| 90 |
Los Angeles Times
Exuberant and insidiously funny satire.
|
| 88 |
USA Today
Something this gleefully goofy and consistently funny would be welcome in any environment.
|
| 88 |
Baltimore Sun
Well-paced, scathingly funny satire of the fashion industry and its eminently lampoonable pomposity.
|
| 83 |
Portland Oregonian
Works like a funnier "Austin Powers" -- you laugh just enough to want to see the whole thing again.
|
| 80 |
Village Voice
The result is a freakishly potent farce.
|
| 80 |
Mr. Showbiz
Basically one elaborate joke about male modeling and all the vanity, emasculation, and fatuousness that attend it. Fortunately, it's a good joke.
|
| 80 |
Film Threat
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.
|
| 80 |
LA Weekly
One's laughter builds on such a rising curve that memories of its flaws burn away.
|
| 75 |
Charlotte Observer
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.
|
| 75 |
New York Daily News
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.
|
| 75 |
Boston Globe
Isn't always on the money, but when it is, it really is.
|
| 70 |
The New York Times
Often unspeakably funny.
|
| 67 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
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.
|
| 67 |
Austin Chronicle
Zoolander's consistent, blissful stupidity is a comic, mental Xanax, soothing in its gormless sense of inspired wack.
|
| 63 |
New York Post
Fluffy, inconsistent, but enjoyable.
|
| 63 |
Philadelphia Inquirer
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.
|
| 63 |
Miami Herald
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.
|
| 60 |
Wall Street Journal
It's a diverting mess, sometimes even a delightful mess.
|
| 60 |
Variety
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.
|
| 60 |
New Times (L.A.)
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.
|
| 60 |
Salon.com
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.
|
| 50 |
Chicago Tribune
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.
|
| 50 |
New York Magazine
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.
|
| 50 |
Washington Post
Even though it’s mostly pleasant and sometimes funny, Zoolander could use some sort of boost.
|
| 50 |
TV Guide
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.
|
| 50 |
San Francisco Chronicle
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.)
|
| 50 |
Washington Post
A sometimes inspired but sputtering parody of the fashion industry. It's desperate to please, yet never unzips the fancy pants of haute couture.
|
| 42 |
Entertainment Weekly
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.
|
| 25 |
Chicago Sun-Times
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.
|
| 20 |
Chicago Reader
Isn't absurd enough to be funny.
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