Zoolander 2

Some 15 years since the original, and fabulous, Zoolander I've been looking forward to this sequel for some time. Though not officially released until the 12th Feb it was being shown this weekend so I took a chance to get in early and see if it lived up to my expectations… Well I think it did, it's great to see Derek Zoolander (Ben Stiller) and Hansel (Owen Wilson) back on screen and they hardly look a day older than 15 years ago. Just as crazy, stupid and insane as the original film it's hard to pick many holes in the action or storyline, other than overplaying the "models are stupid" card (which, nevertheless, is still funny) and the crazy number of cameos in the film (lost count, and didn't actually recognise them all) with the best cameo being Benedict Cumberbatch, brilliant.

There were plenty of proper laugh out loud moments, with possibly my favourite scene being the first one with Mugatu (Will Ferrell) so keep an eye out for that one. One of the scenes has been used in the trailer (which I've seen several times) and I still laughed again, it's that funny.

With that said, on the whole the film isn't up there with the best. It's a superb sequel to what has become a bit of a cult film and maybe with time this will get there too. If you loved the first, you'll love this but if you've not seen the first then I'd suggest you check it out before spending your money cause it may not be your bag.

The original "Zoolander" accumulated a moderate US box office gross of $45,172,250. It developed a life of its own on video and DVD, becoming a cult hit. The sequel has finally arrived 15 years later. Was it worth the wait? Did it have to be made? The answer to both questions is a resounding 'no'. There's just not enough story material to stretch the length to over 100 minutes. It's a flimsy story with many unfunny scenes but there's still enough amusing moments to justify your time and money.

Derek Zoolander (Ben Stiller) has gone into seclusion after the death of his wife (Christine Taylor) from a building that he constructed for children with poor reading skills. His son, Derek Jr (Cyrus Arnold) has been sent to an orphanage in Rome because Derek has been deemed as an unfit father. Meanwhile, Derek's main rival in the modeling world, Hansel (Owen Wilson), has also retired due to a facial injury suffered during the same building collapse that killed Derek's wife. He has been living in a hippie commune which also includes Kiefer Sutherland playing himself. They are brought together when famous celebrities like Justin Bieber have been killed, but before taking their last breath, they post a Derek Zoolander 'Blue Steel' look on social media. Interpol agent Valentina (Penélope Cruz) recognizes that look and calls upon Derek and Hansel to investigate just who is killing all those celebrities. At the same time, Derek tries to reconnect with his son when his investigations take him to the same city where is now residing.

If you haven't seen the original "Zoolander", you could still see the sequel as the opening scenes are a news montage of what has happened to Derek since being the king of the modeling world. You get a fair idea of who Derek Zoolander is and what his accomplishments were from this montage. If you are familiar with the personality of Derek then you'll know that he is a child trapped in a man's body. And that's still the case 15 years later. He mangles the English language and finds himself in situations that test his limited intelligence. Stiller plays him to perfection and he maintains an excellent rapport with Wilson who delights in his role as Stiller's rival. Other cast members don't fare as well. Ferrell reprises his role as Mugatu from the first film and he is in overacting mode along with Wiig who is Mugatu's co- conspirator. Cruz adds sex appeal and sauciness in her sidekick role to Derek.

If you like to play the game of spot the celebrities, you will be in for a fun time. Just about every major fashion designer has a cameo along with celebrity appearances from the movie and music world including Benedict Cumberbatch (as an androgynous supermodel!), Susan Sarandon, Milla Jovovich, Macauley Culkin, Billy Zane, Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Sting, Kate Moss...the list goes on! It probably has the most cameos ever in a movie.

The main problem with this film lies in the story. There's not much to work with and it doesn't help when a lot of the scenes linger to try to eke out any laughs from the jokes. When the actors are trying this hard to make viewers laugh without succeeding then you know that the original cult status should have remained untouched as the sequel might damage its credibility. What saves this film is the likability factor of both Derek and Hansel, plus the way they react together.

Many scenes of Rome were shot in an Italian studio and it's remarkable how real Rome looks. Some of the action stunts also add to the visual appeal of the movie.

I wasn't a huge fan of the original "Zoolander" but it was still better than this offering. Sometimes it's best to retire much-loved movie characters to preserve their 'dignity' and in this sequel, we have been provided with a classic example of this theory. http://mlaimlai2.wix.com/magical-movie-review

It is 15 years since we last caught up with male model Derek Zoolander and his friend and fellow-model Hansel. Since then both their lives have taken turns for the worst. Zoolander's School for Kids Who Can't Read Good literally collapsed, killing his wife and injuring Hansel. Zoolander's son was then taken away from him by Social Services. Both Zoolander and Hansel are now has-beens, living lives of recluses. However, several pop stars have recently been murdered. Interpol are investigating and discover that they all had a Zoolander-invented look on their face when they died. Zoolander and Hansel are called in to help solve the murders.

The original Zoolander was quirkily funny and reasonably clever, despite some of the hijinks. Most of all, it made fun of the pretentiousness and undeserved self-importance of the fashion industry.

Zoolander II has flashes of this, but generally resorts to a zany plot and pop-cultural references for its humour. Not as clever or funny as the first, but still entertaining, nevertheless.

It is an uneven ride though. While there are some great in-jokes, self-parodying cameos and clever skits, some scenes and "jokes" are just plain stupid.

On the whole, entertaining. While not profound or anywhere near being a comedy classic, it is never dull, doesn't take itself too seriously and doesn't overstay its welcome.

I really liked the original Zoolander, with its unique brand of cleverly dumb comedy, but I never thought we needed a sequel. Nonetheless, when Zoolander 2 was announced, I was looking forward to it, and with a couple of pretty entertaining trailers, I thought that this wasn't going to be one of those awful comedy sequels.

Oh, how wrong I was.

I'm sorry to say that Zoolander 2 is easily one of the worst comedy sequels I've ever seen. Apart from a couple of chuckles, it failed to make me laugh on a consistent basis, further angering me as it got more and more boring and irritating as the film unfolded. Its story makes absolutely no sense, and the narrative gets completely tangled up on numerous occasions, destroying any enjoyment you could have found in the film away from the terrible comedy, making this a thoroughly dull and difficult movie to watch from start to finish.

The main thing we have to talk about here is how bad the comedy is. All comedy sequels are tough to do, but normally, by keeping everything pretty similar, you can get an entertaining movie. The problem with Zoolander 2 is that it completely fails to deliver the brilliant sense of humour that first film had.

The original Zoolander wasn't a dumb film, in fact it was a really clever comedy that centred around a dumb character. The jokes were well-written, and the majority of the humour stemmed from those main characters. In the sequel, however, the comedy is just dumb. Relying WAY too heavily on celebrity cameos for cheap laughs, and just completely underwhelming gags on a constant basis, there's very little to laugh at.

I will admit I chuckled a couple of times. Benedict Cumberbatch's slightly offensive transgender character that you've seen in the trailers was pretty good, and a couple of the jokes they did satirising modern social media and hipsters etc. weren't too bad either.

Apart from that, this is a hugely unfunny film, and I'd say about 95% of all of the jokes completely miss the mark. Sometimes, when there was a joke, it would take me a few seconds to realise that it was actually meant to be funny. And when I say sometimes, I mean pretty much all the time, which shows you just how unfunny this is.

Now, that's the main objective of a comedy: to make you laugh. But, seeing as that failed completely in Zoolander 2, maybe the story could have salvaged something.

No, it didn't. The plot here is absolutely atrocious. Whilst the first film had a clear focus, Derek being brainwashed to kill the Malaysian Prime Minister, everything in the sequel is all over the place. At some points they're looking for the assassins, sometimes they're just trying to do fashion, sometimes they want to find Derek's son, and all sorts of other rubbish that made this a hugely messy film that failed to interest or entertain me at any point.

Now, I've been really harsh to Zoolander 2 here, and although I think it definitely deserves heavy criticism, there is one thing that I do have to praise, and that's Ben Stiller's directing. Much like the first film, Zoolander 2 looks very stylish, just like the world of high fashion should be. Every scene is fantastically put together, the action sequences are brilliantly choreographed, and it is generally a very nice film to look at.

That's it for positives, though. Overall, Zoolander 2 was a painfully disappointing film. It completely fails to live up to its predecessor, but most importantly, it almost never makes you laugh, and with such a huge amount of jokes coming your way, it becomes quickly annoying and horrendously dull to watch.

Zoolander (the original) was such a quirky parody of the fashion world. It carried a genuine tongue-in-cheek mockery of the entire industry and blew up 'their' ridiculousness to the max.

Lets begin with the positive: Kristen Wiig as Alexanya Atoz is pure performance art. The styling and make-up is so on point. But even more impressive is her wicked accent. It was, hands down, the funniest aspect of the film. Every time she opened her mouth I died. Could not contain the laughter. Her dedication to that character's weird speech pattern was super impressive. The cameo performances were a delight in the original and that has managed to follow through effortlessly. More cameo's that are more irreverent and more outrageous than before. The cameos at the end are truly worth while. The few in the beginning are forgettable. The actors conviction. I cannot fault any of the actors for not putting in their best, assuming the material to work with was fairly weak to begin with, I found the actors conviction to the characters totally playful.

So what went wrong with this second installation? Quite honestly, it was the shift away from a parody of the fashion industry, moving towards a Wayans' brothers spoof of a spy film with a dash of espionage. And like any Wayans brother movie one can expect cheap visual gags to fill up free space - there's some really great lines in the film though (really great). Who thought that Zoolander 2 should shoot for the stars at 1h45m? The original barely hit 1h30m, that film had all that set-up and introduction to the world of Zoolander. Part Deux could have dived right in but instead played splish-splash with some really juvenile humour.

Yes, Zoolander is an idiot. He's an annoying character. A total self involved tool. But they save him from being despised by allowing the audience to laugh at him. Allowing us to point our fingers at his ridiculous face and laugh till the tears run. But that playground fun time is now over, forced to laugh with him. There's very few sidebar comments that grab our attention and remind us, 'Oh, Zoolander is a douche', not just an idiot.

Other than that Zoolander 2 is a totally run-of-the-mill comedy, nothing too special or outrages, nothing too memorable our outstanding. Fun but not overwhelmingly so.