Zoolander 2

Here is the thing - too many times I have made a mistake to watch a film only based on it's IMDb rating or reviews.

This crucial piece of information that is missing here is:

• who is rating/reviewing the title?

• which other films did the one love/hate?

That is why I want to give some information about me before giving my two cents on Zoolander2:

• 35 year old male

• as a kid I loved Mel Brooks films, Hot Shots Franchise, Jim Carrey Works...

• I love brother Farrelly comedies

• I enjoy most of Ben Stiller works (Cable Guy, Tropic Thunder...)

Now, with this information in mind, we can proceed:

In spite of bad ratings I chose to watch this one, and I didn't regret it. It is a well crafted over the top comedy with some clever and satirical gags.

Because of the fact that it's over the top - from start to finish, I don't have any problems with the story.

I guess it just depends on the mindset and maybe the mood. Both me and my wife had many laughs during the whole film.

Was it predictable? Yes. But I wasn't expecting it to be any different :)

I hope this helps.

Peace out.

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.

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.

I wonder why this movie gets such a low ratings here on IMDb. I don't get why people watch those kind of movies if they don't get the humor of it. I will agree that it's ridiculous humor, but it is funny in it's way. I had more laughs then in most other comedies and that says enough to me about the quality of Zoolander 2. I'm not going to compare it with the first one because it doesn't matter. The story itself might be completely ridiculous but then again for this movie to work it has to be completely ridiculous. It's more about the mimics, the clothing, and the way of acting. I thought the whole cast did a very good job. Ben Stiller is just a funny guy. Everything he does is just funny. As well as Will Ferrell. But if you in general don't like those actors you should just not watch their movies because you know what you get with them. To all the haters I can just say stop watching their movies because it will always be the same humor. Ridiculous or not, it doesn't matter, because for some people it's entertainment and it makes them have a good time laughing. To me it does it every time and I hope they will make more movies like this one.

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.