Film Review: Zoolander No. 2 is a Ridiculously Funny, Stupid Mess

By Editor February 12, 2016 11:01

By Anthony Hernandez

The big question on a lot of minds is: “why was this sequel even made?” It wasn’t really necessary. It wasn’t really expected. The first film was funny in its own right – dumb, glossy, and well-intentioned; much like the titular character. This sequel is dumber, glossy-er, and – well, not much more than it intended to be: a laugh-fest of stupidly funny sight gags with an over-plotted, under-developed script, and more celebrity cameos than you can shake a tiny cell phone at…

…but that’s kind of the point.

If you’re a fan of the original, Zoolander No. 2 will tickle your funny bone and have you rolling in your theater seat (when you’re not rolling your eyes at how truly absurd this film is).

Opening with one of the greatest celebrity death scenes of all time (yes!), Zoolander No. 2 amps up the ridiculous factor with a plot that could only be described — as Derek’s agent, Maury Ballstein, would say: “…crap wrapped in tinfoil, given fishhooks and sold as earrings.” Maury (Jerry Stiller) testified against nefarious criminal mastermind Jacobim Mugatu (Will Ferrell) and entered witness protection. We then learn that, just days after opening, the Derek Zoolander Center for Kids Who Can’t Read Good and Who Wanna Learn to Do Other Stuff Good Too collapsed into the East River, killing Derek’s wife, Matilda (Christina Taylor), “maiming” Hansel (Owen Wilson), and forcing Derek into exile, proving himself to be an incapable father, thereby losing custody of his son, Derek Jr.

Now in 2016, Derek and Hansel are drawn out of their respective personal exiles for a fashion show in Rome by none other than the world renown Alexanya Atoz, played by a barely recognizable Kristen Wiig. Alexanya is a premier fashion designer and walking plastic surgery enthusiast with a face that can only be described as collagen experimentation gone wrong. She is the funniest character, by far. Her English isn’t just broken, it is a hilariously mangled, multisyllabic mess.

We then find out that the underlying plot of is that within Derek’s son pumps the blood of Steve – the first model (who was there in the Garden of Eden… get it?) – which just so happens to be the proverbial Fountain of Youth, with powers to make anyone who drinks Derek Jr’s blood perpetually young. Soon thereafter, Derek – with his Interpol sidekick played by (an unfortunately unfunny, yet well-meaning) Penelope Cruz, unwittingly aids in Mugatu’s escape from Fashion Prison; and then from there the frivolity is amped up to 11.

It’s the strange chemistry between Wigg and Ferrell that gets the most laughs here. Unfortunately, Stiller’s Zoolander has gone from being a mindless, well-meaning oaf, to kind of a jerk. That, in conjunction with an overly-bloated plot, too many cameos (many receiving a shrug rather than a laugh), comedic timing that seems stuck somewhere between 2001 and 2003, and a lack of coherence that sometimes borders on the absurd – Zoolander No. 2 falls into that category of “movies that probably shouldn’t have been made.”

It’s not a great movie. It’s not even really a good movie… but it sure as hell is funny – if that’s your kind of humor. I recommended Zoolander No. 2 for the laughs, and not much else.