***SPOILERS***
The past 15 years were not kind to Derek Zoolander. After opening “The Derek Zoolander Center for Kids Who Can’t Read Good and Who Wanna Learn to Do Other Stuff Good Too,” Derek Zoolander lost his wife, Matilda, in a freak accident, and permanently scarred Hansel McDonald (played by Owen Wilson), who then retired from the fashion industry. Derek and Derek Jr. were soon separated after neighbors witnessed an angry Derek Sr. fail to feed his child. As a result, Derek Zoolander left to the mountains to become a “hermit crab.”
This all happened within the first ten minutes of the film. Viewers sped through Derek’s life and soon watched him fail on his “come-back” runway walk.
There were some moments that were laugh-out-loud funny. For example, the infamous Mugatu (played by Will Ferrell) roasted fashion icons Tommy Hilfiger and Marc Jacobs by saying, “Newest line by Tommy Hilfiger, brought to you by white privilege,” and “Marc, by Marc Jacobs.”
There were plenty of celebrity cameos; Katy Perry, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Ariana Grande all made appearances. Benedict Cumberbatch showed up as a model, All, who was “all.” All was neither male nor female, and Hansel and Derek got in their own quips for this.
One of the best moments of the film was when Derek Zoolander accepted Derek Jr. for being “fat.” When Zoolander first met his son after years of separation, he was appalled to discover that his son was overweight. There was a moment when Derek questioned accepting his son, and asked his dead wife for advice. In the end, both Dereks were too dissimilar, and Derek Jr. asked Derek Sr. to never meet him again. When both Dereks bonded to fight Mugatu, Derek Sr. acknowledged his son. After Mugatu called Derek Jr. fat, Derek Sr. replied with, “He’s not fat. He’s plus-sized.” At the end of the film, both Dereks and Hansel graced the runway, while Derek Jr. started to date Malala.
“Zoolander” was a great stand-alone comedy and “Zoolander 2” was something I’d rather forget. Though the movie had its moments, such as the cute love story between Ben Stiller’s and Penelope Cruz’s characters, those just weren’t enough. All in all, the movie was “meh.”
[star rating=”3.5″]
