Contains Spoilers!! I don't know if this is really what the fashion world is like.....scary to think it's like this, but unfortunately, it's probably not too far from the truth.....anyway, this is a very funny parody of the clueless models and self-absorbed promoters. Ben Stiller plays Derek Zoolander, who has been the pre-eminent male model in the US for many years. He has recently been upstaged though by shaggy-maned Hansel (Owen Wilson), a hedonistic free spirit. Zoolander wonders about the importance of his profession in the wake of a tragic gasoline accident and his declining popularity. He begins to believe that he what he is doing is not very useful in the grand scheme of things. Go figure. So in this time of earnest self-reflection, he tries to re-discover his roots. First, he tries to go home-to coal mining country in southern New Jersey, only to find his father (uncredited Jon Voight) ashamed of him. He then considers starting a literacy program which he inadvertently stops by failing to realize that the model of his center is not the actual center. He spurns modeling jobs, but finds he has very few other abilities. So he is lured back into the world of modelling by an offer from the legendary designer Mugatu (Will Ferrell), who offers him the chance to headline his new line of clothes, Derelicte. This is quite an opportunity for Derek as he has never worked for him. The modeling line is the pretext through which Derek will be positioned to assassinate the prime minister of Malaysia, a reformist who plans on eliminating child labor. The fashion designers cabal are scared about this as it will cut into their profits, so Derek is recruited to assassinate him at the end of the show introducing Derelicte. He is selected as he is the dimmest and most malleable of all the models the designers can think of. He is trained to respond in Pavlovian style to the stimulus of a song, and in the final confrontation, his attempt to assassinate the Prime Minister is jeopardized when another song is played.
This really is a very funny film and is all meant in good fun. Stiller and his co-writer Drake Sather have put together some incredibly funny moments. I found the first 20 minutes or so to be largely non-eventful, though punctured by some very humorous moments. However from there, the film just gets funnier and funnier and I seemed not to stop laughing the last 45 minutes or hour.
One really sees the inanity of the models and designers and there are many celebrity cameos in the film. Everyone seems to enjoy poking fun at the fashion industry which they ironically support. It is very well written. At some times, especially in the first half an hour, there were lulls in the laughter, where it seemed the air was sucked out of the theater. However these lulls were usually replaced very quickly with uproarious howls of laughter. I found this film to be a very funny send-up of the fashion industry and very entertaining.
This really is a very funny film and is all meant in good fun. Stiller and his co-writer Drake Sather have put together some incredibly funny moments. I found the first 20 minutes or so to be largely non-eventful, though punctured by some very humorous moments. However from there, the film just gets funnier and funnier and I seemed not to stop laughing the last 45 minutes or hour.
One really sees the inanity of the models and designers and there are many celebrity cameos in the film. Everyone seems to enjoy poking fun at the fashion industry which they ironically support. It is very well written. At some times, especially in the first half an hour, there were lulls in the laughter, where it seemed the air was sucked out of the theater. However these lulls were usually replaced very quickly with uproarious howls of laughter. I found this film to be a very funny send-up of the fashion industry and very entertaining.