Adam Sandler's new movie: Something we can all agree on?
Someone just sent me a link for the trailer of Adam Sandler’s newest attempt: You Don’t Mess With The Zohan. It left me… speechless?
Sandler plays an Israeli commando who decides to fake his own death and move to New York City to fulfill his dream of becoming a hairstylist. Familiar story for Israelis of course, except for the commando-fake death part.
Since when do American filmmakers center jokes around Arab-Israeli conflict? An entire comedy? I can’t decide if I’m impressed or shocked at the balls of it, offended at the horrible Israeli accent or just plain dumbfounded. Too dumbfounded to laugh, even. Just wasn’t expecting that.
Well it’s chock full of stereotypes, for the sake of humor. I would hope it focuses a lot on the humor surrounding Israeli ex-pats in New York; there is a lot to go on, there. It does come complete with Hezbollah dial-up hotline jokes.
My friends say they are surprised Sandler didn’t do it earlier.
Here’s the trailer:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2SubyJNeZY[/youtube]
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Well, quite afew people told me I look like him a bit:-)!
Sounds like a really lame attempt at humor. And yeah, the accent couldn’t be further off.
This one’s been done to death. It lost its funny a long time ago. Mainstream “comedians” really need to find new material to play with.
Adam Sandler is very popular here in the Middle East. When a popular figure in the movies brings up a subject, people who might not address the issue diectly would get exposed to the subject in an undirect manner. Suppose if Iranian authorities would make it clear that no Iranian should ever have any kind of relationship with Israelis ( although Paleistians and people in the Arab wolrd do), then a movie by an artist whose aorks had beenshown by the national tv, could make people more exposed to what they wouldn’t otherwise be exposed to.
We hear about the culture of dialogue in eccess here, but if you think a dialogue with a person from the Bahai faith is encouraged, that would be wrong.
Some time back I watched an Israeli comedy and there, in the movie you could see Israelis and Arabs in the worst part of their conflict, they were very ambitious in playing a the game called Shesh Besh.
In Iran in particular, people lack the right information about the region and the conflict. They do not know there are Arab Muslims inside Israel. If we talk to them about the every life in Jeruslam or Haifa, they wouldn’t believe it. So here the role of a popular comedian bringing up a subject is taken into account, as it would stimulate the fans, the viewers, as to know more about the pariculars of a question which had been viewed unclearly before.
Blue
perhaps you are cute+ adorable ? 
He is not cute but he is adorable
Esra’a
I think the region should step up in making its own comedies, addressing the issues, that way people can identify themselves more with the characters or the story line. I think there is a very untouched potential of making movies, I mean differnt kinds of movies that would reflect the issues familiar, and in a humanistic way, in an integrating manner.
BY THE WAY, one of the original cast members of MASKED, which I keep writing about because I’m running a Talkback series after the show, plays Sandler’s love interest’s Palestinian brother. Daoud Heidami. If anyone is in NYC and wants to ask him about this, get in touch with me because he’s speaking after the show this Saturday.
Small world, Elisheva. Thanks.
Miriam – cool, I wish I was in NYC…
Elinor – good stuff!
Get over all this PC crap and enjoy a funny movie that was made strictly for entertainment purposes.
You can’t force us to enjoy something that is both annoying and unfunny. It’s Adam Sandler for God’s sake. If people consider this kind of stuff hilarious then boy are they easily amused.
“hi guyz 2day, i play an israeli! wiv accent! plz laff i worked hard on dis film i ned money to feed my wife and kidz”
Seriously, people need to set the bar a bit higher for humor. Political satire is funny; overdone stereotypes aren’t.
So don’t see it if you don’t appreciate Adam Sandler’s brand of humor. Just stop bitching about how Politically INcorrect it is. Geez.
Hush your sassing – we’re expressing an opinion; not bitching about it. Go whine elsewhere. If you don’t want to read what people think about this film, don’t freaking read it. Jeez.
This film in a nutshell:
Audience:
Come on. Really? A whole film?
I love Adam Sandler… I’ll admit he’s made some duds, but in every movie there’s always some great lines at the very least.
I think my community is open to this because we’ve been expecting him to make an Israel-themed move for a while… And for the tighter, more traditional American Jewish community, it’s fun when there’s some kind of pop culture dedicated to the more specific/unpopular strains of Jewishness (I’m not talking about dancing the Horah at weddings or other overdone Jewish humor in movies).
In the end, it’s a movie about a foreigner in NYC, which has been done before. The new thing for us is the Israeli-angle.
There will be some great lines/shout outs tucked away in the movie for sure, but I just don’t know how many people can appreciate them much…
It’s not just that this is a movie with “politically incorrect” humor, IMO, it’s pretty blatant military propaganda, incitement, recruiting, while voices within the US and within Israel are calling for bombing Iran quickly (even “faster, please” to quote one semi-famous guy).
I saw a documentary called Operation Hollywood, mostly focused on collaboration btw the Pentagon and Hollywood on military films. It’s easy to find a lowfi RA version, but a little difficult to find the hifi version. LiveMedia I think.
I’m quite sure the movie The Kingdom was done along the same lines, I think there were credits to the government and FBI in it. The Kingdom did not mention the name of Ali Mohamed, because although AM was a top leader in that Embassy bombing and many other bombings including the 1993 truck bomb at WTC, and an officer in Al-Qaeda very close to Osama and Zawahiri, he was also a US Army officer and trainer in the same period, with frequent contacts in the FBI and CIA. Part of it is up on the State Dept website, the Defendant Who Never Went to Trial, as well as Debkafile and other sites with more detail.
Former Naval officer writes “US PROVOCATEUR FOR AL-QAEDA FREED FOR NEW TERROR MISSION?”
Missing from public consciousness.
Here’s the most blatant example of “politically incorrect” TV, if you want to call it that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN6_OxOXVXM
FEMALE ISRAELI SOLDIERS POSE SEMI NAKED FOR MAXIMUM MAGAZINE
you just have to see this and hear the breathless recitation and hot button words, read the headline, and the fact that CNN says this is a PR campaign sponsored by the Israeli Government but they are reporting it as a friggin News story.
For any person who deeply believes that Israel has a right to expel people from their homes and terrorize families, including Christian Arab families as well as Muslims, then I’m not directing this at you, because while Judaism does not teach this, I’m sure you’re beyond convincing.
That’s MY opinion on this. I don’t expect everyone to agree.
Gary,
I cannot find a Just war, or a Just cause for military actions, any where, inside or out of the MidEast region.But so far countries rely on their military power to take care of the countries and the boundaries and the authorities. I do not find a wisdom in war, but I am a person and perhaps very light-minded. Israel for instance is surrounded by countries that either do not recognize her or have militia that would operate against her from witin their territories. regarding that israel is a small country and consting of a relatively small nation, it has adopted a way to overcome this discripancy. Three years of compulsary military service for boys and 2 years for girls is one of the ways to compensate for that. This way if a war takes place, israel can call on the people she has recruited over the years and make use of them in the combat and create an anrmy in a reasonbale size or number of soldiers. It does have a depressing effect on the youth, I have heard from an American girl who made Alyiah ( moving to Israel to live) from new york, she says the youth after spending those years in the army do not feel the same as they were out of high school, and not in a positive way, military life is not easy, but Arab israelis and Jewish people who want to study religion do not need to attend the military service. it might hurt them the most, so they are excused. In the surrounding countries as well there are measures as to recruit enough soldiers and train them for the day they are needed. I hope we have a Mideast with less tension, less need for military measures and more friendship.
The movie is propaganda for Israel. A mossad agent, even fictional, is not something you want 13 years old kids to admire or like. This is glorification of the Mossad, which is known for its murderous operations. The movie is full of Arab/Muslim stereotypes (violent, angry, etc) that viewers will easily recognize (while there is pretty much none against Israeli). Hollywood is one of the major producers and exporters of anti-Arab anti-Muslim bigotry in the world. Adam Sandler is obviously not in a position to protray a fair and balanced view of the conflict, even in comedy. Don’t under-play the power of such movies, fictional or not. Such movies have more lasting effects than “serious ones”.
i want to stay in the moviiee
wow you people care too much about your culture, you guys wont ever laugh because its all about war i dont see why you should even see a movie the movie didnt insult your culture at all, this movie was actually postponed in 2000 because of 9/11 so the jokes may be old and a dumb israel accent? whats wrong with that, you want a proper one so he sounds like you guys? so dumb…
wowComeOn…thank you very much but it is not you who will tell us whether a movie that we believe promotes a certain stereotype or prejudice is offensive to us or not. It is like asking the slave owners about whether they think they mistreat their slaves by enslaving them. It is not like for every 10 stereotypical movies produced by Hollywood that promote a negative image about Arabs they release 1 positive one. It is more like 1 positive movie every 10 years and only because a growing number of people are protesting the unfair portrayal of an entire ethnic group by Hollywood.
The question always remains the same:
Why doesn’t French cinema do this?
Why doesn’t Spanish cinema do this?
Why doesn’t British cinema do this?
Why doesn’t Canadian cinema do this?
Why doesn’t South American cinema do this?
It is only Hollywood that indulges in demonizing other ethnic or national groups ranging from the native Indians, Blacks, Russians, to today’s Arabs/Muslims.
Frankly, I totally agree with this.
Needless to say, yet another “terrorist” film is about to be released where Arabs/African/Brown people are once again dismissed as evil, with a culture and lifestyle worth mocking, and Americans are portrayed as heroes preventing the world from breaking apart.
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