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Zoolander
Paramount Pictures


6.8

based on 30 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 67 votes
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FILM:

Tropic Thunder

MPAA RATING: PG-13 on appeal for sexual content and drug references

Starring Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Christine Taylor, Will Ferrell, Jerry Stiller, Milla Jovovich, and David Duchovny

Follows the world's most famous -- and empty-headed -- male model as he discovers the horrifying secret behind why there are no male models who live past the age of 30. (Paramount Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Comedy
WRITTEN BY:	Drake Sather (also story) Ben Stiller (also story) John Hamburg
DIRECTED BY:	Ben Stiller
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: March 12, 2002 Video: March 12, 2002 Theatrical: September 28, 2001
RUNNING TIME:	86 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

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.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.8 (out of 10) based on 67 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Abby gave it an8:
I am still laughing.

Egbert N. gave it a1:
Truly one of the worst films I have ever seen. And what's with all the apparently deliberate offense towards Malaysia? Avoid at all costs.

Poor K. gave it a0:
Watching this movie was a deeply sickening experience that will haunt me to the day I die (and maybe in the after-life). I can't believe none of the reviews I read took the movie to task for the unbelievably naive, stupid, ridiculous, misleading, dangerous ideas it espouses - all the while pretending to be a feel-good do-good movie. I cannot fathom the self-serving diatribe against 'sweat shops' in developing countries. Sure, it might benefit some of the lower skilled workers in rich countries if we stopped buying from third world countries, but what happens to those third world country workers after the factories close down??? This movie has an even more outrageous and mind-numbing solution, pass a law in third world countries raising pay for everyone! Oh horray horray! How simple! So all the poor developing countries in the world could become instantly rich and prosperous overnight if their government would only pass a law mandating that everyone should get paid a million dollars a day! Wow! I have seen the light! What a sure and solid grasp of economic fundamentals! And why don't all the governments of the world just do this? Surely it would ensure the undying gratitude and votes of the masses that would ensure you stayed in power forever. You would go down in posterity and people would be naming their grandchildren after you long after you've passed away! So why not? Because they are getting pressure from evil big business? The convenient bogeyman and favourite bad guy of simplistic and morally smug movies from Hollywood. Oh it all makes sense now! Really, movies have their role as entertainment, but when they get into deep social messages - they usually do more harm than good.

Emma N. gave it an8:
My brother made me watch this movie coz he loved it SO much. And I must admit, it is very funny. A creative idea executed to near highest standards. V. Good.

Nunya B. gave it a10:
Absolutely hilarious. It's been 6 months since the last time of many that I've seen this movie, and I'm laughing just thinking about it.

Mikey t gave it a0:
I couldn't watch through the first time. Tried watching it again today, and I still couldn't finish through the end. It's that bad. Its one of those movies that try too hard to force you to get the joke in every scene. You think the all-star cast/cameos that signed into the project read the script knew better. But it sucks. If K-mart or Old Navy were to produced movies, it would be this. The movie wasn't stupid-funny, but stupid-lame.

Keegan H. gave it a9:
This movie was so funny owen wilson + Ben stiller = hilarious.

Zoolander Paramount Pictures

Zoolander
Paramount Pictures