Review: Zany 'Zoolander' has bright moments

By Paul Tatara
CNN Reviewer

(CNN) -- Anyone who remembers Ben Stiller's brilliant-but-canceled TV show from the early 1990s knows that his subsequent movie work, though often quite popular, has been surprisingly trivial.

It's a bummer watching someone this talented systematically neuter himself to appeal to a broader, duller audience. "Zoolander" -- an "Austin Powers"-like free-for-all set in the world of male modeling -- finally points Stiller in the right satirical direction, even though his central topic could just as easily be skewered in 10 minutes. Alas, that's the curse of making movies that derive from skits: "Zoolander"'s title character was originally created for a VH-1 awards show.

Stiller (who also co-wrote the screenplay and directed) stars as Derek Zoolander, the world's top male model for three years running. Derek is a big fish in an exceptionally shallow pond. He's appeared in countless TV commercials and magazine ads (including one for Coca-Cola, in which he pours soda over his own head while falling into false ecstasy), prowls the runways like a stunned cat, and repeatedly nails photographers with his signature gaze, a stern, puckered-lip routine known to one and all as "blue steel." Derek is apt to issue "profound" statements on a wide variety of topics, even though he can barely pronounce the required words. Basically, he's an idiot, and you'd better think that's funny. Eighty percent of the movie's jokes are based on it.

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As the story opens, a "Time" magazine reporter named Matilda Jeffries (Christine Taylor, Stiller's real-life wife) is working on a cover story about Derek's well-dressed but empty existence. She trails him for days, taking notes and rolling her eyes. Derek, ever oblivious to his own absurdity, seems pleased to have a reporter along for the ride.

Unfortunately, Matilda and the rest of the world are watching when Derek makes a fool of himself at a televised awards show. Fully expecting to win Male Model of the Year for the fourth year running, he doesn't notice that the announced winner is Hansel (Owen Wilson), an equally chowder-headed mannequin who's trying to usurp Derek's fashion-world throne. This is one of the better scenes in the picture, as Derek whoops it up while accepting a prize he didn't actually win. Realizing that Hansel has surpassed him as the pretty boy to end all pretty boys, Zoolander sets out to find new meaning in his life.

This leads to another hilarious sequence, in which Derek returns to the impoverished coal mining town where he grew up, hoping to work the vein with his soot-covered father (Jon Voight) and equally grimy brothers (including Vince Vaughn, in a wordless cameo). Derek, who shows up wearing a snakeskin suit, is hardly cut out for this kind of work, so he quickly heads back to the city to re-enter the world of fashion. That's when the plot revs up to hyper-drive, and the humor suffers for it.

"Saturday Night Live"'s Will Farrell plays Mugatu, a bizarre fashion designer who, for reasons that are just as loopy as the rest of the story, hopes to brainwash Zoolander, convincing him to kill the President of Malaysia during an upcoming runway show. The "Manchurian Candidate" angle is pretty funny (and certainly over the heads of the kids who will flock to see the movie), but once the brainwashing takes place, Stiller loses focus. He starts bouncing between Mugatu, Hansel, and Matilda with such abandon, you give up considering anything but the next punch line. What was a character-based satire turns into nothing more than another grab-bag of outlandish gags, many of which fall flat.

That said, there are set pieces that get the job done, including a very funny runway showdown between Hansel and Derek. Stiller's dad, Jerry Stiller, also has a few good moments as Derek's loud-mouth manager, and David Duchovny once again spoofs his "X-Files" origins as a conspiracy-theorist former hand model who keeps his hand in prime condition by enclosing it in a portable oxygen chamber.

The main thing separating "Zoolander" from overtly flimsy offerings like "A Night at the Roxbury" or "Scary Movie" is Stiller's penchant for mind-bending surrealism. The Wayans brothers, given their utter lack of talent and cerebral dexterity, can make the mistake of trying to satirize something that's already self-satirizing. Stiller, however, should know better. Once he sets his sights higher, and focuses a bit more, he may well grace us with a classic comedy.

"Zoolander" is really pretty tame. There's an exceptionally goofy sex scene and a bit of bad language. Look for cameos from David Bowie, Billy Zane, Natalie Portman, Donald Trump, and scores of others.