I think everyone agrees that Netflix could use more Adam Sandler movies, right? I kid, of course, as the actor already has a good deal of his filmography up on the streaming site, but if you’re yearning for more, you’ll be happy to know that 2008 comedy You Don’t Mess With The Zohan has just been added to the service.
The movie tells the tale of the titular Zohan, a practically superhuman IDF commando who fakes his death in order to realize his dream of becoming a top hairstylist in New York. This feeds into a plot about a conflict between the Israeli and Palestinian communities in the Big Apple. It sounds like a pretty far-fetched tale, though it’s apparently based on a true story about an Israeli soldier who runs a hair salon in California.
As is typical for an Adam Sandler comedy, critics hated it and audiences loved it. It sits at 37% on the Tomatometer, with reviews highlighting the film’s “crudeness,” the “constant, feeble sexual innuendoes” that it “trundles on for 113 minutes, none of them funny” and, perhaps most damningly “this movie is as funny as a suicide bombing.” Ouch.
You have to imagine that at this point in his career, snippy reviews are water off a duck’s back for Sandler. After all, You Don’t Mess With The Zohan made roughly $200 million on a $90 million budget, which isn’t his biggest hit but is certainly nothing to sniff at. Beyond that, Netflix has very good reasons for putting so many of his movies in their library. After all, they wouldn’t be buying them if they weren’t drawing a substantial audience.
All that said, if you really want to watch an Adam Sandler flick on Netflix, you should go with Uncut Gems. That’s secretly one of the best films of last year and a fantastically entertaining two hours. So, why not have that in a double bill with You Don’t Mess With The Zohan, to get a proper perspective on high and low-brow Adam Sandler?
