Few recent films have received such a diverse reaction from critics than Ben Stiller‘s Zoolander. “What the world needs right now is something so moronic you just have to laugh,” writes New York Daily News critic Jami Bernard in the opening of her review.
Claudia Puig in USA Today writes similarly: “Something this gleefully goofy and consistently funny would be welcome in any environment, but it’s a particularly gratifying antidote to these somber times.”
On the other hand, Geoff Pevere in the Toronto Star says that the movie is much like the male fashion models that it seeks to parody: “dull, witless and harmlessly self-regarding.”
And Tom Maurstad in the Dallas Morning News remarks that “Zoolander‘s superficial satire is more smarmy than charming.”
But many critics suggest that the film isn’t worth the bother of thrashing out its faults. In the words of the New York Post‘s Jonathan Foreman, it’s “fluffy, inconsistent, but enjoyable.” (Most analysts are predicting that it will easily beat every other film at the box office this weekend.)
