Zoolander 2

It’s been 15 years since Ben Stiller’s career—as actor, co-writer and director—hit rock-bottom with the execrable Zoolander, wherein he played a dim-witted supermodel brainwashed into trying to assassinate the prime minister of Malaysia. What bizarre professional death wish prompted Stiller to make a sequel to that sorry flop at this late date is a topic for him and his psychoanalyst, if he has one. The result, currently staining some 3,300 screens nationwide, is our problem. Owen Wilson is back as Zoolander’s fellow supermodel Hansel, likewise the parade of tawdry star cameos (Kristen Wiig, Benedict Cumberbatch, Will Ferrell and Penélope Cruz being the most prominent). The story is beside the point in this pointless movie; it’s less tasteless and offensive than the original, but just as god-awful. J.L.