Ben Stiller still coming to terms with mother’s death

Unlike some films, like “Anchorman“, where the occasional cameo is not only expected by appreciated, this is like “Anchorman 2”, where there were so many cameos it took you out of the story. However, with the untimely destruction of his prestigious foundation, Zoolander and Hansel (Owen Wilson) part ways to live the rest of their lives in solitude.

In the sequel of the classic comedy film, Derek and Hansel must stop a conspiracy to kill the world’s most attractive people.

Well, let’s start with the few positives this train-wreck has to offer.

The celebrity cameos (a dozen or so) and the jokes are equally haphazard: John Malkovich mocking Members Only jackets? Some don’t work particularly well, but others are so out of the blue and nonsensical that you can’t help but laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of it all.

Mugatu doesn’t even show up until about the one-hour mark, just in time to nearly save the movie. “Zoolander 2“, which opens this weekend, is a pale, more crass imitation of the surprisingly amusing, oddly innocent original. Here, it’s a exhausted means to an end.

As is with every movie dragging back the hero for one more go at it, Derek Zoolander is bound to encounter old foes, friends, and obstacles.

Ben looks just as youthful in the new movie as he did 15 years ago, with his hair thicker than ever and barely a wrinkle in sight.

Model teachers: When Zoolander and Hansel visit a boarding school in Rome, the teachers walking children back and forth in single-file lines in the background are, to the one, lanky and lithe, clad in thigh-grazing mini-skirts, with their hair pulled into high and tight ponytails atop their heads. “And I remember getting the direction from Ben to “be more Hansel”. There are some new targets for co-writer-director Stiller’s sardonic barbs, mostly involving SNL’s Kristen Wiig, Fred Armisen, and Kyle Mooney in key roles, along with Penelope Cruz as a swimsuit model turned Interpol agent. Sure, the original’s romance between Stiller and Christine Taylor was fairly forced as well, but at least it wasn’t insultingly shoved in for absolutely no reason.

In fact, this leads to Zoolander 2’s biggest offense of all, a plethora of under utilized or entirely unnecessary characters. “All of us in our family feel so lucky to have had her in our lives”. Does that sound amusing to you? We’ve already discussed Cruz’ lack of definition, but the worst offenders of all is Stiller and Wilson themselves.

According to a tweet by Ben Stiller, “the opening scene was a reshoot after we finished the movie because no one knew what was going on in the movie when we screened it…” The 48-year-old actor said: “That’s what so freakish, is that I don’t think Ben could get anyone in the fashion world to be a part of the first one because they were just fearful, and now he’s become an iconic symbol not only of poking fun at them but representing them and that’s a rare thing when you can create a character that does that”. If you do manage to find something enjoyable about this flick, good on you, but for everyone else, let us pray there will never be a Zoolander 3.