Starring: Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Will Ferrell

Genre: Comedy

After retiring, former models Derek Zoolander (Stiller) and Hansel (Wilson) are thrust back into the limelight after being invited to a major fashion event in Rome and find themselves at the centre of a sinister plot in which famous pop stars are being killed.

These days if a comedy film makes a lot of money then a sequel will happen a few years later, however it is very surprising that Ben Stiller has now decided to make a sequel to a film that was made in 2001. Zoolander was certainly a film of its time that worked as an effective and funny satire, it was also well written with a very quotable script. However, Ben Stiller and all the actors involved have moved on in their careers since, so it does feel surprising that they would decide to reprise these roles now. We would all expect it of someone like Adam Sandler, but not these actors.

Well, unfortunately the result is an abysmal mess of a film that all involved should be deeply ashamed and embarrassed of; the story is terrible, the script lazy and the performances lazier still. The original film served as a light hearted, but effectively funny, satire on the fashion industry, but its sequel only serves as an unintentional satire on the film industry and how there are so many sequels out there that are made as products, and that those making these films have no respect for the audience paying to watch it.

There are no redeeming features in Zoolander 2, it is not funny and it is not enjoyable, but its extreme laziness and the fact that all involved just cannot be bothered is so obvious that is a viewing experience that is both depressing and infuriating. Sandler, Wilson and Owen do not need the money, so if they did not want to do a Zoolander sequel they should have just done the decent thing and said no. I admit that this may be a word that is not in the vocabulary of actors when they are offered lovely lucrative sums of money, but if this was all they could conjure up, then just for once they should have shown some respect for the good, honest and decent cinema-going public then really should have just said no. As star, director and co-writer, Ben Stiller should feel particularly ashamed, he obviously does not want to make this film – well I hope he uses the extortionate amount of money that I am sure he was given to make a comedy masterpiece – he is certainly due one!

It is almost impossible to actually go into words to describe how insultingly stupid the plot is; silly plots are actually fine if we are given a film that is fun with witty dialogue and memorable characters, but yes of course, Zoolander 2 doesn’t have those either! In Zoolander, there were a plethora of cameos, and these were fun and added to how hilarious the film was, well in Zoolander 2 we also get cameos from famous people usually playing themselves (Sting, Kiefer Sutherland, Susan Boyle, Benedict Cumberbatch, John Malkovich, M.C. Hammer [!], Justin Bieber and of course Billy Zane), but these are just cringe-inducing instead of being actually funny. Meanwhile the returning cast look bored, as do newcomers Penelope Cruz and Kristen Wiig, all just waiting to pick up the cheque and runaway from this car crash of a film as fast as they can.

The most depressing thing is that Zoolander 2 actually works as an unintentional, but very depressing satire on the film industry; Zoolander 2 is not just simply a very bad film, it is also a nasty, cynical film that sums all that is wrong with the film industry and the plethora of greedy, lazy and complacent people involved in it that are more than happy to insult the intelligence of those paying to see their films. I hope that one day they actually get found out and the general cinema going public actually wakes up and realises that they are paying over £10 to just be insulted for two hours!

Cynical, nasty, boring and never funny; Zoolander 2 is the most depressing example of just how lazy and complacent mainstream cinema is now, and it is all from actors who really should know better!

2/10