Last night was Milla Jovovich night on pay cable. Oh, they didn't announce it as such, but it was just the same. On three different channels, they aired the Fifth Element, a fave of mine as longtime readers know, Resident Evil, and the flick from which the picture above was taken, Zoolander.
If you can imagine a cross between Prêt-à-Porter, Airplane!, and the Manchurian Candidate, then you can wrap your head around Zoolander. Ben Stiller stars as internationally famous male model superstar Derek Zoolander, handsome and stylish but completely vacant upstairs. He has a life changing experience at the VH-1 Fashion Awards, when he loses the male model of the year award (he had won three times previously) to up-and-comer Hansel (Owen Wilson, giving a typical Owen-Wilsonish performance). He begins to question his shallow lifestyle and re-evaluate his life, and eventually falls into the clutches of Jacobim Mugatu (Will Farrell), a fashion designer who secretly trains models to pull off assassinations of world leaders. Milla is his henchwoman and assassin trainer, Katinka Ingabogovinanana. One of the funniest things in the movie is hearing Farrell pronounce her name.
And that's kinda the problem with Zoolander the film. It's just not very funny. It's weird, and silly, and fun to watch, really, but I didn't laugh very much. Only an occasional chuckle. So if you rent this expecting to laugh your ass off, then move on, because you won't, but it's still worth your time because it's pretty darn imaginative and there are lots of good performances, especially by Farrell, Wilson, and Stiller's real life wife, Christine Taylor. David Bowie heads the list of numerous cameos by celebrities of all stripes...Billy Zane in particular has a great cameo.
And Milla wears a lot of weird, but sexy outfits. This may not work for you, but it did for me. So caveat emptor.
