This isn’t a great comedy, but I found myself liking it more than I probably should have. It could have been merely really really stupid, but I actually did laugh out loud quite a bit.

There was one moment that was almost true genius. Zoolander and his dad are arguing and on TV an advertisement comes on featuring Zoolander underwater. The father’s line was “I just thank God that your mother never lived to see you become a mermaid”. “Mer-man”, Zoolander replies back. Maybe you have to see it, but somehow when people start making a list of the ten single funniest lines of the decade, that one will probably make the list.

This comedy is about a very dumb male model (Ben Stiller), who is considered to be the top male model in the world. He has won the award several years in a row, but now a new model (Owen Wilson) arrives and takes the crown away from him. However, instead of just making gags about the world of models like “Best of Show” did with dog shows, this movie actually has a plot. A very strange plot, but this just isn’t a ‘life in the world of male models’ series of gags. There is a concept in the movie that seems to have had so much thought behind it, that I wouldn't be surprised if this was something that Ben Stiller has been pondering for years, and decided to base the movie on it. It is said in the film that male models are commonly used as world's assassins because they have access to everywhere, are in good shape, and are incredibly stupid. This makes them the perfect ‘Oswald’ for world assassinations.

Zoolander’s career has peaked, and before he starts the inevitable decline is chosen to become the next brainwashed assassin to stop a threat against the fashion industry. The plot involves killing the President of Malaysia because this newly elected leader wants to stop the cheap child labor that makes American fashion so profitable. This insertion of reality is the most controversial things about the film (not the removal of the World Trade Center from background shots right after 9-11). Should it have been another fictional country? Probably. Ebert despised the movie almost on this basis alone. I won’t go that far, but he is right when he asks us to imagine how we would like to see a Malaysian film about an assassin trying to kill our real President for some sort of trade issue. Especially in a comedy.

Ben Stiller is the only major comic star we have that didn’t come from stand up comedy. Nor is he really a great actor, who fell into comedic roles. He tried to be a writer for Saturday Night Live, made a short film, but never got hired full time. But he did have a short-lived series that was like SNL with a cast of characters who performed in a series of sketches. This film sometimes feels like a sketch dragged out too long, but it still was one of the funnier films I saw in 2001.

Many of the funny scenes start off predictable and more than just a little stupid, but then get you to laugh anyway. I really did chuckle when a music video slowly turns into the male models getting into a gasoline fight. And then I laughed even more so when we get a first person shot of debris knocking out Zoolander.

I felt the same progression from obvious, to stupid, to hysterical in another scene where two of the dumber models cannot figure out how to work a computer and in the finale accompanied by the music “Thus Spoke Zarutha” from “2001”. One model picks up a large bone as if to smash the computer, and the other model says “Don't, or we are no better than the computer is”.

One other moment of sheer comedic genius takes place during an incredibly funny mind control video. Somewhere in the middle of a montage of brainwashing images, the mind controlling guy briefly interjects “Obey my dog!”. I don’t exactly know why he said it, but I found it hysterical.

Another funny on going joke is that there is a reference that Zoolander, although complimented for having several admired ‘looks’, really only has one 'look'. A great sight gag was as his calendar has the months flipped through it was clear that he has the same expression in every picture.

So many people make cameo appearances in “Zoolander” that I’m very impressed. These are primarily by actors and models, but it is such a cross section of people that I’m wondering what encouraged them to put in the effort. There are cameos from the likes of Jon Voight, Cuba Gooding Jr., Gary Shandling, Natalie Portman, Winona Ryder, David Bowie, Fabio, David Duchovny, and Billy Zane, just to name a few. Some have a few lines, and play themselves. Others are doing character roles.

David Duchoveny plays a hand model who doesn't fit the usual male model profile. “Hand models are a different breed entirely”, he explains. He is a model who escaped the cursed destiny of most male models and is trying to warn Zoolander that he is next. Even he quickly gets frustrated by Zoolander’s stupidity.

Ben Stiller’s co-star, and primary competition for Zoolander, in the movie is played by Owen Wilson. I first noticed him in “Armageddon” and always get a smile when I see him. He really helped to make this movie. Although not on screen one half the time of Stiller, I could see the movie failing without his presence. His character in the film is named “Hansel”, and Wilson plays him to perfection. He is supposed to be a funny, more laid back, and 'cooler' model than Zoolander. Unlike Zoolander, he doesn't seem to be trying very hard at being a model, and I felt a little bit of a Mozart / Salieri relationship being set up here. Actually I don't want to compliment the film too much by comparing this film to “Amadeus”.

One odd thing about the movie is that it contains lots and lots of 80's music, and I don't know why. It clearly takes place in the present time, but you never hear any song made before 1989. Another thing that may grate on some people is just how dumb the lead characters are. It is actually more frustrating than it is funny, unlike the lead characters from “Dumb & Dumber”. Both Zoolander and Hansel are stupid, and seem to only get stupider as the movie goes along.

Another item this film will be famous for is the fact that it was the first film shown after the September 11th bombings that featured the now destroyed World Trade Center. The producers of the film did a last minute digital editing trick to remove them from all shots of the New York skyline. Seeing this in the theaters less than a month after 9-11 was a little odd, but if I had not heard so much press about their removal in the film, it may not have meant much to me since there weren’t any scenes that would have focused on them or taken place inside of them. Hearing about the digital removal made me look for the WTC in one or two scenes, but it wasn’t a big deal. It was probably appropriate since it might be hard to laugh at the jokes in the foreground while seeing them in the background.

This also reminded me of how sorry I felt for Stiller while going around promoting this film. He was on the David Letterman Show, and the first guest of the evening was the new head of the New York Fire Department who spoke about all the fireman killed in the line of duty and had pictures of all of their faces, etc.. After he left, David Letterman has to say something like, and now here is Ben Stiller promoting his new comedy. I can’t believe he even came out on stage after the previous very emotionally charged guest.

Now that the film is on video, maybe enough time has passed that people will be able to watch a film that takes place in New York City and not be reminded of the destruction. I hope so, because I think this movie will be well received by the general masses who tend to like silly comedies about incredibly dumb people.

Maybe this film doesn’t deserve high compliments, but in such a bad year for comedies, this was one of the funniest films I saw.

Note: On my own web page, I only gave this film 3½ stars.



Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older