Zoolander

Paramount Pictures | Release Date: September 28, 2001

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

61	METASCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

Kenneth Turan

Exuberant and insidiously funny satire. Read full review

Claudia Puig

Something this gleefully goofy and consistently funny would be welcome in any environment. Read full review

Chris Kaltenbach

Well-paced, scathingly funny satire of the fashion industry and its eminently lampoonable pomposity.

Kim Morgan

Works like a funnier "Austin Powers" -- you laugh just enough to want to see the whole thing again. Read full review

Kirk Honeycutt

Stiller performs a good balancing act not only with his many jobs on this movie but also in keeping the big picture firmly in mind. It's not always easy to be both silly and smart, but Stiller for the most part pulls it off. Read full review

Mr. ShowbizKevin Maynard

Basically one elaborate joke about male modeling and all the vanity, emasculation, and fatuousness that attend it. Fortunately, it's a good joke.

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. Read full review

Dennis Lim

The result is a freakishly potent farce. Read full review

F. X. Feeney

One's laughter builds on such a rising curve that memories of its flaws burn away. Read full review

Jay Carr

Isn't always on the money, but when it is, it really is.

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. Read full review

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.

A.O. Scott

Often unspeakably funny. Read full review

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. Read full review

Marc Savlov

Zoolander's consistent, blissful stupidity is a comic, mental Xanax, soothing in its gormless sense of inspired wack. Read full review

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. Read full review

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. Read full review

Jonathan Foreman

Fluffy, inconsistent, but enjoyable. Read full review

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. Read full review

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. Read full review

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. Read full review

Joe Morgenstern

It's a diverting mess, sometimes even a delightful mess.

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. Read full review

Desson Thomson

Even though it’s mostly pleasant and sometimes funny, Zoolander could use some sort of boost. Read full review

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. Read full review

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.

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.) Read full review

TV Guide MagazineMaitland 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. Read full review

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. Read full review

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. Read full review

Lisa Alspector

Isn't absurd enough to be funny. Read full review