You Don't Mess With the Zohan

There are Adam Sandler films and there are Sandler films. His serious, for want of a better phrase, films would include Punch Drunk Love, Spanglish, and most recently Reign Over Me. Sandler wouldn't attract directors like PT Anderson without some talent. He obviously understands comedy, and his films make a guaranteed $125-150 million.
That stated his brand of comedy rarely amuses me: Anger Management was good for a couple of grins, but that played outside the Sandler usual circle of Mr. Deeds and Longest Yard antics. You Don't Mess With the Zohan is Sandler's funniest film since The Wedding Singer. That's how much I liked it.
There's plenty of the Sandler brand of guffaws, that include physical humor involving cats and plenty of hummus gags. Oddly I was amazed that the film's rated PG-13 due to the raucous nature of sexual humor. Even odder, Zohan though doesn't stoop to the gross out "shit in my pants" joke of the R-rated SatC. There's a muted political lesson, natch about Palestinians and Israelis, that seems more effective than some polemic beating you over the head with the age old message about the futility of endless fighting. Caricatures of rednecks and Sandler-brand gay humor (George Takei and Bruce Vilanch have cameos) also provide laughs. The part where the Zohan and his buds are talking about banging FLOTUS exceeds the quota of righteous humor usually reserved for comedies like this.
The plot is simple and despite repeated mock action scenes nobody, even the kitties, really gets hurt. The Zohan decides to quit being Israel's top secret agent and become a hairdresser in NYC. Once he hooks up with a local beauty shop he becomes the main attraction with his combination of hair wizardry and stooping elderly ladies in the back room. In a sight for sore eyes to behold Sandler drops trou at least three times, but so does Lannie Kazan. You Don't Mess With the Zohan knows how to work equal opportunity laughs. There a showdown with a terrorist played by John Turturro that once again (Iron Man) has a Middle Eastern bad guy without a beard. You know we're in Hollywood.