User reviews

If you're a fan of the first film it's at least worth a watch. While the film feels disjointed and situations are forced, it still has a few really funny moments.

Like many sequels it suffers from trying to have too many callbacks to the first film. A lot of jokes are shoehorned in for a quick laugh.

One of the problems is that in a weird way the film is almost too silly. The original felt way more grounded despite being totally absurd at the same time. The two elements contrasted very well and enhanced the humor.

I'm a bit disappointed that this is the best they could come up with after all this time but I can't say I wasn't entertained and that I didn't laugh.

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 2 is once again directed by Ben Stiller and we get to see Owen Wilson, Will Ferrell and Stiller himself return to their former roles, which is the one positive thing I can say about this movie. The cast is still good in their roles. Derek and Hansel are still the same characters and they play them with enthusiasm and Mugatu is well, OK. Sadly, everything else is pretty much garbage. The humor did not work at all and I just wanted it to be over. After 5 minutes of the movie I was just exhausted. This is a clear example that bigger does not mean better. I am a fan of the original Zoolander and one of the things I liked about that film is that it was just a small comedy with a relatively small budget and it evolved as a cult film. Zoolander 2 tries to be bigger than the first one and it just doesn't work. The first was pretty much about Mugatu trying to hypnotize a male model to assassinate the prime minister of Malaysia. That was the plot. Stupid? Definitely, but it worked in its own right. This one's about Derek trying to locate his son, while male models are being assassinated, which actually did not pay off at all in the end.

The movie is filled with unnecessary cameos and there can be too much of a good thing. It happened last year with the Entourage movie and now with this. Like I said, everything is bigger, the scope and even the effects, but what Stiller and his production crew don't get is that what made the original Zoolander so funny and good was that it seemed like they were taking a chance. It was kind of cheap and small but it worked.

The film doesn't work at all but I'll say this: At least it didn't feel cynical. To me it seemed like they were actually trying to make a good film and a funny one but it just did not work. The humor is mostly like people getting hit in the face and stuff like that. The movie also tries way too hard to recall on things from the original that were funny. As a fan of the original and as a moviegoer in general, I would not recommend Zoolander 2. I laughed 5 times in the whole movie. I counted them. And as a comedy that's the main problem with the movie: It was not funny.

1.5/10

The movie was produced. It had actors in it, who played roles that were in the film. It was edited by a team who pieced the audio and the picture together. The marketing team existed and said things in favor of it. It cost a certain amount to produce and make back a different amount of money. It was screened at theaters who showed the full length of the movie to anyone who would buy tickets. This all occurred because the executives were given the idea and then green-lit it to be produced. All in all, what we can say without a doubt is that Zoolander 2 is, and always will be, a film that exists.

Fifteen years after the original comes this unfunny sequel with plot and jokes written on the back of a cigarette packet.

The opening is promising enough with Justin Bieber as a series of pop singers have suddenly died with a certain look in their face. The look is associated with Derek Zoolander (Ben Stiller.)

In the meantime Derek has hit rock bottom when a building he designed collapsed killing his wife, he has lost his son to the authorities and hit rock bottom. However he is reunited with his old rival Hansel McDonald (Owen Wilson) also facially scarred in the building collapse and they are sent on a mission by the Interpol Fashion Police led by Valentina Valencia (Penélope Cruz) to find out who is killing these celebrities and why do they have one of Zoolander's signature look.

There are plenty of celebrity cameos, some fun poked at the fashion industry and Derek wanting to get his son back. The plot is a pot pourri of different story strands meshed together but it is never coherent. There is nothing really funny going on, it is absurd but the jokes consistently miss the mark.

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.

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.

i loved Zoolander, thought it was witty and funny, but Zoolander 2 was just rubbish. its just like Owen Wilson and Ben stiller decided to top up there bank balances with this unfunny boring movie.i lost an hour and a half of my life which ill never get back,i would have rather sat in a dentist chair getting my teeth pulled out. Same old jokes nothing original it relied too much on cameo appearances.its a shame because i was looking forward to this movie for the past 15 years. its just like Wilson and stiller didn't have any chemistry together,I've seen some horrible comedies in my life and i can honestly say this was the worst I've ever seen. all i hope is they don't go and make a third one. P.S If you really want to see this movie, wait till its on DVD.don't waste your money going to the cinema, you will regret it..

I made a registration here at IMDb just to say this. There is not a low enough mark for this pathetic excuse for a movie(-99/10). Garbage like this should be burned and forgotten or not even created in the first place. Not worth the watch. Not worth the money invested in it. I think who ever financed this would have done better by gambling it away than paying for this movie. Shallow and simplistic with cliché humor. I honestly think a brain damaged chimp could do better than this for a script. Also ... clearly there is some sort of censure script here that won't allow me to post even more nicer things. :) Do not watch this. WASTE OF TIME.

Zoolander 2 was just nonsense. I went to see this film last night with a couple of friends. After seeing the first movie i really enjoyed and and was excited to see what the new one would entail. after sitting down through about 25 Min's of the movie about 4 people walked out and didn't return. yet again about 20 Min's later another 8 people walked out. this came as quite a shock to me as i know the movie was bad but is it that bad that you would walk out?. I mean all the jokes were rebooted from the last movie which was OK but still just felt like they were too lazy to add any new ones. If you want to see this movie then go ahead but just be warned that you may most be disappointed.

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.

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.

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

I just want to start out by saying that I really enjoyed the movie. That's not to say that it didn't have it's problems, but it excelled in what mattered most: It was an excellent representation of what made the original so great. I think if this movie had come out 10-15 years ago, after the first movie, it would be receiving a slew of positive reviews. The humor is the same, the acting is the same, and the writing is the same. By that I mean the whole movie's pretty corny, with dumb one liners and intentionally bad acting, but when you get right down to it the original was too. What's currently popular changes extremely quickly, especially in the comedy world. With that in mind, the style of the movie feels dated. But anyone complaining about how it doesn't stand up to the original or that it's a bust is viewing the first Zoolander through heavy nostalgia glasses. Zoolander was always corny, the acting was always dumb, the writing corny, that's what made it great.

The negative reviews ignore what made Zoolander great in the first place. Don't get me wrong, I love the new style of comedies; those mixed with action like Kingsman, those more mainstream like 21 Jump Street, and the dry existential comedies like Grand Budapest Hotel, but if you can allow yourself to forgive a bit of corniness and just watch this movie with the same sensibilities you viewed the original, you'll be in for a lot of laughs. Like Derek and Hansel the style's a bit washed up, but at it's core the movie is still the best of it's kind. If you can leave behind your cynicism and doubt for a few hours, you'll find yourself laughing throughout the whole movie (with some parts hitting or missing a little more than others).

The bottom line is that if you still like the original for its humor rather than for nostalgic reasons, you'll like this movie too.

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.

Die-hard fans of the ridiculously good-looking Derek Zoolander and his so-hot-right-now supermodel buddy Hansel, brace yourself for disappointment. For this sequel is an almighty dud that tries its hardest to tarnish the hilariously silly awesomeness of the original. With more flat jokes and unintentional cringe-worthy moments than a typical Adam Sandler flick, this belated follow-up not only fails to recapture the idiotic glory of its predecessor but also struggles to muster more than the odd half-hearted giggle. Where the bone-headed jokes of the original were ripe for beer-assisted laughs, here they're stale, try-hardish and painfully unimaginative, relying too heavily on aping old gags instead of bringing Derek and Co. into 2016. Ben Stiller (as the eponymous male model), Owen Wilson (as the laconic stud Hansel) and Will Ferrell (as colourful megalomaniac Mugatu) commit 100% to their fan-favourite roles, yet their admirable efforts can't elevate the pedestrian script. There are cameos galore but majority of them are misplaced and forced – with a brief appearance by Sting offering the only glimmer of entertainment – whilst a bizarre CGI-face-replaced character is unfathomably pathetic and epitomises all that is wrong with this sequel. It doesn't quite reach the comedic lows of say Ted 2 or The Campaign, however Zoolander 2 is an embarrassingly weak movie that dissatisfies deeply.

This is such a poor film, I honestly can't remember ever seeing such a train wreck of a movie apart from jack and jill with Adam Sandler.

Seems that dropping a few A list celebraties into a poor effort doesn't make it any better. This really is god awful.