I also have been known to be too sexy for my shirt: "Zoolander"

Not sure if you've heard of this actor Ben Stiller. He hasn't been in many movies ... only, oh, about 87 last year. Geez, can we officially release Kevin Bacon and now call it Six Degrees of Benny Stiller?

So yeah, you can say I'm a little Stillered out these days between the Fockers and the Starskys and the Pollys. That doesn't mean I can't appreciate Ol' Ben's better efforts, and "Zoolander" ranks high on this list, even if it's under the radar of most people.

Stiller ("Next of Kin") plays the title character, Derek Zoolander, an aging male model who makes Jessica Simpson look like Stephen Hawking. He's so mentally inept that a cabal of designers has him recruited and brainwashed to kill the Prime Minister of Malaysia, who is cracking down on the child labor industry so vital to these designers' success. It's a silly but not entirely unreasonable plot, but the more important thing is that it gives Stiller a chance to act astoundingly clueless instead of giving us his usual nebbish role.

I know, I know ... a comdey based on male modeling doesn't get my juices flowing, either. But Stiller and his partners in crime -- frequent collaborator Owen Wilson ("The Haunting") and always shameless Will Ferrell ("A Night at the Roxbury") -- really pull out all the stops. Wilson is particular good as Zoolander's rival model, Hansel, complete with Razor scooter, empty words and faux Eastern mysticism. In fact, it's worth sharing his "thoughts" when up against Zoolander for the Male Model of the Year Award:

"I wasn't like every other kid, you know, who dreams about being an astronaut, I was always more interested in what bark was made out of on a tree. Richard Gere's a real hero of mine. Sting. Sting would be another person who's a hero. The music he's created over the years, I don't really listen to it, but the fact that he's making it, I respect that. I care desperately about what I do. Do I know what product I'm selling? No. Do I know what I'm doing today? No. But I'm here, and I'm gonna give it my best shot."

Others get in on the fun in smaller doses, from Stiller's dad Jerry as a model agency owner to David Duchovny as an old hand model -- yep, "a finger jockey ... we think differently than the face and body boys" -- to Billy Zane as himself. (He nailed it.) Then there's the Zoolander family, with Jon Voight as Dad, an uncredited Vince Vaughn as one brother and Judah Friedlander as the other brother. Friedlander doesn't do anything, but it should be noted that we've seen him before, from the drugstore clerk in "Meet the Parents" ("You can get a lot of Mum's") to Harvey Pekar's friend Toby in "American Splendor" ("I consider myself a nerd.") Funny guy.

As for "Zoolander," it's hilarious pretty much every time I watch it, which is why the missus didn't have to tell me twice when we were deciding on DVDs the other night. And remember, just because you have chiseled abs and stunning features, it doesn't mean that you too can't not die in a freak gasoline fight accident.