Zoolander

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Exuberant and insidiously funny satire.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Something this gleefully goofy and consistently funny would be welcome in any environment.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Well-paced, scathingly funny satire of the fashion industry and its eminently lampoonable pomposity.

Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan

Works like a funnier "Austin Powers" -- you laugh just enough to want to see the whole thing again.

Village Voice Dennis Lim

The result is a freakishly potent farce.

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

Basically one elaborate joke about male modeling and all the vanity, emasculation, and fatuousness that attend it. Fortunately, it's a good joke.

Film Threat Chris Gore

Stiller is laugh-out-loud funny from start to finish and anyone that may quibble about plot minutiae, is just not ready to have a good time.

LA Weekly F. X. Feeney

One's laughter builds on such a rising curve that memories of its flaws burn away.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Anyhow, I believe you would probably like this movie if you let your mind drift during the slow parts. That is easier for some of us than others, and I was thinking about my next runway project about half of the time.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

The humor is simple but far from dumb. The dueling "walk-off" between rival male mannequins is inspired, as are the sly juxtapositions of the male model's faux physicality with such real-world demands as coal mining.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Isn't always on the money, but when it is, it really is.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

Often unspeakably funny.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

The gags hit more than they miss, and Stiller has moments of inspired absurdity, but he's capable of something more cutting and clever. It's junk food moviemaking: fun to snack on, but hardly a substantial meal.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Zoolander's consistent, blissful stupidity is a comic, mental Xanax, soothing in its gormless sense of inspired wack.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

Fluffy, inconsistent, but enjoyable.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

What Zoolander does have, and this was enough for me, is a sublime comic performance by Owen Wilson, as the supermodel Hansel, positively radiant in its dimness.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

A hit-and-miss affair, but it's smart and good-natured enough to guarantee Stiller an open invitation to host VH1's annual Fashion Awards.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

It's a diverting mess, sometimes even a delightful mess.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Misses its comic targets as often as it hits them but is endearing all the same for the good-natured cheer with which it skewers the eminently skewerable.

New Times (L.A.) Robert Wilonsky

Like all films constructed out of pop-culture effluvia, Zoolander runs the risk of being so last month; this is a movie that treats Fabio as the ultimate punch line and regards David Bowie as the prince of style.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

It's to Stiller's credit that he can sustain the joke for the length of the movie, but just barely. Ten more minutes of Zoolander would have been 10 minutes too many.

Chicago Tribune Mark Caro

The main problem is the director-star's choice to play so far beneath his intelligence for so long. Stiller lacks the physical gifts and projected sweetness of, say, Jim Carrey in "Dumb and Dumber," and unlike Peter Sellers in the "Pink Panther" movies, he can't keep a straight face.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

When he's playing a relatively normal guy ringed by eccentrics, as in "There's Something About Mary" and "Meet the Parents," Stiller can be flat-out funny. In Zoolander, he's just one nutso among many, and he cancels himself out.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Even though it’s mostly pleasant and sometimes funny, Zoolander could use some sort of boost.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Overall, how funny you find it will probably depend on whether or not the mere sight of Stiller sucking in his cheeks, widening his eyes and striking preposterous poses makes you laugh uproariously.

San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham

It's probably pointless to complain when a movie sets out to be stupid and actually is. (And the people who came up with a couple of these ideas think male models are dumb.)

Washington Post Rita Kempley

A sometimes inspired but sputtering parody of the fashion industry. It's desperate to please, yet never unzips the fancy pants of haute couture.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

In theory, Zoolander is ''Pret-à-Porter'' on laughing gas. In practice, however, the movie is an ill-fitting suit of gags, too long in the crotch even at 90 minutes.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

There have been articles lately asking why the United States is so hated in some parts of the world. As this week's Exhibit A from Hollywood, I offer Zoolander.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

Isn't absurd enough to be funny.