of the Zohan
   
5. (HD) Dugan espanol?
   
6. (HD) Zohan vs. The Phantom
   
7. (HD) Zohan's doubles
   
8. (HD) Shooting Baja for Tel Aviv
   
9. (HD) All-American redneck
   
10. (HD) From guns to scissors
    
11. (HD) News on 3: missing goat
    
12. (HD) News on 3: who is the Zohan?
    
13. (HD) News on 3: It's very good
    
14. (HD) The Robot
    
15. (HD) Getting sticky
    
16. (HD) Laughing is contagious

• (HD) 15 deleted scenes
• (HD) BD previews - Pineapple express, The house bunny, Casino Royale, and Hancock
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• BD-Live enabled

Final Thoughts:

I like comedies in general and try to go into films like this with an open mind. You don't mess with the Zohan is a bit of a stretch and bombards the audience with situations that require more than an open minded approach. Its humor does have an audience however it is not a film that will appeal to everyone. Fans are sure to enjoy the large supply of bonus features that seem to coincide with the film's comedic theme as well as its solid high definition audio/video presentation.