Wonderfully Horrible Netflix Instant Films: Zoolander

I will freely admit that I don't like Ben Stiller. I think he's really annoying. He is so desperate to get you to like him that it comes off as cloying and pitiful. I don't like it. He's been in some funny movies, no doubt. There's Something About Mary and Tropic Thunder are great films. But in general, no thanks. But he did steal my heart in one movie in particular. It is a film so utterly silly and ridiculous that it is so bad it's good. Because he plays a male model, his desperation works for the character. I'm talking, of course, of Zoolander.

Stiller stars as Derek Zoolander, an over the hill male model who is losing work to newcomer Hansel, played amazingly by Owen Wilson. After a bunch of his friends die in a freak gasoline fight accident, Derek decides to retire. He returns home to his coal mining family, (father played by John Voight and brother is Vince Vaughn), but finds that he's too good looking to fit in. It is then that a secret cabal of fashion designers decide to use Derek to assassinate the Malaysian prime minster who is shutting down their sweatshops. Fashion mogul Mugatu, (Will Ferrel), hires Derek for his new show. Derek is secretly programmed to be an assassin. Apparently, fashion designers are behind all political assassinations. With the help of a plucky detective, played by Stiller's real life wife Christine Taylor, they work to thwart their evil plan. He even teams up with his enemy, Hansel. They save the prime minister at the last minute with Derek's new look "Magnum".

This is a dumb movie, but a HIL-A-RIOUS one. It is really well written for such a silly film. There are more cameos than you can shake a really really good-looking stick at. I actually love this movie.