'You Don't Mess With the Zohan,' (PG-13 and Unrated Versions): Adam Sandler had it right with this title -- "You Don't Mess With the Zohan" -- because the movie is a big mess. A mixture of broad comedy, crude jokes and serious messages about peace in the Middle East, the movie can't quite decide what it wants to be and how it's supposed to get its point across.

Perhaps the best way to describe it is a wasted opportunity, considering the movie's amazing trio screenwriters -- Sandler, Judd Apatow ("The 40-Year-Old Virgin," "Knocked Up" and "Superbad") and Robert Smigel (the voice and creator of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and "Saturday Night Live's" "TV Funhouse").

Sandler plays Zohan Dvir, an Israeli commando, who, after years of battling his arch-enemy, The Phantom (John Turturro), in the Israeli-Palestine conflict, decides to fake his death in order to move to the United States to pursue his dream of becoming a hairstylist.

Leading people to believe in his new identity of Scrappy Coco (taken from two dogs he met while smuggling himself in cargo on a flight from Israel to New York), Zohan soon rises to the top of the hairstyling world by cutting the hair of, and servicing in a more physical sense, his older lady clientele. But he also suffers a crisis of conscience when he falls in love with his style parlor boss, Dalia (Emmanuelle Chirqui), who happens to be Palestinian – a person who might not take kindly to the truth that he's Israeli.

It's not often you see a commando soldier wanting be a hairstylist in a movie, so you have to give "You Don't Mess With the Zohan" points for its efforts to be unique. It also has a strong stable of supporting performers, which includes Sandler movie regular Nick Swardson as a nerd who takes Zohan in after he defends him on the street, Lainie Kazan as Swardson's voluptuous mother and Rob Schneider as a Palestinian cab driver who recognizes his former enemy.

It's a shame the hair dryer wasn't firing on all cylinders, because "Zohan" has so much comic potential. But instead, the humor, often crude, wears out its welcome fast, and takes a nosedive into repeated gags that eventually become more annoying than funny. Complicating matters is the film's serious turn about the Middle East conflict, which, in contrast with the comedy approach, is so stark that it comes off as preachy.

Now a serious message in a comedy is all well and good if it's done in a subtle manner, especially one with a message as important as peace. It's hard, though to make that leap with"Zohan," where Sandler goes from catching a fish in his butt-crack to having sex with senior citizens, to proclaiming his revelation that everybody can get along.

If you want to see a film that properly melds comedic and serious sensibilities, then try renting Sandler's under-appreciated comedy "Click." In "Zohan," much like Sandler's previous comedy, "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry," the comedy-drama switcheroo does nothing more than alienates its audience.

DVD Features: The two-disc unrated and extended version includes commentary by Sandler, Smigel, and co-stars Rob Schneider and Nick Swardson, with additional commentary by director Dennis Dugan, deleted scenes, production featurettes and more. (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)

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