This weekend I took my dad to see You Don’t Mess With the Zohan (per his suggestion).

Even though I am a religious follower of SNL (even during the debatably bad years) this is only the second Adam Sandler movie I’ve ever seen (the other being The Wedding Singer), and certainly the first one I ever paid to see in the theater.

I kind of had a morbid curiousity about it because I am a fan of co-writers Judd Apatow and Robert Smigel.

And to my surprise I liked it! A LOT!

In fact I’m going to say it’s the most enjoyable experience I’ve had at the theater this year! Yes…I liked it more than Iron Man or Kung Fu Panda.

It was like my favorite scene in Zoolander (the gasoline fight) expanded into its own movie! Just total ridiculous-ness that had me smiling from start to finish. I can’t really justify any of it except to say that it was silly awesome. But surprisingly it also had some nice anti-racial optimism mixed in with its potentially offensive racist humor!

Related note: I just watched Big Trouble in Little China again for the first time since 1986. It wasn’t as crazy as I remember, but definitely put me in the right mindset to enjoy You Don’t Mess With the Zohan even more . Much like the recent over-the-top live action cartoon nature of Speed Racer, these are the kind of movies that a lot of people will try and convince you are stupid but can be viewed as genius on their own over the top terms. Movies that get bad reviews but are crazy fun to watch with the right group of friends. When I see a guy high-fiving a seagull, or John Turturro playing ping-pong with a hand grenade while wearing a speedo, I’m totally on board.