Imagine a movie written by three of the greatest comedy Gods currently still alive. Now, remove Woody Allen and Larry the Cable Guy from your dream team, and replace them with 2 other Gods. Good. The movie you’re envisioning is probably so amazing, so unbelievable, that you dare not even get all riled up about its explosive and infinite comic potential.
Which is probably a good thing. Because, in fact, three living comedy Gods have banded together to create a film. Robert Smigel (long-time Conan writer, creator of the best show that ever existed, TV Funhouse), Adam Sandler (think he wrote a song about Hanukkah once), and Judd Apatow (Ed. Note: too lazy to type credits at this point). These three deities have, in fact, written a movie together, and one with a plot that is right up our alley. It’s called You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, and the plot focuses on an Israeli Mossad agent (Sandler) who decides he would rather cut and style hair, and moves to New York to make this dream a well-coiffed reality. Simple, hilarious, perfect.
Well the trailer is finally here. And it deflates most of my inner being to say that, save for the first 30 seconds… it doesn’t seem great. Sandler’s Israeli accent is horrendous. Which is surprising, since his Israeli performance in my favorite SNL sketch of all-time — the Smigel-written “Sabra Price Is Right” — was on point! (He was no Eric Bana in Munich, but hey, is anyone?) The accent heard in the trailer below is unplaceable, a sort of Frankenstein of past Sandler accents that doesn’t gel here nor there.
I still am holding a tiny menorah candle in the hopes that this movie will indeed meet my expectations, that maybe, just maybe, the trailer is average in an attempt to lure non-comedy nerds into the theater. The trailer has its moments, but overall looks like Standard Sandler Fare. Could this be because director Dennis Dugan is also responsible for directing I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, Beverly Hill Ninja and Shasta McNasty? We’ll never know, will we?
Take a look at it for yourself, and feel free to tell me if I’m being too harsh on it. I laughed at points, but I didn’t get that unique scalp-tingling that brilliance brings out in me.
That being said, I’m definitely seeing it.
