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Feb 12, 2016 By John McShane Web Exclusive

Sequels to hit comedies frequently fail (creatively, if not at the box office) due to a lack of new ideas and the dispiriting spectacle of artists sweating to recreate what was surprising the first time around. The best way to avoid the scorn reserved for those responsible for Caddyshack 2 and Blues Brothers 2000 is to either admit up front that your film is superfluous (22 Jump Street) or make an entirely different kind of movie (Gremlins 2: The New Batch). The key in either case is not treating the original with any particular reverence.

Credit, then, is due to Ben Stiller, for not letting 15 years of cult audience growth convince him to take his (arguably) most popular comic creation too seriously. Though he doesn’t diverge too radically from what made Zoolander a hit in the first place, he seems to recognize the things that did work the first time (funny people acting silly) and the things that did not (plot, romance, any scene that didn’t feature a handful of celebrity cameos).

That’s not to say Zoolander 2 is an across-the-board success. If anything, Stiller goes overboard in copping to the previous film’s shortcomings. In place of the political assassination plot of the original is a mess of stories that pile up to the point where none of them ultimately mean anything. Derek Zoolander is getting back into modeling in an effort to win back his son; Hansel is dealing with the prospect of first-time fatherhood, eleven times over; and both are lured into a scheme involving secret societies, the coordinated murder of pop stars, and the location of the Fountain of Youth. It’s a little exhausting, but if one plot ever gets boring, they move onto another every minute or so.

As for the cameos, they start early and never stop. They range from the fun (certain big fashion names) to the expected (Billy Zane) to the annoying (an inescapable pop scientist) to the puzzling (Josh ‘The Fat Jew’ Ostrovsky, a wordless Andy Dick dressed as Terry Richardson). And though the Big Musician Cameo in Zoolander 2 is funny enough, it can’t help but bring to mind the recent passing of David Bowie – a cooler musician and better actor – and what maybe could have been.

All that aside, and despite some occasionally clunky gags about technology (Uber! Facebook! iPads!), it’s an agreeable enough experience to see comedy veterans having some pointless fun. Will Ferrell seems to be enjoying himself the most, returning to what was his first major film role before he became a proper movie star. Hopefully, Zoolander 2 will do for fellow SNL player Kyle Mooney what the first one did for Ferrell; Mooney’s Don Atari is a highlight. And Stiller and Owen Wilson don’t disappoint, even if they don’t bring anything new to their roles.

The factor working most in favor of the filmmakers is that Zoolander wasn’t exactly an exceptional film to begin with; not all of the jokes hold up and it drags for stretches. Starting with a low bar, they cleared it, but not by much. One assumes that there isn’t enough here to justify a third film fifteen years from now, but Zoolander 2 does at least the bare minimum of justifying it’s own existence—which is really all you can ask from a comedy sequel.

www.zoolander.com

Author rating: 5.5/10