Zoolander 2: The Magnum Edition (Blu-ray + DVD + UltraViolet)
Blu-Ray Reviews | Jun 2nd, 2016
Starring: Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Penelope Cruz, Will Ferrell, Kristen Wiig, Justin Theroux, Jon Daly, Billy Zane
Written By: Ben Stiller, John Hamburg, Nicholas Stoller, Justin Theroux
Directed By: Ben Stiller
Studio: Paramount
Buy On Amazon.com
The sequel of Zoolander is similar to the original. It’s stupid funny, with bizarre situations about the modeling world and it’s definitely not for everybody. Zoolander 2 isn’t as good as the first movie (obviously). It feels like it was made just so Ben Stiller could film in Italy with a shit ton of cameos. Zoolander 2 is funny but is it cult-following funny? Not sure about that.
The beginning of Zoolander 2 shows us what happened since the first movie. Derek Zoolander’s (Ben Stiller) wife died in a freak accident, his son was taken by Child Services and Derek retires from modeling to live in “extreme northern” New Jersey. Meanwhile, pop stars are being killed off like Justin Bieber. That scene is worth the price of the Blu-Ray alone. At Fashion Interpol, they try to discover how Derek Zoolander is tied to all of them and put a stop to the murders. Zoolander is convinced by Billy Zane to come out of retirement. Hansel McDonald (Owen Wilson) also comes out of retirement after being convinced by Zane as well. Zoolander, Hansel and the head of Fashion Interprol Valentina (Penelope Cruz) try to uncover how all the famous celebrities are getting assassinated.
The first time I saw Zoolander was probably 5 years or ago. When it originally came out, I just didn’t have any desire to watch it. It didn’t look funny to me but eventually I watched it. It was funny but nowhere near as funny as people think it is. I didn’t feel like seeing this in theaters because it just felt like it had that Anchorman 2 feel to it. Rehashing of the same ideas, tons of cameos, unfunny jokes and just not that great. Believe it or not, I actually liked this movie more than Anchorman 2 but I guess that’s not saying much. I laughed at scenes, quite a lot but still felt the movie was missing something from the original. Maybe the last act wasn’t as good as the beginning of the movie? The movie definitely suffers from sequel-itis even though I still laughed a lot.
The scenes with Hansel’s orgy squad was pretty funny, especially that Kiefer sutherland was one of them and pregnant with his baby. I think the biggest laughs for me when Zoolander was living in Extreme Northern NJ and Hansel was in “uncharted Malibu territories.” Of course I got a chuckle when the guys had boners for when Penelope Cruz’s character was in a bathing suit. Like I predicted when the trailer came out, I knew people we’re going to be mad over Benedict Cumberbatch’s character. It’s a comedy movie, people. Everything is so over the top you can’t take too much of this seriously.
The special features for the Blu-Ray include a few things like the legacy of Zoolander, filming in Rome, a featurette about the late Drake Sather who created the Derek Zoolander character with Ben Stiller. The legacy featurette talks about how the movie was a box office flop but became a cult classic, how there were always plans to do a sequel and other things like that. The featurette on Drake Sather was sad since he committed suicide shortly after Zoolander was released. The featurettes equal to be about half hour. I would have liked to have seen a gag reel or something though.
It’s the little things like that make this a somewhat funny movie and one I think that will get funnier over time. Believe me, it’s a dumb comedy but so was the original. I still think something was missing from this movie but in the end, it made me laugh and that’s what matters when it comes to comedies.
Features
– The Zoolander Legacy
– Go Big or Go Rome
– Drake Sather: The Man Who Created Zoolander
– Youth Milk Beauty Ad
Audio
English Dolby Digital 5.1
French Dolby Digital 5.1
Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
English DTS 5.1 [CC]
Video
Widescreen 2.35:1 Color
Bottom Line: A few funny moments but not as good as the original
Running Time: 101 minutes
Rating: NR
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating:
