The Rice Thresher, Vol. 89, No. 8, Ed. 1 Friday, October 5, 2001 Page: 14 of 24
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14
THE RICE THRESHER ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2001
i will ao POMPLH o\ vol R m ii
Stiller hits runways as 'Zoolander' in fun, dumb comedy
Natasha Alvandi
THRESHER STAFF
There's a fine line when it comes
to dumbed-down comedies. Some
can be so stupid the audience wants
to burn the theater down out of sheer
frustration. Others are so stupid they
actually end up being remotely en-
tertaining. Luckily, Zoolanderfits the
second category.
'zoolander'
Rating: -kit*
(out of five)
In theaters.
Based on Ben Stiller's skit for the
VH1 Fashion Awards, Zoolander
(written and directed by Stiller, who
plays the title role) is the story of a
male supermodel who has reached a
career low. After winning the Male
Model of the Year award three years
in a row, he loses to the oh-so-hot
Hansel (played by Owen Wilson,
Shanghai Noon).
Poor Zoolander is such a dumb
guy. After his loss, he keeps looking
into reflective surfaces such as
spoons and puddles of water and
asking, "Who am I?"
His friends aren't the brightest
crayons in the box either. They eas-
ily cheer Zoolander up with the
thought of an orange-mocha
Frappuccino and a joyride around
town.
During said joyride, the dumbo
male models stop at a gas station for
a fill-up. One of them (they're all
basically the same) begins a water-
flinging fight with the soapy water
from the window washing station.
While Stiller is off pondering his
identity, the other two boys decide
to respond to the soapy water by
-v
MELINDA SUE GORDON/PARAMOUNT PICTURES
With the help of castmate Owen Wilson (left) as Hansel, Ben Stiller fights fashion industry evil as Zoolander.
pumping gasoline on each other.
They frolic until one of them stu-
pidly lights a cigarette.
Needless to say, this movie isn't
for the indie-film enthusiast who
enjoys character analysis and a plot
with at least a few twists and turns.
Zoolander is pretty straightforward.
Zoolander's stupid and you know
he's going to do stupid things, but
somehow he'll end up all right in the
end.
Of course, a movie about a dumb
male model couldn't be complete
without a love interest. This comes
in the form of Time reporter Matilda
Jeffries (played by Stiller's wife
Christine Taylor, The Brady Bunch
Movie).
It's interesting to note that a mem-
ber of Stiller's family pops up in ev-
ery scene. His dad Jerry Stiller plays
the sleazy agent Maury Ballstein
while his mom, Anne O'Meara,
throws an egg on the evil villain
Mugatu (Will Ferrell of "Saturday
Night Live" fame).
The plot, although quite flat and
predictable, is a spoof on the classic
John Frankenheimer movie The
Manchurian Candidate. Since poor
Zoolander is so stupid, he is chosen
to be brainwashed into killing the
Malaysian prime minister.
This is where the film takes a
slightly controversial turn. The evil
fashion designer Mugatu wants to
kill the prime minister so he can
keep using child labor to make his
clothing line. Although it's all
handled as one big joke, making
light of the child labor issue in any
way might offend some.
Luckily, the movie isn't all about
the assassination of world leaders;
there's a hilarious scene where
Zoolander returns to his home in the
coal mines of New Jersey to find his
roots. Here he tries to work with his
father (Jon Voight) and his equally
dumb brothers in I he mine. Poor
Zoolander, donning his gray snake-
skin suit, doesn't fit in with them
either. After one day in the mines,
he tells his father, "I think I've got
the black lung, Pop."
Zoolander keeps
looking into
reflective surfaces
such as spoons
and puddles of
water and asking,
'Who am I?'
Jon Voight isn't the only star who
makes a cameo appearance. We see
glimpses of Lil* Kim, Lance from
*NSync, Fred Durst, Andy Dick,
Fabio, Lenny Kravitz, Natalie
Portman, Winona Ryder, Billy Zane
and David Bowie, of all people. Al-
though it's amusing to see them pop
up, sometimes you just wonder why
they're there.
What the movie lacked in plot it
made up for in randomness. No one
can target Zoolander's "walk off" a la
Fight Club where Hansel and
Zoolander take turns strutting down
a makeshift runway in a secret base-
ment to determine who's the best
male model. Zoolander can't win
because he can't take his underwear
off while still wearing his pants.
If that doesn't demonstrate the
general feel of the movie, I don't
know what else could.
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APPLY NOW!
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You may also visit Biosphere 2 at
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mr' J?." ''
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ALL PROGRAMS TAUGHT
BY COLUMBIA FACULTY!
Otto
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Liu, Leslie & Reichle, Robert. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 89, No. 8, Ed. 1 Friday, October 5, 2001, newspaper, October 5, 2001; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443147/m1/14/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.