Movie Review: Zoolander 2

Comedy

Rated – M

Duration –1hr 42mins

Release – Feb 2016

Director – Ben Stiller

Writer – Ben Stiller, Justin Theroux 

Cast – Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Penelope Cruz, Will Ferrell


Mr KNIGHT

Prior to seeing this one I watched its predecessor, Zoolander, which was released in 2001, starring much of the same cast. The first Zoolander follows the story of Derek Zoolander (Ben STILLER), the world’s most famous male model at the end of his game, his immediate competition and up and comer Hansel (Owen Wilson… he’s so hot right now), Time magazine’s reporter Matilda (Christine Taylor) and crazy fashion designer Jacobi Mugatu (Will Ferrell).

The original despite its silliness and stupidity is set in today’s world keeping some relative realism, with the exception of Zoolander stopping a ninja star with a magical look, Magnum. As a result it was light hearted, littered with famous celeb cameos and delivered many laughs and famous quotes by its incredibly dumb male models.

Zoolander 2 was not any of these things. The sequel takes us to 2016, 15 years after we left off with Derek in hiding as a result of his “The Derek Zoolander Centre for Kids Who Can’t Read Good” collapses and kills people, and Hansel is in hiding as a result of a disfiguring facial injury (which actually isn’t disfiguring).

The basic plot is celebrities are being assassinated and are posting selfies with Zoolander’s famous looks. As a result a cringe-worthy entry of Penelope Cruz as Interpol’s Fashion Police in Rome investigates the murders and needs Derek and Hansel to help (insert intense shudder of disgust).

The movie was a horrid mixture of The Da Vinci Code, Austin Powers, any Bond film and the original Zoolander, turning into this vile secret spy agency adventure with a blend of ridiculous moments which even include magic! Some parts actually reminded me of the ridiculous scary movies, epic movie and all the other parody spin offs taking the piss of their inspired themes. For example, Derek riding Penelope Cruz’s back like a dolphin as she swims like a submarine from a coastal island prison to the mainland, all because she was a swimsuit model. Are you FUCKIN' kidding me?!

To mention another ridiculous part of this film, Owen Wilson’s Hansel has run away from his secluded dessert home because a new “orgy group” whom he is in a relationship with, are all pregnant including a male sumo wrestler, a male midget and Kiefer Sutherland as himself. All this sort of humour wasn’t in line with its far better original and just made me think… how dumb! Which is ironic considering that dumb humour was the backbone of the original.

In the end Zoolander 2 was simply trying too hard. I did laugh out loud in various moments, but it was all jokes made in the same fashion as its former, and I suppose that’s why it was funny. Otherwise, it was quite possibly the worst movie I have seen in a long time, and that includes Mockingjay Part Two (and we all know how much I hated that one!)

Mrs Knight

Like many of us I was a huge fan of the original Zoolander, but with all sequels and re-makes I tried to go in with low expectations. The challenge of remaking a film like Zoolander is the first one is filled with silly humour that was popular at the time e.g. Austin Powers era. However, comedy has progressed and changed over the years. The original was a cult film that didn't do well in cinemas but was a huge hit afterwards and is funny for people who grew up loving it. This same humour just didn’t translate 15 years later. It was so overly stupid it felt forced and like it was trying too hard to be funny. That said, it does still have some LOL moments.

The original has Ben Stiller playing the world’s number one male model Derek Zoolander, who is at the end of his career and being beaten by Hansel, played by Own Wilson. It points fun at the fashion industry playing on the 'dumb model' stereotype and ridiculous fashion campaigns. The second film used much of the same formula, but should have focused more on the fashion industry today and having a laugh at it. For example, social media, Instagram fashion bloggers, the Kardashians, reality TV etc.. Instead, it went off on a strange tangent, trying to uncover a conspiracy theory. There was only really fashion related skits at the beginning.

To get a laugh it just jam packed as many celebrity cameos into the film as possible. They did this in the original too, but in a more skillful way. However, I did enjoy the contribution of Bieber, I thought his part was clever. The funniest parts were the recycled skits from the original, but all the new bits were just too far fetched and unnecessarily silly.

Will Ferrell's character Mugatu was definitely a highlight and without him it would have been a complete mess of a film. Overall, my advice is to go in with low expectations and try to enjoy it for what it is. Yes, it's silly, yes the marketing campaign was better than the actual movie, but it still produces a few laughs.

Mr KNIGHT'S list of TV's best Supporting Characters

 

Omar Little - The Wire

 "You come at the king, you best not miss."

The Robin Hood of the streets. The dealers fear him. He fears no one.

 Ari Gold - Entourage
 "Nobody's happy in this town except for the losers. Look at me, I'm miserable... That's why I'm rich."
The best, angriest and most effective agent in Hollywood.

 Boyd Crowder - Justified
 "I've been accused of being a lot of things. Inarticulate ain't one of 'em."
The most intelligent hillbilly in all of Harland County. He loves money, guns and blowing shit up!

 Crowley - Supernatural
"This isn't Wall Street, this is Hell! We have a little something called integrity."
This fast talking, whiskey swilling Scott was a demon with big aspirations. Now he's the King of Hell. The best thing to happen to Supernatural since Cas.

 Mr Harrow- Boardwalk Empire
 A war veteran with half a face, a scratchy drawl and the deadliest shot in Atlantic City. The most loyal man in the bootleg business. His moment is the last episode of season 3. Epic!

  
Lorne Malvo  - Fargo (season one)
" Mister, we're not friends. I mean, maybe we will be someday. But I gotta say, if that were me in your position... I would have killed that man."
The driest, sarcastic, funniest assassin in all of Minnesota.

Captain Raymond Holt - Brooklyn Nine-Nine
"What are you talking about? My hair is a mess."
 A man who loves statistics, flavourless foods, facts and a lack of emotion. The image above is him smiling. A very funny character.

Sandor Clegane/ The Hound - Game of Thrones
"Any man dies with a clean sword, I'll rape his fucking corpse."
The most badass, half burnt man in the seven kingdoms. Some of the best things said in Game of Thrones comes from his mouth.

 Michonne - The Walking Dead

"Anger makes you stupid. Stupid gets you killed."

The deadliest woman with a Samurai sword. Michonne is as tough as they get, but just as smart.

Hank Schrader - Breaking Bad

"Yeah right... and Shania Twain is gonna give me a tuggy."

Persistent, tough and a tongue as quick as his trigger finger.

Ethan Chandler - Penny Dreadful
"We are not like others. We have claws for a reason."
A sharp shooter from the USA, escaping from his past in London and killing monsters on the side. But Chandler doesn't just have his past to worry about. He has other secrets...

Root  - Person of Interest
"God is a little girl named the machine."
From cyber terrorist, to super spy, Root, with the assistance of the Machine, executes missions with a precise, deadly skill.

Movie review: The Danish Girl

Drama/ Biography

Rated – M

Duration –119mins

Release – Jan 2016

Director –Tom Hooper

Writer – David Ebershoff, Lucinda Coxon
 
Cast – Eddie Redmayne, Alicia Vikander, Amber Heard, Ben Whishaw

 
Mr Knight

I only had a mild interest coming into The Danish Girl. That interest being seeing Alicia Vikander again on the big screen! Set in Copenhagen, 1926, we are introduced to a young married couple, Gerda Wegener (Alicia Vikander) and Einar Wegener (Eddie Redmayne) who appear to be truly in love. Both successful artists, Einar being talented at landscapes and Gerda at portraits.

A short way into the movie, Gerda needs her husband to assist her in one of her latest art works and has Einar pose for her, wearing stockings, ladies heals and a white flowing dress draped over himself. Immediately you see Einar’s brain ticking and his body adjusting the feeling of being someone else.

Not long after the posing, both Gerda and Einar decide as a joke, to have Einar dress as a woman to a party, acting out to be Einar’s cousin, Lili. What seems like harmless fun to Gerda, turns out to be an awakening for Einar and soon he finds himself no longer comfortable in his own skin and Lili is his true self.

In no time at all Gerda realises she has opened Pandora’s Box and in doing so, destroys her marriage to Einar. As Einar slowly transforms into Lili more and more, Gerda does the only thing she knows best. She paints. A collection of Lili’s begins to form and those artworks quickly bring Gerda fame and with it Paris.

The story continues to slowly develop with Lili having some painful experiences with Doctors finding her sexuality to mean she is insane, and the general public being unaccepting. However, as I watched I found Lili in fact did receive a lot of support, from friends, old acquaintances and especially, which I couldn’t fathom, his wife Gerda.

Although Lili is the one finding herself and going through such massive change, it was Gerda who stuck by her the whole time. Always caring, supporting and never leaving her. I just couldn’t get it. All the while Gerda was slowly breaking inside. I felt more pity for her, than Lili.

The Danish Girl, was interesting, but the whole while I found Einar completely selfish. Not selfish because Einar shouldn’t be happy, but simply the way he treated his wife of seven years as he went through his transformation. I also found I didn’t feel as emotionally connected to Einar as I did Gerda. The trials and tribulations Einar came across as Lili, were few and far between and easily overcome, and I didn’t feel she had the challenges others may face in her shoes, especially in the 1920s.

All in all it was not bad but I didn’t feel emotionally drawn in. Well acted by both Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander.

Mrs Knight

I was very curious about this one. There has been a lot of Oscar talk in regards to Eddie Redmayne winning for the second year in a row. Last year he won for his portrayal of Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything. Of course there has also been a lot of talk about this film given the subject matter. 2015 seemed to shine a spotlight on people who are transgender with everyone talking about Caitlyn Jenner, Cate McGregor and Laverne Cox. So the timing couldn’t have been better.

The Danish Girl is a biopic, set in the 1920’s, and based on the life of Einar Wenger (Eddie Redmayne), a Danish painter and his painter wife, Gerda (Alicia Vikander). They seem to be a happily married young couple, filled with laughter and passion. This slowly changes as Gerda encourages Einar to pose for her in stockings and heels so she can finish a painting. One thing leads to another and they decide he should dress as a woman at an event for a ‘bit of fun’. While we see glimpses of his fascination with women’s clothing prior, this is really the tipping point and each day following he becomes more and more himself, a woman named Lili. With this transition it puts a strain on their relationship as Gerda comes to terms with the fact that she has lost her husband.

The film is told from the point of view of Gerda, which I found interesting. It was clear the transition was hard for Lili, but Gerda was the one who had to come to terms with the ‘death’ of her husband. As Mr Knight said to me towards the end of the film, ‘Alicia Vikander should win an Oscar for Best Supporting Wife’ (she’s nominated for Best Supporting Actress). I couldn’t agree more. Alicia Vikander played this part brilliantly and I believed every minute. The same goes for Eddie Redmayne. A clear sign of great acting and a well-made film was how uncomfortable I felt at times. I actually found some scenes quite confronting.

I think this is an important story to tell as it promotes awareness and knowledge for the transgender community. The film was well made, but as I said it does have some confronting content so it may not be for everyone. Overall, I found it very interesting and it provoked a lot of different emotions as I followed her journey to becoming Lili.