Dennis Dugan
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Filmography
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Connections, in both directions
There’s a scene in JACK AND JILL where Jack Sadelstein (Adam Sandler) takes his family to the movies to see “Some Like It Hot.” It’s a nod to the classic cross-dressing comedy in which Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon spend much of the film dressed as women.
Chewing the scenery the way an escaped pit bull chews the mailman's carotid (which, come to think of it, actually makes this a more subtle performance than the one in "88 Minutes"), Pacino falls for the unconventional Jill, resulting in some multi-layered drag shenanigans as Sandler-as-Jack impersonates Sandler-as-Jill, a development foreshadowed by the twins' viewing of "Some Like It Hot."
When it is funny, it's because it is done in a convincing way (think Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie), or in a way where the joke is that the supporting characters don't realize how unrealistic it looks (think Some Like It Hot).
Sandler the actor has never looked this apathetic, and the paycheck collecting is so obvious that the movie can’t even manage to sustain its own world, most blisteringly exposed by the ridiculous cameo appearance by cross-dressing classic Some Like it Hot.
It’s generally funniest when a male actor plays a man disguising himself as a woman for an important plot purpose à la Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in Some Like it Hot, Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie and Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire.
This is a major reason the in-no-way-funny Tootsie and Some Like it Hot are remembered as classics.
This is their The Big Chill.
Co-written by Sandler with Fred Wolf (“Joe Dirt”), “Grown Ups” is a cliched variation on “The Big Chill” with a quintent of friends from childhood reuniting after the death of the coach who long ago guided them to a basketball championship.
Whether it’s the drama of “That Championship Season” or the sardonic humor of “The Big Chill,” this is a pretty sturdy plot.
If you’ve ever wondered what “The Big Chill’’ would be like with old “Saturday Night Live’’ castmates — well, why would you ever have done that?
Imagine if " The Big Chill " were made today.
Reminiscent of "The Big Chill" and "The Great Outdoors," only less wise than the former, less clever than the latter, and more juvenile than both combined, the picture goes about its laid-back way without working up a sweat.
After all - as Dustin Hoffman did so memorably with Tootsie - there's still a point to be made about the roles available to women in film and television, right?
Alas, "Jack and Jill" is more " Norbit " than "Tootsie" or "Mrs.
When it is funny, it's because it is done in a convincing way (think Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie), or in a way where the joke is that the supporting characters don't realize how unrealistic it looks (think Some Like It Hot).
It’s generally funniest when a male actor plays a man disguising himself as a woman for an important plot purpose à la Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in Some Like it Hot, Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie and Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire.
This is a major reason the in-no-way-funny Tootsie and Some Like it Hot are remembered as classics.
Picture "Tootsie" if everyone in the cast had a head injury.
The grand star plays ''Al Pacino'' ? to be sure, a cockeyed version ? and when we first meet him, this Al is on stage in a production of Shakespeare's Richard III, mad as hell because the ringing of some idiot's mobile phone in the audience has distracted him.
A YouTube video of the man breaking character in a stage production of Richard III in order to castigate an audience member who didn’t silence his or her cell phone (shades of Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman ?) is genuinely inspired, while other moments are more familiar I’m Still Here territory.
But (in an inspired comic riff on Al Jolson's The Jazz Singer â which precious few die-hard Sandler fans will likely get) what the Zohan really wants to do is cut and style hair for Paul Mitchell.
Shampoo (1975)
Directed by Hal Ashby
influenced You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008)
Characters Plot
He eventually insinuates himself into a salon run by a beautiful Palestinian named Dalia (Emmanuelle Chriqui), where he sets about Warren Beattying his way through the clientele, a la Shampoo.
Imagine Warren Beatty in "Shampoo" by way of a Jewish Rambo.
In a tip of the hat, or whatever, to Warren Beatty's swingin' hairstylist in Shampoo, Sandler plays a breathtakingly flexible Israeli counter-terrorist agent who's had his fill of fighting Palestinians and longs to retire to a chic Manhattan salon.
Sandler plays the title character as an over-the-top cross between Paul Bunyan, Rambo, and Warren Beatty in Shampoo.
June 5, 2008 - If James Bond was an Israeli commando who secretly aspired to be Warren Beatty in Shampoo then he would be Adam Sandler's title character in the new comedy You Don't Mess With the Zohan .
Most of it is a riposte to and parody of Beatty’s “Shampoo”, about a womanizing hairdresser and the 1968 RFK campaign.
The main antagonists are a grown-up school bully and a snobbish frat boy, played respectively by wrestling legend ''Stone Cold'' Steve Austin and Twilight's Taylor Lautner.
To Be or Not to Be (1942)
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch
influenced You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008)
Themes
Ernst Lubitsch's "To Be or Not to Be" brilliantly and sophisticatedly skewered the Nazis.
If Ernst Lubitsch could make fun of Nazis in "To Be or Not to Be" (1942) and Charlie Chaplin could parody Hitler in "The Great Dictator" (1940), why shouldn't Sandler go for the brass ring in "You Don't Mess With the Zohan?" Whenever there's something people fear, that they don't even want to think about, that's an opportunity for comedy.
In an obvious nod to "The Silence of the Lambs," Ribisi is seen doing a sensual dance while watching the music video for Tiffany's "I Think We're Alone Now."For a summer comedy that name-drops the Adam Sandler vehicle " Jack and Jill " before destroying it in a single sentence, it's amazing how many of the same traps "Ted" falls into, starting with its one-joke premise.
The pop culture references, from Brandon Routh’s Superman to Adam Sandler’s Jack and Jill, are generally spot-on.
In fact attentive viewers may be surprised to hear the cuddly waster mock Adam Sandler’s Jack and Jill.
It’s not mere coincidence that when Ted, the eponymous teddy bear-come-to-life voiced by co-writer and director Seth MacFarlane, invites a bunch of hookers over for a fun evening, the movie he puts on is Adam Sandler’s “Jack and Jill.”
Early on in "Ted," the titular walking, talking teddy bear (voiced by director/co-writer Seth MacFarlane) watches "Jack and Jill" with four prostitutes at his side.
The bear exists in the universe of the movie for no other reason than the movie thinks it's funnier to have stale pop-culture riffs delivered from the mouth of an unconvincing CGI stuffed teddy bear—hey, guys, did you know that Jack and Jill is awful?
What works: There are some amusing '80s references in there, and Shaquille O'Neal 's acting has come a long way since 1996's "Kazaam."
And Adam Sandler spends half the movie made up as a woman, yet another connection to be fostered between him and Jerry Lewis, who appeared in full drag in many of his greatest films, like The Ladies Man and Hardly Working.
The oafish-guy-attempts-a-lithe-sport premise has been mined before, most similarly in Beverly Hills Ninja, a fairly awful Chris Farley vehicle that managed to stomp all the fun out of the concept.
A CGI, furry version of Beverly Hills Ninja, then, though a vast improvement over such previous DreamWorks dreck as Shark Tale and the Shrek flicks, thanks to a couple of kinetic action sequences worked out in spatial moves out of House of Flying Daggers and to some uncommonly good voice acting (Black is in routine Baby Huey autopilot, and Lucy Liu, Jackie Chan, and Seth Rogen all barely register, but Hoffman, McShane, and James Hong have delightful bits).
The Producers (1968)
Directed by Mel Brooks
influenced You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008), Grown Ups 2 (2013)
Plot Dialogue
So high above the rest of the movie does this unsung hero fly that we're unsure if Grown Ups 2 was constructed as a The Producers-like ploy to launch the stuntman, or perhaps Lautner, to comedy stardom, bolstering his reputation against the destruction of everyone else's.
Forty years ago, in “The Producers,” Zero Mostel slept with rich old ladies in order to raise money for a Broadway show; Zohan labors on behalf of a corner store, demonstrating, once again, that small business is the soul of the American economy.
It's a variation on a gag that happily served Mel Brooks in The Producers, and as in that enterprise, the result is more innocent merriment than discomfort for the audience.
I guess that's fitting, since this, like so many Sandler movies of late, feels like a "Saturday Night Live" concept stretched out further than Katherine Helmond's face in "Brazil."
And Adam Sandler spends half the movie made up as a woman, yet another connection to be fostered between him and Jerry Lewis, who appeared in full drag in many of his greatest films, like The Ladies Man and Hardly Working.
Harold and Maude (1971)
Directed by Hal Ashby
influenced You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008)
Themes
I don’t know if this is quite Harold and Maude for the new generation (there’s no depth provided here), but I do know this is a concept apt to transgress on a teenager’s view of sex and what does or doesn’t make a woman desirable.
That said, "You Don't Mess with the Zohan," while its structure is undisciplined and its story (scripted by Sandler, Judd Apatow and Robert 'Triumph the Insult Comic Dog' Smigel) borrowed from everything from "Barbershop 2" to the 2006 Live Action Short nominee "West Bank Story," has some laugh out loud moments and enough routing interest in Sandler's Zohan to make it marginally recommendable.
Despite being a retread of the old John Candy formula ( The Great Outdoors and Summer Rental come to mind), Grown Ups does have its moments, mostly thanks to the cast's undeniable chemistry.
It's no "Caddyshack," but "Happy Gilmore" is still a great golf comedy.
When it comes to golf comedies (not a very popular genre, apparently), the film residing at the dubious pinnacle is Rodney Dangerfield's Caddyshack.
In addition to the aforementioned Dustin Hoffman and Robin Williams starrers, the underappreciated likes of 1992's "Ladybugs," 2002's " Sorority Boys ," and 2006's " She's the Man " have all been formidable entries within the gender-bending subgenre.