Zoolander 2 - Review

Several pop stars are dying all over the world, each sporting the "Blue Steel" look and sharing their death face online before dying. The fashion division of Interpol, led by Penélope Cruz's Valentina Valencia, seeks the guidance of its originator, Derek Zoolander, who just happens to be rustled out of his self-exile by best bud Billy Zane and heading off to Rome. ZOOLANDER 2 is pathetically shallow in its convictions as a long gestated comedy sequel to the 2001 cult hit, severely lacking any chances for laughs and overflowing with pointless cameos and atrocious writing. Director/Actor/Producer/Co-Writer Ben Stiller greatly fails in each of his areas of film production, delivering a near copy of the original film yet muddling it up thoroughly by its main creative decision to largely be a straight-face adventure flick in the vein of THE DA VINCI CODE. He even falters with simple acts like continuity, as in the case when Ariana Grande, decked out in some sexy S&M gear, keeps appearing and disappearing in a notably unfunny group scene. While the rest of the cast is wasted beyond belief, which goes double for Kristen Wiig's unnecessary femme fatale, Stiller keeps the focus squarely on his woeful acting routines as the superficial super model. All of the humor is completely flat, out of date, and/or riddled with anachronisms; in the case of the latter, when a certain someone talks about how he created a NYC disaster back in 2001 (um...), he did it in time before 2 Broke Girls aired, a full decade before it premiered on television. Following the film's plot is an unbearable experience, as you get to witness subplots that are swiftly dropped, questions that are never answered (was Billy Zane evil?), a villainous scheme be developed only to then try and collapse upon itself for no explainable reason, and the lofty expectation for a high profile character to just enter into the damn picture already and deliver his "Vince McMahon is The Higher Power" promo already so we can all move on. No wonder America didn't give this a look, as there were and still are more flashy fare being presented throughout 2016 in the cinema.


FINAL REVIEW: 1 / 5