Zoolander

Directed by Ben Stiller
Rottentomatoes score:64%
2001

Once again I am going to give this blog thing a shot. The last attempt was destined to fail as the concept of starting with my worst or least favorites films made it hard to want to continue after getting through Ocean's 13 and knowing Napoleon Dynamite would be next. So, here we go with a third incarnation of the AtMyMovies blog. I'll be doing reverse alphabetical order and focusing in part on what I remember about seeing the film a first time as any critiques of the film. I'm also cementing my movie nerdom by including the director, RT score and year it was released at the start of each post. So, without further ado we start with Zoolander.
I tend to think of Zoolander as a poor man's Anchorman. Released 3 years prior to Anchorman I think many people forget that this was one of the first significant roles Will Ferrell had in a movie up until that point. And, like Anchorman, the funniest lines are delivered so dryly that you don't even laugh the first time you see because your first reaction is 'he just said what?'
While Will Ferrell is great, the film centers around star and director Ben Stiller as Derek Zoolander, an almost inconceivably vapid self-centered male model who is devastated when he loses the VH1 Male Model of the Year award to new comer Hansel (he's so hot right now). Derek plans on retiring after a fluke gasoline fight accident kills his male model friends but is convinced to return when Mugatu (Ferrell)  recruits Derek for his new show while secretly planning to brain watch Derek and turn him into an assassin trained to kill the Prime Minister of Malaysia.
Yes, this film is as absurd (if not more) than the above paragraph gives it credit for. Owen Wilson is equal to Ben Stiller in playing a painfully self centered male model who is every bit as disconnected from reality as Derek. The two must overcome their own idiocy along with a reporter named Matilda played by Christine Taylor who is charged with the role of maintaining a straight face while Stiller and Wilson compete to see who can out stupid the other.
By the end of the movie we've seen Derek working in coal mines, competing in underground walk-offs and building a school for children who don't read so good. It's all absurd and it gets funnier every time you watch it. I still think Zoolander is comparable to Anchorman in the sense that the first time I saw it the only thing I really laughed at was the gasoline fight and, much like Anchorman, the more I watched the more I picked up on and the funnier the movie gets. Just watching it again I find myself quoting the movie for a week straight. Line's like 'he's so hot right now' and 'really ridiculously good looking' continue to work their way into my daily language and for me that's the best thing I can say about a comedy.