Zohan Review

I reviewed this 2 months ago, but left it dusted. So I'm publishing it now

1. You Don't Mess With The Zohan

Other than romantic comedies with Drew Barrymore and occasional non-comedy forays like PT Anderson's Punch Drunk Love, I usually skip Adam Sandler movies. The guy's comedic persona (especially ever since The Waterboy) is too crude, annoying and childish (only Will Ferrell can top him) for my taste. However, after seeing the trailer for "You Don't Mess With The Zohan", it becomes the first Adam Sandler movie that I anticipate for a very long time.

Why the anticipation? Zohan is probably the first time Adam Sandler created a new comedic persona since The Waterboy and it's also probably his first attempt at doing a good spoof/parody ala Ben Stiller or Sacha Baron Cohen's Ali G and Borat. Of course, it also helps that it has a killer premise: Zohan is the best commando Israel has ever seen (by the best, I mean he can stop bullets in real time kind) whose lifelong dream is only to become a hairstylist. Last but not least, Judd Apatow of the 40 Years Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Superbad fame help co-write the script. Does the end product live up to the potential? Not quite, but there's still good time to be had.

First, let's make one thing clear, Adam Sandler of the old is gone. Gone are the crude shouting, toilet, gross jokes. In are broad, cartoonish, nonsensical gags that Stephen Chow could do (or used to be able to) in his sleep, and Sandler is better for it. It's also great that the writers and Sandler embrace the cartoonish, nonsensical comedy to their heart and pull it on their sleeves - with gags like grenade ping pong, Zohan's physical abilities - they're not always successful, but they're more often funny than what Adam Sandler used to make. But credit has to go to the Zohan character and Sandler himself, from The Zohan's masculine, oversexed persona to his fake accent and to his Chuck Norris-esque ability to be immune from any physical harm. I believe this is a character spoof is quite accurate, even if I have never met/known an Israeli before. After all, many cheesy Chuck Norris action films used to be produced by Israelis producer Menahem Golan and Goram Globus and you could probably see the striking similarity between Zohan and Chuck Norris.

Then, there's there's the issue of this movie being a message movie. Sandler's last film, I Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, had this sincere but ultimately hypocritical attempt at a homosexual tolerant message. This movie does have some preachy messages about the Israel-Palestinian conflicts. But unlike Chuck and Larry, this film is smart enough to be a cartoon that the messages don't come accross too forcefully. After all, only in a cartoonish movie like this can we see a man capable of stopping bullets with his bare hand and an immigrant community of Israelis and Palestinians living together.

Rating: 3.5 /5

Warning on M Night Shyamalan's The Happening

This friday, M Night Shyamalan's next movie The Happening will open in US. I'm here to warn you to consider not watching it.



Now, I'm a big fan of M Night, every single movie after the sixth sense. But his last movie, The Lady In The Water, was so terrible I named it the worst film I've seen in 2006. But I still have faith in him; so when I heard that he was going to make his next movie, The Green Effect (it's been retitled to The Happening) with a story about nature turning against mankind, I become interested and was hoping that it would be his comeback to goodness.

But I was impatient. Last year, after much searching online, I found the first draft of the script (titled The Green Effect) and read it.

It was bad. It wasn't as terrible as Lady In The Water, but make no mistake, it was bad.

The script has some good parts (which involves wind blowing) that would give M Night some cool and terrifying directing set pieces. but that's about it on the positive. The story is interesting but characters are not. But the worst part was the ending.

Now, I know many people are incensed by the ending of Signs. I happen to be one who don't mind because the movie was solid enough that by the time the ending comes, I didn't even notice the plot hole. Why do I mention Signs? Because for those people who hate Signs, the ending in the script is even more stupid than the Aliens whose weakness is water in Signs. It's really that bad (it explains what "the green effect" is so cornily).

Well, it's only the first draft and the script has been rewritten numerous times for sure during the production. But having seen the trailers for the film so far, I must say that many elements in the first draft have made it into the film. I just hope, for the sake of Shyamalan's career, that the ending doesn't make it.

Save Speed Racer

... or just save it as much as you can by watching it now if it's still playing. By missing this movie, even if it isn't a great film, you might have just missed a truly good movie there.

By now, if you had not seen Speed Racer, you'd probably know that it's a big box office flop. Reportedly made by Wachowski Brothers who made The Matrix films for a budget of over 100 million (typical for a summer blockbuster type), it has only grossed a puny $40 million so far in US. Not to mention the usual negative bashing towards the film and its makers. Which is too bad, because this is a genuinely good film that deserve more.

Now, before I start defending this film and The Wachowski Brothers, I'm not going to be like other apologists who keeps overpraising this film as great or perfect because this movie isn't. This films has its flaws. Actually, its only flaw is its overly complicated story and running length. The Wachowskis clearly intended this film for kids and to be watched with the family with its unapologetically cartoonish (in a good way) visuals; however, they should have the common sense not to make a plot so convoluted that it encompasses over 2 hours (and the kids won't understand the corporate manipulation and betrayal anyway). The Wachowskis should have just simply made a simple good guy vs bad guy story with a strong identifiable villain which the movie lacks.

But besides that, I don't understand some of the hatred regarding this film. When the first trailer come out, I was impressed by its unapologetically cartoonish and colourful visuals as well as the outrageous and but wacky fast racing action that recalls video games like F-Zero series and Mario Kart series; I thought it was great and revolutionary and it could to to anime what Sin City did to its comic book counterpart. But alas, it wasn't to be. Although I never experience it for myself, I'm aware that there are strong reactions against the visuals. again, if people can embrace Sin City, why can't they embrace this?

Sometimes I can't help but think that some people are just against The Wachowski for some reasons. It probably started since The 2nd and 3rd Matrix films (which are admittedly flawed and polarizing) and it continues on to V For Vendetta (and to lesser extent, last year's The Invasion). People have been waiting for this Schadenfreude moment to come and of all time, it has come for this movie. I'm not sure why Wachowskis brothers are hated. Sure, they're eccentric (on of them had sex change operation) and mysterious (almost never does publicity). But after seeing this movie, I'm convinced that they're one of the better filmmakers today who not only make films with distinct and boundary pushing visuals, but most importantly also know how to tell a story. It'd be sad if they lose total creative control because this movie flopped.

Take for example the opening race scene. It was a gorgeous, fast paced scene, where we see Speed in a race, it's intercut with crowd, commentaries and scenes from Speed's childhood where we see that he's close with his older brother, Rex. Speed easily leads the race, but he's chasing against a "ghost" red car - his brother's car. As more flashbacks appear, we know that his brother would meet a tragic fate later, and at the same time, we finally know that Speed's goal for this race wasn't only to win it, but beat his brother's record. and when he finally reached the finished line, he did something that really revealed a lot about his character. It was just so elegant and exciting, with no Michael Bay style rotating camera bullshit, with fast cuts - but not distracting, which is refreshing, if you think about it, because Wachowskis have reputation as visual director, but they still care about plot and character development.

Then, there's writing and acting. Yes, the plot was unnecessarily convoluted, but when it comes to emotional scenes, the wachowskis really hit home run. There are 2 scenes where first, the older brother left the family and has his last talk with the dad and a similar scene years later when Speed tries to do the same. It was simple, to the point and yet poignant. The actors are also great in this one. When you have good serious actors like Susan Sarandon, John Goodman, Christina Ricci and Emile Hirsch doing a cartoonish movie like this, it usually ends more often bad than good. But thankfully, the actors know the material really well enough to strike the right tone for the characters. Emile Hirsch was particularly not as bad as I thought he would be after I saw his wooden performance in the trailer. But the best surprise come from John Goodman; I remember seeing him in a lot of movies in the 90s and he somewhat disappeared since early 2000s but it's really good to see him back here with a strong performance. Oh, and then, there's the korean superstar Rain, he's okay, his english is not surprisingly accented, but he definitely doesn't ruin the movie.

At the end of the day, it's normal to hear people complain that summer movies aren't what it used to be, that they're rubbish made for the dumbed down teenage audiences, and yet when the right movie come along that has good fun and and good story for the whole family, it gets ignored. Speed Racer, is one of those movies, and you definitely owe it to yourself not to miss it.

Rating: 3.5 /5