Now With Extra Hummus: ZOHAN review, Celtics!, and MORE

Celtics, baby! Man, what a couple of games we've had thus far in the NBA Finals. Game 1 got things off to a great start - if anything, it was simply refreshing to see two teams other than the Pistons or the Spurs go at it. Game 1 had that old-school intensity, that big-time feel. And once Paul Pierce went down with a knee injury, and then made his seemingly miraculous return to ignite the Celtics and lead them to victory - well, that was the stuff that NBA legend is made of.

Now, last night's Game 2. Wow - never have I seen a game where one team looked so good for so long, but then ultimately barely squeeked by with a victory. It was a game that may ultimately have left a bad taste in the mouths of many Celtics fans, despite the win. I mean, for most of last night's game, I was totally caught up in Celtic Pride. Leon Powe, for one, was having the game of his life, timed to perfection to coincide with ABC's inspirational halftime piece on him. On the court, Powe was running and gunning and "throwing it down" (as Bill Walton would say) like a man possessed, to the point where the notoriously skeptical Boston fans replaced their usual chants of "Beat LA" with uncharacteristically supportive cries of "Le-on Powe! Le-on Powe!". I mean dayum, give that man a Tommy Point! Otherwise, things were just really clicking on all levels for the C's. Ray Allen was looking great, hitting his shots and in the flow of the offense. Pierce was leading the team with energy and a fiery offense, and KG was rebounding and making plays. Even Rondo, whose play has been marked by occasional lapses in judgement, seemed in the zone - cutting to the basket, racking up the assists, and setting the tempo. The Celtics' defense was unstoppable, all but shutting down Kobe, and slowing down Gasol. With the Lakers' perimeter guys not having great shooting nights, Boston kept building and building on the lead until, by the early fourth quarter, we had what looked to be a blowout. All indications were that the Celtics were firing on all cylinders, eyes on the prize.

But then, you could start to see the signs ... The C's began looking all-too casual and content, even as Kobe was getting fired up and raising his game to superhuman levels. When James Posey was visibly joking around on the court, even as the Lakers were seriously cutting into the Celtics' lead, I knew that there might be trouble. But then, a sudden barrage of Lakers points did the unthinkable - closed the entire gap and nearly tied the game, with minutes to go.

The Celtics managed to hold on, but holy lord, they nearly managed to give their entire fanbase a collective heart attack. The combination of their lax play in the final minutes combined with the Lakers' sudden burst of offense almost caused one of the greatest comebacks / most surprising defeats in sports history, and had that happened it would have been an utter embarassment for the Celtics.

So the end result is something us Celtics fans can be pretty happy with - a 2-0 lead against a tough opponent. But I think we're all holding our breath for Game 3, because the Lakers surely have some momentum going into that one. I mean, man, the Celtics need to quit having this Jekyll and Hyde personality disorder. For some reason, they can't seem to find that killer instinct that allows them to get up and STAY up, to put the final nail in their opponents' coffin. But whatever that missing x-factor is, they are going to need it on Tuesday in La, because the Lakers will be gunning for that key home victory, and I expect them to come out with guns blazing.

- Meanwhile, a quick note on the world of politics, as this weekend finally saw Hillary concede and to some extent endorse Barack Obama. I really had mixed feelings about her speech on Saturday. There were times while watching it where I really did feel somewhat moved, and proud of what Hillary accomplished in her historic campaign. But when all was said and done, I was left with something of a bitter taste in my mouth. In the end, so much of Hillary's speech came off as self-congratulatory, and I'm not sure that she sent a strong enough message to her supporters with regards to supporting the Democracratic nominee in Barack Obama. This was a point she really should have hammered home, but mostly seemed to gloss over. I can only hope that in the coming weeks we'll see the Clintons coalesce around Obama. Not that they should try to overshadow him, but they should work to show a united front, and at the same time turn their attention to go on the attack against McCain. This is where Hillary can be so valuable - she can be the hatchet-woman against McCain and take the hardline where Obama might prefer to keep things more civil. In any case, I still feel a bit uneasy about how the whole concession was handled, but I'm curious to see how all of this plays out in the next several weeks, and can't wait to see Obama and McCain finally go head to head. Ultimately though, I am feeling pretty positive about Obama and feel like his momentum may only grow throughout the summer.

TV STUFF:

- Just so I can have one of those "I'm cooler than you" moments, I'd like to mention that I am currently watching JJ Abrams' new FOX series, FRINGE. This coming fall season is going to be interesting, as many of the networks are scrambling to get their new shows ready in the aftermath of the writer's strike ... so there may be fewer-than-usual high-profile, franchise shows. But if any show on the horizon has that bigtime, can't-miss feel, it's this one. More later.

- Okay, finally watched FEAR ITSELF. I love sci-fi/horror anthologies, so I was really pscyhed about this show. The other thing I like is that it's on network television. Yep, you heard me. The reason is that I am not a fan of the recent trend in horror towards all the gore / torture-porn style stuff. I would love to see a horror anthology that is more atmospheric and creepy than simply Rob Zombie-style mayhem. Now, the first episode of Fear Itself came off as a bit of a mixture - it started out creepy enough, but eventually devolved into a bit of a mess. And a lot of that had to do with a script that was positively filled with holes. It was a script that worked FAR more effectively when we had no real idea what was going on. All we knew was that four small-time crooks are on the run, and stumble into a remote village that seems populated only by three creepy sisters. Not bad. But as soon as the backstory began getting filled-out, things took a turn for the absurd, with a whole vampire mythology tossed in that made little sense. The look of the episode was pretty solid, but some spotty acting and a bland / nonsensical plot didn't do the show any favors. I love the premise of FEAR ITSELF, and the anthology format means that, for all we know, there could be some real gems mixed-in with the inevitable clunkers. But you'd think and expect that the show would try to start off with more of a bang than this decent, but ultimately pretty disposable episode, which was way more of a whimper.

My Grade: C

- If you look deep in the archives of this here blog you'll see that I've already talked a bit about CBS' SWINGTOWN. I feel like the long delay between having seen the pilot and the show actually debuting on-air may have dampened my enthusiasm a bit, but overall it is still a pretty impressivly high-quality show considering how little else there is in the way of scripted summer TV fare. I'm curious to see a second or third episode and watch whether the show builds momentum or else crashes and burns. But geez, how are this and Fear Itself, the networks' only new scripted shows, on at the same time on Thursday nights?

- Wow, I still need to watch the SMALLVILLE finale. Somehow my desire to check it out has just gotten smaller and smaller as the days go by, but sometime this week I should get around to it.

- Anyways, onto some movie stuff ... I saw a few flicks this weekend, but for now will focus on Adam Sandler's latest, with the other review coming at ya' soon. For now though, here you go ...

DON'T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN Review:

- You know, I admit that I can be as negative as anyone about Adam Sandler, but the truth is that the guy has more often than not made me laugh. Sure, he's had a string of subpar movies dating back, oh, about five or six years, give or take, but the guy can be funny when he's on his game. There was a time when his comedy albums were the bee's knees, when nobody elicited bigger laughs on SNL than the likes of Canteen Boy and Opera Man, when Billy Madison was the movie that middle school kids everywhere quoted like it was the comedy bible. I'm not trying to paint Adam Sandler as some comedic genius - we all know he's had his share of clunkers, and that he's coasted on the same man-boy act for years now - but at the same time, if a Sandler movie comes along that promises to have the same energy, random humor, and freshness that marked his early career, then as a comedy fan I can't help but be interested.

So when I heard some early reviews of ZOHAN that were surprisingly positive, I started to get a little bit excited. Might this actually be Sandler's best comedy in years? And then there was the whole Jew / Israeli factor. As a Jew, it's always semi-exciting to see a Jewish or Israeli hero in a big Hollywood production, so I was especially curious to see how Sandler would lampoon Israeli culture and also how he would shape the rare kickass Jew character to hit the big screen (once again: thank you Steven Spielberg for Munich - we owe you one!). It turns out that this may actually be the best part of Zohan. The character of Zohan is a pretty funny spoof of various Israeli stereotypes - from the macho exterior to the ridiculous love of Hummus and ultra-sweet soda drinks to the affinity for "disco" clubs. I wonder if some of this humor comes off as pretty strange to people not in the know, but I think that Sandler paints a broad enough picture that Zohan is funny regardless of one's knowledge of Israeli culture. I know for me, I spent many years being taught by Israeli teachers and working with Israeli camp counsellors, and there was definitely a lot of humor to be found in our cultural differences. I remember one teacher we had circa fifth grade, Mrs. Schmidt, who talked in broken English with a particularly strong Israeli accent. "Who is TALKING right nooow?!?" she would bellow whenever someone disrupted class, much to our amusement. So anyways, it may be that I'm part of a pretty narrow audience who sees the humor in Israeli culture, but I thought the movie really clicked when it kind of presented this strange other culture in similar fashion to, say, Borat. At the same time, it's always cool to see someone paint Israel as such a cool and fun-loving place, and you can see the affection that Sandler and co. have for everything that they happen to be poking fun at.

A lot of what works here is thanks to a script that was actually co-written with Sandler by Judd Apatow and Robert Smigel - two of the funniest guys around when it comes to broad humor. With those guys behind the scenes, you can be assured that you get plenty of totally off-the-wall humor and random craziness, and again, it's there that the movie really excels. In fact, the movie's opening, which kind of plays like a Naked Gun-esque riff on what an Israeli James Bond might be like, is really and truly hilarious. As Sandler as Zohan runs through the streets of Jerusalem, chasing down The Phantom (played to perfection by John Turturro), his Palestinan nemesis, there is a real energy and zing to the humor that had the entire audience doubling over in laughter.

Where things falter is later on, when the movie goes from being a zany spoof to being more along the lines of a typical Sandler comedy. That is to say that when the movie begins to infuse itself with typical Hollywood romantic subplots, and tries to put in all these important life lessons about being yourself and following your dreams, not to mention "why can't we all just get along?"-style commentary on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict ... well, that's when the movie can really get groan-inducing.

Really, the premise of an Israeli version of Austin Powers is a lot funnier than the worn-out idea of the super-tough guy who really just wants to be a ___ (insert goofy profession here) __. So things definitely slow down a bit once the former unstoppable Mossad agent Zohan becomes a hairdresser in New York, predictably falls in love with his Palestinian boss, and has to take on a greedy landlord who is trying to oust the local ethnic tennants from his property so he can build some new super-mall on the premises. It's as if the idea of a satirical movie about an Israeli super-agent was too out-there, so to balance the scales, every weak-ass Hollywood comedy cliche was thrown into the mix for good measure.

That being said, there is some well-done humor that comes out of all of this. For one thing, there's the running joke about Zohan's tendency to follow his haircuts with some sexy-time. Since most of his clients are old bubbies, to use the Jewish vernacular, this is pretty darn funny, at least for a while. Similarly, there are some very funny scenes that come from the supporting cast of local transplanted Israelis and Palestinians. On one side of the NYC street, a bunch of Israelis work in an electronics store, mercillesly confusing their customers into thinking they are getting great deals as part of a never-ending going-out-of-business sale. Meanwhile, Rob Schneider draws some laughs as part of a group of inept, wannabe terrorists who discover that the local hairdresser is actually the presumed-dead Zohan, and look to cash in (by, among other things, calling the "Hizbollah Hotline" - hahaha ...).

On the other hand, sports announcer Michael Buffer, of all people, was somehow cast as the lead villain of the film, and he is predictably pretty weak. Sure, it's briefly amusing to hear him, in his well-known voice, talk about his hot wife's perfect proportions, but geez guys, Michael Buffer? Couldn't they have gotten a slightly better actor? (Rob Lowe was busy?) Kevin Nealon has a pretty useless role here as a neighborhood friend of Zohan's, and Nick Swardson (sp?) gets in a few funny moments as a loser who Zohan takes under his wing, but he is never quite used to his full potential.

Overall though, I give ZOHAN credit for being Sandler's funniest flick in a while. I really enjoyed it when it dared to just go nuts and try some really random and zany humor - including some very funny physical comedy. The movie has some pretty crazy action scenes, and again, this is often where it works best - with Sandler as a kind of even more out-there version of Austin Powers with a mediterranean twist. Speaking of whom, Zohan features a pretty memorable performance from Sandler, where, like him or not, you have to give him credit for creating a fun character who is consistently pretty amusing to watch. Definitely worth a look for comedy fans who dare to mess with the Zohan.

My Grade: B

Alright - check back soon for a review of KUNG-FU PANDA. For now, Shalom!