Megamind (2010)

4/5

Megamind is a surprisingly clever and innovative animated superhero movie. It draws from a number of the classics, but synthesizes all that material together into something all its own (much like Hot Fuzz). It felt new, exciting, and hilarious. The comedy was fantastic. I normally hate Ben Stiller movies and Will Ferrell movies, but I was pleasantly surprised by the humor displayed in this film. Maybe it's the fact that I'm not staring at Will Ferrell's ugly face or protuberant belly (which he seems so proud of that he cannot wait to expose himself in any and every one of his movies), but I actually thought he did a terrific job here. And I especially loved the mispronounced words (even though I hated all those same mispronounced words in Zoolander).

One very strange thing about this movie is the voice acting. It was great, don't get me wrong, but I always found myself hearing the actor instead of the character. I was never able to separate the person on screen from the person behind the mic. It was always Will Ferrell is doing this, Tina Fey is doing that. I think part of that is the large amount of voice-over narration, where it's easy to recognize their voice because you don't see the animated character disguising it. All in all, however, that's a relatively minor fault and I would definitely recommend this movie. It was such a wonderfully unexpected joy to watch.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1001526/

Zoolander (2001)

2/5

Zoolander is not my kind of film. The plot follows male model Derek Zoolander (Stiller) after losing model of the year to Hansel (Wilson) and after losing his three roommates and close friends in a freak accident. He is being brainwashed by fashion designer Mugatu (Ferrell) to assassinate the Malaysian prime minister, who is implementing changes in his country that will ruin Mugatu's sweatshops. What frustrated me the most about the movie was the way all the characters spoke their lines--or maybe it was just Ben Stiller, who does most of the talking in the film anyway. He overly articulates every single word as if every one of his lines is a punchline, except only about 1 in 50 are. It's frustrating on my ear and my brain to keep expecting a punchline and not getting one, and it particularly hurts the weak jokes. The comedy itself is fair--although not always to my tastes--although I felt that the movie got a lot funnier over time (I especially loved the X-Files and Godfather references). Anyway, Zoolander may be your kind of film, but I am not a huge fan.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0196229/