Full Review

Read as a critical admonition, the title of Adam Sandler's latest comedy should serve as fair warning. Approaching his projects with caution is always advisable and this typically vulgar effort is no exception.

"You Don't Mess With the Zohan" (Columbia) centers on a lethal Israeli commando who walks away from an illustrious army career to fulfill his dream of becoming an American hairdresser. A national hero, Zohan Dvir earns a reputation for bravery among his stateside beauty parlor clientele: senior citizens who admire his virility and self-sacrifice in a different arena involving their neglected femininity.

Perhaps the best that can be said about this inanity is that a message of intercultural understanding seeps through the raunchiness, rendering it less harsh and marginally less offensive than Sandler's last effort, "I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry," also directed by Dennis Dugan.

Sandler, Robert Smigel and prolific producer Judd Apatow are credited with the screenplay, which has Zohan abandoning his military duties during a confrontation with his Palestinian nemesis, Phantom (John Turturro). Faking his own death, he travels to New York in hopes of working at the Paul Mitchell hair emporium and "making people silky smooth."

His agility and fighting prowess still come in handy, but initially Zohan's prospects are undermined by his penchant for disco and retro styling. He finally lands a job at a salon run by Palestinian Dalia (Emmanuelle Chriqui) and his affection for her leads to an unlikely advance in the cause of Middle East peace when he fosters harmony between Jews and Arabs on one Manhattan block.

The scenario gets sidetracked by a number of tangents, the main one concerning a rapacious and xenophobic real estate developer modeled on Donald Trump. Various cameos and pointless diversions add to the movie's bloated feel.

If forced to tangle with "Zohan," brushing up on your Yiddish expressions might add to the experience yet certainly isn't necessary to comprehend the explicit, lowbrow humor. The camera seems to spend more time trained on Zohan's lower regions than on his face. Considering all the gyrations and pelvic thrusting, it's a wonder Sandler didn't end up in traction.

A running gag about hummus, which Zohan uses for every imaginable purpose, is one of the few that, in addition to not being thoroughly smutty, succeeds. The accents and fractured English pronunciations of the Arab and Israeli characters yield minimal laughs, as do all of the intentionally mild plays on cultural stereotypes.

On two occasions, Mel Gibson is singled out as a symbol of intolerance, presumably because of his perceived anti-Semitism. Like most things in a broad spoof of this nature, the jokes are easy and instantly forgettable.

The film contains pervasive sexual content (much of it involving senior citizens), numerous sexual references (many spoken in Yiddish), countless obscene gestures, frequent crude and crass language, rear male and female nudity, some toilet humor, mildly disparaging racial and religious slurs, and a modicum of action violence. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is O -- morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

Movies have been evaluated by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishop's Office for Film and Broadcasting according to artistic merit and moral suitability. The reviews include the USCCB rating, the Motion Picture Association of America rating, and a brief synopsis of the movie.

The classifications are as follows:

• A-I -- general patronage;
• A-II -- adults and adolescents;
• A-III -- adults;
• A-IV**
• L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. L replaces the previous classification, A-IV.
• O -- morally offensive.