Zohi Sdom

To Harry: Maybe it was funnier for me, stuck here in the Chicago diaspora without knowing anything about the TV version. I truly enjoyed all the silly stuff for its own sake, & for the rest of the day, every time I snuggled up to hubby & sang the sugar-sweet "Ha Echad," we both cracked up.

Dov Navon and Tal Friedman (who were so funny together in "The Schwartz Dynasty") have wonderful chemistry again as "Mr and Mrs Lot;" sad-sack Navon providing the perfect counter-weight as Friedman flies ever-higher over the top. You're probably right in suggesting that I missed some of the "local jokes," but I think anyone with a Jewish funny-bone will know more than enough.

This is Sodom made to resemble the Monty Python movies. Of course, there's no Monty Python here, and that's probably the reason for the low ratings. The action takes place in the biblical city of Sodom and tells about Lot and his family. Of course, things don't go according to the biblical story and... I won't give away what happens. There are enough funny moments in the film, playing with Jewish and the history. There are a lot of jokes, especially for a person familiar with the biblical story. The graphics are average, the effects, as far as they exist, are elementary, but the charm of the film lies elsewhere.

I see that my rating is the highest of those who have written a review and that is normal. A comedy especially about religion can never achieve the ratings of an epic religious story repeating the beliefs of believers.

You know The Simpsons, so they made a movie. Was the movie better than the series? No way. This is the case here, but add lack of funds as a "bonus" and you receive a yawning experience. The movie cannot carry itself. It is just an expansion of a gag, usually no longer than 5 minutes. The movie was done for the summer, that is no shame, but it could have been written better. The main characters lack development, and the plot goes nowhere. But worst of all is the absolute lack of visual effects, so needed in a movie revolving around the destruction of Sodom. I say if you don't have the money to make the necessary visual effects, don't do the movie. Set it up in a place where there is no need for expensive effects. The foreign audience won't be able to watch this movie, because it is absolutely out of context for those unfamiliar with the TV series, which this movie is based on.The Israeli audience, such as myself, was allured to the theaters by the aggressive promotion and a high anticipation. Disappointment was the outcome, unfortunately.

'Zohi Sdom' is a feature film spin-off of 'Eretz Nehederet', Israel's most successful sketch comedy show for nearly a decade now; like in a National Lampoon movie, the cast of the TV show play various roles in a kinda-linear storyline.

There was a strange attempt to market 'Zohi Sdom' as a local version of Monty Python's Life of Brian. But other than the fact that it's set in biblical times, there's absolutely no similarity (other than the lead character's outfit). There's no real satire in 'Zohi Sdom'; a shame, because with a feature film the writers had the chance to make satire more biting and more universal than what they could afford to do on network television. Instead, they used that opportunity to have more sex jokes. The humor in 'Zohi Sdom' is a neverending series of gags, none of which have any bearing on the story, and most of which are anachronism gags in the level of The Flintstones (only with a lot more sex).

The movie does have a few chuckles, but the humor is so local as to never have any real impact anywhere but Israel in the early 21st century, which is a waste. It does actually have a pretty decent production, and some good actors - Assi Cohen's performance is deliciously hammy (he clearly realized how dumb the script was), and local legendary satirist/journalist Mordechai Kirschenbaum as Abraham is one of the movie's few saving graces. But ultimately it's a failed attempt, which owes all its success to marketing, and will - I believe and hope - disappear into anonymity.

'Zohi Sdom' which is translation means 'That's Sodom' deliberately places itself at the intersection between the very popular Israeli TV show 'Eretz Neederet' (Wonderful Country) and the big screen British Monty Python movies of historical and Biblical inspiration. The Israeli weekly shows are a local version of 'Saturday Night Live' bringing at their best some of the sharpest political, social and typological satire in a country that provides endless sources of humor and badly needs laughs to cope with a myriad of problems and conflicts that seem to be unsolvable other than in a comical fantasy. A permanent team of actors usually play all the roles in the show, in a collection of sketchers interleaved with permanent features, which were abandoned here, as was the newsreel format in the favor of the Biblical story parody. The British show was starting with the end of the 60s the source of inspiration of all other comical and satirical TV series all over the world (including the American SNL) and also pioneered the transcription to the wide screen with anthology successes that seldom have been equaled by other similar shows world-wide.

The too close following of the sources of inspiration may be the cause for which the big screen movie does not really work. Although the idea is quite cool (the TV anchor in the original show is a cynical God attracting patriarch Abraham into the trap of the Holy Contract while preparing the destruction of the sin city of Sodom) and the story works better that you would expect, there are many laughs during the screening, but none is hysterical. The TV stars do in the movie of the same that they do in the TV show, just the screen is bigger, and some of them do not look as well on the big screen as in the TV box (the otherwise beautiful and talented Alma Zack for example, or Orna Banai who gets a very insignificant role and little screen time). Best are the street scenes depicting the life in Sodom, and here the references to reality nowadays work well. However, the exaggerated respect for the Monty Python formula (including the insertion of music and dances) lead to a (maybe unintended) air of detachment and diminish the acuity of the social and political comment which make the original show be interesting for the majority of its viewers.

Released at the pick of the summer season 'Zohi Sdom' will certainly be a huge hit in Israel this year. I am less convinced that it will survive as an outstanding movie beyond this summer.