Movie Review: You Don't Mess with the Zohan

You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008) 

Directed by Dennis Dugan

Written by Adam Sandler, Judd Apatow, Robert Smigel

Starring Adam Sandler, Emmanuel Chriqui, Rob Schneider, Lainie Kazan

Release Date June 6th, 2008

Published June 6th, 2008

It's strange to think of Adam Sandler and societal relevance. And yet, when you look back on his recent career it's difficult to miss a sort of ripped from the headlines quality to his resume. In Reign Over Me Sandler tackled post 9/11 grieving. In I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry it was gay marriage. Now with his latest Summer blockbuster Sandler takes on the middle east, specifically the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and does so with the kind of irreverence and all encompassing bad taste that leaves everyone offended and everyone laughing all at once.

In You Don't Mess With the Zohan Sandler plays 'The Zohan' an ex-Israeli secret police agent who gives up war with Palestine in favor of New York City and the opportunity to become a hairdresser. Taking a job in a neighborhood where Jews and Palestinians live in peace with one another, the Zohan finds himself not just working for a Palestinian, Deliah (Emanuel Chiriqi), but falling in love with her.

Things get dangerous for the Zohan however when a former Palestinian foe, now a cabdriver (Rob Schneider) recognizes him and decides to kill him. The cabby eventually calls on the Zohan's former enemy 'The Phantom' to do the job. The real enemy however is a developer (Michael 'Are You Ready to Rumble' Buffer) who wants the property occupied by Israelis and Palestinians and hires a group of rednecks, lead by James (rocker Dave Matthews), to burn the community to ground and get the two sides to blame each other for the fire.

The plot is more cohesive than the usual Sandler collection of gags, likely due to the influence of current comedy top dog Judd Apatow who joins forces with Sandler and director Dennis Dugan on a script that does slightly more than exist to allow for Sandler's many physical gags and gay jokes. There is an earnest and honest attempt at a message of peace and love for Israelis and Palestinians even as the film offers stunningly offensive caricatures of each. The filmmakers take the perspective that as long as everyone is offended no one is offended and the approach kinda works.

As resistant as I was for much of the Zohan's antics I did find myself laughing loudly more than I ever imagined. Yes, the gay jokes get old and offensive real fast. Yes, watching the Zohan make his name early on in the New York scenes by banging old ladies is utterly horrifying. Nevertheless, you laugh and in a comedy can you really ask much more? And with the Zohan striving for uplift in such an honest fashion, it's hard to dislike and indeed not admire the efforts of the Zohan.

Adam Sandler isn't about to solve the middle east crisis but he seems to care and that is something from the man who was The Waterboy and Little Nicky.

Movie Review Knocked Up

Knocked Up (2007) 

Directed by Judd Apatow

Written by Judd Apatow 

Starring Seth Rogen, Katherine Heigl, Jonah Hill, Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, Jason Segal 

Release Date June 1st, 2007 

Published May 30th, 2007 

Television's loss has become the film world's gain. Just think, had either of Judd Apatow's television ventures, Freaks & Geeks or Undeclared become the hit they deserved to be, we might have had to wait for The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up. Thankfully, and yet sadly, both shows were mistreated by hasty network execs seeking quick hit programming, and thus Apatow was pushed to create two of the best comedies of this decade.

The 40 Year Old Virgin is a masterwork in the comedy of discomfort. For all of its lowbrow elements, Virgin thrived on delivering characters with great heart as well as great humor. Judd Apatow's new film Knocked Up shares Virgin's heart and humor but also manages to go a little deeper in analyzing its characters and their flaws. That said, for fans of the off-color humor, there are plenty of dick jokes, vomit jokes, and a birthing scene like nothing you have seen outside of a medical documentary.

Seth Rogan stars in Knocked Up as Ben, a true loser. He lives in a run down house with several of his loser friends. He smokes pot all day and is waiting while his stoner pals try and launch a website dedicated to nude scenes of Hollywood movies. He lives off the profits of a personal injury lawsuit he won several years earlier.

How Ben (Seth Rogan) managed to hook up with a woman like Allison (Katherine Heigl) is entirely about the alcohol. Without a little help from Jose Cuervo there was no way Allison and Ben would end up in bed together. Allison is a gorgeous, highly ambitious, entertainment reporter who, while celebrating her promotion at E! Entertainment television, meets Ben and somehow ends up in bed with him.

The meeting of Ben and Allison should have been for just one alcohol fueled night. However, thanks to condom troubles, Allison ends up pregnant and now she and Ben are tied for good. She has to try and find a way to make things work for the sake of her baby and he must find some way to grow up and become a father.

Written and directed by Judd Apatow, Knocked Up is a foul mouthed yet thoughtful examination of real life issues, parenthood and marriage, and the fears that many people share about growing up and becoming a real adult. The Peter Pan syndrome of many child adults has been a trend in comedies of this decade. Where Knocked Up is different from films like Grandma's Boy, Benchwarmers or Failure To Launch is that Knocked Up is smarter, funnier and features a far more talented group of performers.  

The most important difference however is creator Judd Apatow whose witty insightful writing, leavened by copious amounts of lowbrow jokes, creates characters and situations that are funnier and more believable than those in supposedly similar films. As he did on his terrific, but sadly short lived TV shows, Apatow shows in Knocked Up a level of understanding and good heartedness that often feels crass in lesser talented hands.

His comic timing, the way he mixes the lowbrow humor with the insightful character stuff is a near perfect mixture. Teaming with Seth Rogan, his longtime friend and producing partner, Apatow creates a quick, witty shorthand that never plays like two friends and an inside joke. The shorthand they have together is apparent but they keep all of the humor open and accessible.

If I have any complaint about Knocked Up it comes from a not so surprising lack of depth in the Allison character. It has long been a difficult road for male writers attempting to write fully fleshed out female characters and even a writer as talented as Judd Apatow can't avoid the pitfalls. While Katherine Heigl brings a wonderful inner life to Allison, Apatow fails to flesh out a back story and motivation for her prior to hooking up with Ben.

Why does she live in her sister's guest house? Where are her friends? We meet all of Ben's stoner buddies, but not one of Allison's friends. What about other men? Certainly a woman as beautiful as Allison has had other boyfriends or would attract other men even as she is trying things with Ben. We never learn anything about Allison other than how she reacts to Ben and to becoming a parent with him.

One reason Allison gets the short end of the stick is that this is really Ben's journey told from Ben's perspective and what an interesting perspective that is. Seth Rogan makes Ben so charming and funny that you only question how a schlub like him could win over a goddess like Allison for maybe... half the movie's runtime. But, once we are comfortable with Ben you can't help but be won over. His quick wit, his willingness to make himself the subject of the joke and his relaxed easy going charisma make him a real winner even as his lifestyle and some of his actions betray a loser.

This is the fifth time Rogan has worked with his good friend Judd Apatow, he was on both of Apatow's TV series, had a small role in Anchorman, where Apatow was an executive producer, and co-starred and earned a producer's credit on The 40 Year Old Virgin. The breezy way in which these two work together likely comes from a long honed shorthand.

Paul Rudd is the secret weapon of Knocked Up. Once seen as just another handsome actor, Rudd has in the past 3 years established himself as a tremendously funny supporting player. In Anchorman as Will Ferrell's go to guy and in The 40 Year Old Virgin Rudd showed a terrific flair for self-deprecating humor, a willingness to make jokes about him and a pitch perfect ear  for the one liner.

In Knocked Up Rudd crafts a very human and very funny character that is both self deprecating and confident. His Pete is at first the least complicated character in the film and you feel you know where his secondary storyline is heading. Thankfully, Apatow and Rudd have a number of surprises in store and Pete is much more interesting than he initially appears.

Throughout the middle portion of Knocked Up, as we are getting close with Ben and Allison, we get some very interesting and insightful moments with Pete and his wife, Allison's sister, Debbie played by Leslie Mann. The marriage of Pete and Debbie is counterpoint to Ben and Allison's burgeoning romance and the two relationships are a commentary on one another in a very unique way.

Finally, in a tiny, almost insignificant role, Saturday Night Live star Kristin Wiig is a terrific scene stealer. Playing one of Allison's bosses at the E! Network, Wiig plays a variation on one of her SNL characters, one who feels she must top any story with one of her own. The subtle brilliance of Wiig's performance is almost so low key you could miss it. Pay attention when she is on, you are guaranteed some big laughs.

Yes, Knocked Up is often foul and features a good deal of low humor. However, mixed within the lowest common denominator stuff is a true heart and a great head. The film is warmer and truer than most of the films Hollywood releases in any year, not just comedies. Knocked Up is a terrifically funny movie packed with talented performers and a creator who is a star on the rise for many years to come. As good as both The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up are, I feel Judd Apatow will only get more interesting as he matures. His best work may be yet to come. 

Movie Review The 40 Year Old Virgin

The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005) 

Directed by Judd Apatow 

Written by Judd Apatow, Steve Carell 

Starring Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, Seth Rogen, Romany Malco, Catherine Keener 

Release Date August 19th, 2005 

Published August 18th, 2005 

The vanguard of TV writing is now headed for the big screen in big ways. J.J Abrams the creator of "Alias" is directing the next Mission Impossible film. Joss Whedon the creator of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and the underground hit, "Firefly", has Serenity in theaters in September and is soon to tackle Wonder Woman. First up, however, is television's most under-appreciated comedy writer, Judd Apatow.

In two network series, "Freaks and Geeks" and "Undeclared", Judd Apatow has had two of the most critically beloved and audience ignored series in history. Two extraordinarily witty and charming shows about growing up and not growing up. Both shows can now be seen as warm ups for Mr. Apatow's switch to big screen comedy in The 40 Year-Old Virgin, another witty and charming story of arrested development.

Steve Carell stars as the title virgin, Andy Stitzer. Andy lives in perpetual teenager-hood. Living amongst his action figures and video games and riding a bike to work, Andy barely even looks his age. At work Andy is the subject of derision and beliefs that he may be a serial killer. When his co-workers, Dave (Paul Rudd), Cal (Seth Rogan) and Jay (Romany Malco) invite Andy to play poker with them, the conversation quickly turns to sex and Andy is outed as a virgin despite his best efforts to the contrary. The trio seem less than sincerely sympathetic to Andy's plight, but eventually they do try and help Andy to relative degrees of success.

Each of Andy's new friends has some very... interesting advice that works in weird ways but almost always to Andy's detriment. While Dave is pining desperately for an ex-girlfriend he thinks Andy can be helped with a big box of porn. Jay thinks the cure is "drunk bitches" and Cal has a surprisingly effective idea: emulate David Caruso in Jade and women won't be able to resist.

Eventually, despite and not because of his friend's advice, Andy meets a lovely woman named Trish (Catherine Keener).  The two spark an immediate connection and thus begins a romantic plot that is smart and adult even as it is conventional romantic comedy. Carell and Keener are very good together and you have to love the way Keener throws herself into this role. She is an outsider amongst the male ensemble, most of whom have worked together before, yet she fits right in.

Judd Apatow directs 40 Year-Old Virgin with a very steady hand. Very well paced and always clever, at times the film is extraordinarily funny and often very crude but in the funniest ways imaginable. The film earns its R-rating with its language and raunchiness but that is perfectly balanced by the wonderfully sweet romance at the center.

The 40 Year-Old Virgin could have gone entirely wrong were it not for the strong lead performance of Steve Carell. The former "Daily Show" correspondent and star of NBC's doomed "The Office" manages to make Andy's virginity more than just a one-note sex joke. The character could have been a caricature akin to Pee Wee Herman or some other outrageous over the top character who you would believe never had sex. Instead Carell paints a very sympathetic portrait of a shy introverted guy who was just unlucky in his youthful exploits with women.  Andy is never a pawn of the plot or of the characters around him. He is fully formed and totally genuine. The film works because we believe in Andy and we align ourselves with Andy.

The supporting cast of The 40 Year Old Virgin is amazing, especially Paul Rudd who gets more and more outrageous and courageous in every role. Here is a comedic actor of real chops and leading man looks who is willing to completely humiliate himself if it means a big laugh, a rare breed. Romany Malco and Seth Rogan round out the top supporting roles and manage to create fully formed characters with depth and humor. The interplay of the four guys is unforced and familiar and almost always hysterically funny. It's no surprise that they have worked together before and the joy they have working together comes off the screen and affects the audience.

The real revelation of 40 Year-Old Virgin however, is director Judd Apatow who takes his place as one of the leading voices in big screen comedy. In a genre that desperately needs a new voice, Apatow is a sight for sore eyes and ears. His talent for character development and ability to sustain big laughs without having to abandon his plot is something a lot of veteran comedy directors could learn from.

Movie Review Funny People

Funny People (2009)

Directed by Judd Apatow 

Written by Judd Apatow 

Starring Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann, Eric Bana, Jonah Hill, Jason Schwartzman 

Release Date July 31st, 2009

Published July 30th, 2009 

Comics have their own idiom, a way of speaking that is more often than not aggressive and abnormal. Words are their weapons and they wield them with particular expertise. Listen to comedian Patton Oswalt, a shambling, unkempt often alcohol infused comic whose word use is as precise and exacting as your average marksmen is with a high caliber rifle. The brain of the comic is different always, searching at all times for the absurd in the average, that detail that they can see that the average person misses. That brain gets a thorough and exacting examination in Funny People, Judd Apatow's adroit, mature comedy of penis jokes and honest to goodness pathos.

Adam Sandler is the star of Funny People playing a variation on his real life superstar career. His George Simmons is one of the biggest stars in the world thanks to movies like Mer-Man where he plays, you guessed it, a half man half fish and Re-Do where Sandler's soft ball like skull is placed on the body of a baby by cheesy CGI. You can sense the shame he feels over these movies, made only to line his pockets, and purchase cars he never drives and a large, Xanadu-esque mansion that he doesn't need, and one can't help but wonder if the shame applies in real life to dreck like Little Nicky or Billy Madison. Probably not, but I can dream.

The shame can be seen in George when he see's himself worshipped in the eyes of his new assistant Ira (Seth Rogan). Hired to help write jokes so George can go back to where he feels most at home, the comedy stage, Ira becomes George's only real friend, even if he won't admit it. It's a forced friendship with young Ira carrying most of the burden especially after George reveals he has a rare blood disease and may soon be dead. That's a lot for Ira to carry but he does carry it and soon Ira begins to develop his own talents and find his own comic persona through the mirror of George's age and and hard won wisdom.

Outside of his wealth and privilege, George's life is empty and impending death has only magnified the void. He now longs for all the stuff he took for granted as a younger man, things family and children. Ira helps George reconnect with his parents and sister and even a few of his comic 'friends' who are more like fellow former hostages of some unknown captor. They aren't friends, they just share the same trauma it seems and that bonds them.

The one person George really hopes to reconnect with however, is Laura, the only woman he ever really loved. Laura is now married and living in San Francisco. She comes to George after he reveals his illness and the reunion is emotional in the way one might talk to someone who dying, an exaggerated pseudo-truth that takes conversational reality to a heightened emotional realm. Yes, Laura loved him once and, in his dying state, she forgives him his indiscretions of the past but is he really the love of her life? That could just be comfort food for the dying.

Well, George will find out if Laura is for real. The last 45 minutes of Funny People is dedicated to George surviving his illness and deciding to chase the life he thinks he always wanted. What happens then is for you to discover but thanks to the exceptionally smart and true writing and direction of Judd Apatow you are in for something funny and unexpected. For those trained by The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up to expect a lot of foul humor, your training comes in handy. Apatow's verbiage is as scatological and unapologetically foul as ever. The difference is the level of sophistication in the way these words are used. Comics use foul language in such a secondary, comfortable manner that it's less natural when they don't use them.

Adam Sandler has shown in the past that beneath the juvenile mask is an immensely talented actor. He simply cannot often enough restrain his id and allow that talent some time in the sun. In Funny People the mask is off and the talent shines like never before. His George is a stunningly bitter, brusque and off-putting guy who makes no apologies for being repugnant. He is fully conscious of his disgust for himself and in finding death he turns that disgust toward whatever human target is close by. As in his shame for his movies, George loathes the people who love them as much as she loathes himself for making them love him. He lives the old Groucho Marx maxim "I would never be a part of a club that would have me as a member".

Sandler's performance in Funny People is so raw and remarkable that you must wonder how true it all is to the real life of Adam Sandler. Thankfully, in real life Sandler appears to be happily married with children and close friends. It's very likely however, that Sandler knows a George Simmons and shares a deep sympathy with him. Sandler comes at this role with such ferocity and authentic self-loathing and contempt for the world that it just feels real. Then there is the blurring of the lines when George/Adam criticizes his terrible movie roles and that blurring of the lines becomes an uncanny valley between real life and the funny fiction of Funny People. 

As for Seth Rogen, I loved how Rogen's Ira represents all the hope and joy that has seemingly slipped away from jaded George and the way that Ira's youth and enthusiasm enlivens the mentor-student relationship of Geore and Ira. Rogen plays Ira as his usual foul-mouthed man-child, the persona he has perfected in his short but fast rising career. However, Rogen and Apatow take great care to make Ira the heart of the story and use the character as a mirror to highlight the best and worst of George while deepening both characters through their growth together as friends and colleagues. It's a dynamite dynamic and the chemistry between Rogen and Sandler is outstanding. 

With Adam Sandler delivering a career best performance and Seth Rogen and Judd Apatow showing newfound maturity and complexity, Funny People becomes one of the best movies you will see all year. Funny People is also another maddening symbol of how incredibly talented Adam Sandler can be when he wants to be. It makes me dislike Sandler more when he makes terrible comedies because I have seen a movie like this and I can see how talented he is. It's frustrating to watch him make some of the worst movies in the world when he's capable of making movies like this. 

Movie Review Fun with Dick and Jane

Fun with Dick and Jane (2005) 

Directed by Dean Parisot

Written by Judd Apatow, Nicholas Stoller 

Starring Jim Carrey, Tea Leoni, Alec Baldwin, Richard Jenkins 

Release Date December 21st, 2005 

Published December 20th, 2005 

Remakes are an inherently lazy project. No matter how well made and recreated they are, remakes are  still telling someone else's story and making a profit on it. Laziness is the hallmark of the remake of 1977's Fun With Dick and Jane. With a talented cast including Jim Carrey and Tea Leoni and a script polish by the very funny Judd Apatow, Fun With Dick and Jane is an all the more depressing effort for the talent involved.

Dick Harper (Jim Carrey) has a great job working in corporate communications for a massive corporation called Globodyne. Things are just about to get even better for Dick when the company CEO, slimily portrayed by Alec Baldwin, decides to promote Dick to vice president and put him on TV to talk up Globodyne's latest financial numbers on a Moneyline-esque cable show. Unfortunately as Dick is putting a smiling face on the numbers the stock tanks live on the air. Dick, as the new face of the company, is completely screwed. The CEO has bankrupted the company, including all the severance and pension funds, and is in the wind, leaving Dick and the company's chief finance officer (Richard Jenkins) to take all of the heat.

This could not be worse timing for the Harper family because Dick's wife Jane (Tea Leoni) has just quit her job as a travel agent to spend more time with their son who is being raised by the nanny (the kid had even adopted the nanny's own broken English accent, in an ugly, awful gag).  Now with both Dick and Jane out of work, and Dick a virtual pariah in his chosen field, the family faces losing all of their accumulated wealth and their home.

After unfortunate attempts by both Dick and Jane to work at new jobs, Dick at a Wal-mart clone and then as a day laborer, in yet another awful gag, and Jane as an aerobics instructor and product tester, the frustrated couple turn to armed robbery to solve their money troubles. Using their son's toy weapon and the rationalization that they were screwed by the system, the couple sets about robbing convenience stores, coffee shops and eventually even an attempted bank heist before finally turning to revenge against the CEO that put them in this predicament.

Fun With Dick and Jane fails because director Dean Parisot and writers Judd Apatow, Nicolas Stoller and Peter Tollin fail to establish whether they are attempting broad slapstick or dark satire. Most of the film plays to star Jim Carrey's strength, broad physical comedy. However, the story of a family losing everything and turning to desperate measures to keep their home is not a story that lends itself to big slapsticky laughs. Thus, the film fishes around searching for laughs in broad set pieces unable to reconcile those with the film's dark subject.

The filmmakers try everything from funny costumes (the couple dressed as Sonny and Cher with Carrey as Cher) to movie parody (Dick and Jane driving a stolen car into a storefront dressed as the Blues Brothers), to irreverent racial humor, but nothing connects with anything more than mild amusement. And, the racial humor is downright offensive. Watching it you don't laugh as much as you squirm in discomfort. 

Director Dean Parisot was the talented director of 2000'sGalaxy Quest, a good natured ribbing of the Star Trek series. There is nothing groundbreaking about that little movie but it hits its target well with good-natured parody. Parisot may be the wrong director for the much darker Dick and Jane in which he irritatingly attempts to force broad comedy out of narrow material. Parisot never finds the right angle on the film's corporate satire and fails miserably in establishing why Dick and Jane must turn to crime in order to survive.

The corporate scandal that costs Dick his job is merely a quick way to get him out of a job so we can get to the supposedly funny attempts at crime. There are a couple of unconvincing scenes of both Dick and Jane trying to work low paying jobs and failing miserably but these scenes fail to help us understand why they must turn to crime. We can feel the plot forcing them toward crime because the crimes are where the supposed comedy is and the filmmakers show their desperation to get through a few setup scenes so they can get the stars into their funny costumes.

Because Jim Carrey and Tea Leoni are such terrifically talented comic actors there are a number of solid laughs in Fun With Dick and Jane. A scene where the couple commit a home invasion robbery dressed in black ninja gear and voice disguisers is funny for the way the couple are like children playing with new toys. Another scene where Dick and Jane ponder their situation while sitting in the unfinished hole where their new hot tub was to be shows each actor's ability to connect with us on a sympathetic level.

Dick and Jane by the standards of decent society aren't good people. They commit serious crimes that are humorously treated by director Dean Parisot but we are never allowed scenes that might help us forgive them their crimes. Simply saying 'it's just a comedy' does not excuse the fact that our protagonists are unpunished criminals. The 1977 version of Fun With Dick and Jane, I'm told, established its heroes as Robin Hood outlaws whose crimes have an undercurrent of social conscience. Yes they were robbers, but when they knocked over banks they also attempted to burn the debt records of other troubled families so that maybe they to could be debt free.

No such moralizing in the new version where the motivation is solely material and selfish. The modern Dick and Jane are concerned about maintaining their social status and regaining their material wealth. A scene where Dick and Jane retrieve their LCD big screen television using some of their ill-gotten gains is played as a moment of triumph with their young son celebrating wildly. I guess, like the nanny, that television was another parent to the kid, which is yet another bit of sardonic humor the film fails to capitalize on.

Spoiler warning!

When at the end our heroes target Baldwin's corporate criminal and end up turning Robin Hood and stealing his money and giving it back to the employees he screwed, we are supposed to admire them. But you can see the plot gears turning as the filmmakers try to redeem these lost characters with one act of deus ex machina, the hand of god, putting everything right with the world in less than 10 minutes screen time.

Fun With Dick and Jane ends with a dedication to the corporations like Enron that have been subjects of the biggest financial swindles in history. Unfortunately, what was intemded to play as an ironic thumb in the eye of these corporations comes off as more of an honest thank you for inspiring this film's failed ideas.  Fun With Dick and Jane never develops into any kind of satire of corporate scandals. The corporate crimes in the movie are a mere backdrop for the flailing slapstick physical comedy. 

Fun With Dick and Jane is yet another sad, lazy Hollywood remake. The work of slacking geniuses picking up paychecks rather than actually making a funny movie.