Film After 11 Podcast | Zoolander (2001)

We’ve finally hit the end of our alphabetical marathon on the Film After 11 podcast. That of course brings us to the letter “Z,” for which I thought Ben Stiller’s fashion industry parody Zoolander would be a good choice. That movie’s rated PG-13, right? No, it’s rated R? Turns out, both are true. I explain why in the episode.

As for my feelings on the movie? Zoolander may not be one of my favorite comedies of all time or anything, but it’s pretty funny. And it begins with a “Z,” so there you go. If you want to hear my 12-year-old son and I discuss the great discomfort of watching a movie with an unexpected orgy scene that I didn’t remember at all, you’ll have to check out the episode.

Zoolander (2001) - Will Ferrell
Title:Zoolander
Year of Release: 2001
Director: Ben Stiller
Watched On: Fandango at Home (rental)
Also Available On:Paramount+
Hoopla
Canopy
Pluto TV
Various VOD rental and purchase platforms

Video Streaming

Zoolander has a complicated history of distribution rights. In the American market, the film was initially released to DVD by Paramount in 2002, but later to Blu-ray in 2014 from Warner Home Video. A Blu-ray reissue in 2016 then went back to Paramount. At the time of this writing, no 4K edition has been announced.

In any case, I don’t own any of those discs and instead watched the movie via a streaming rental on Fandango at Home, where it’s only available in so-called “HDX” 1080p format. The streaming copy is clearly sourced from an older video master. The 2.40:1 image is rather soft and noisy. This is a very colorful movie, and those colors look fine but could use a little more depth and vibrancy. A 4K HDR remaster would no doubt bring out a lot from this photography.

Zoolander (2001) poster

The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio on streaming is decent enough. Music sounds pretty good and occasionally has a little bass. Dialogue is clear. A few surround effects are noticeable every once in a while. It’s nothing exceptional, but it’s fine.

Related

Note: All screenshots on this page were grabbed off a web browser, and came out looking much softer than actually watching the movie from a proper streaming device. They are used for illustration purposes only.

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