Envy DVD > Reviews > Envy

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Hated it
Story	Very weak
Characters / Performances	Satisfactory
Special Effects	Weak
How does it compare to similar films?	Weak

Advantages:	None at all .
Disadvantages:	Unlikable characters, wandering plot, utter nonense .

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

Jack Black is a funny guy. Ben Stiller is a funny guy with the right material. Barry Levinson has written and directed some very funny films. So how on earth did this ever turn out to be one of the worst excuses for a comedy that I have ever had the misfortune to sit through?

It's not surprised to learn that Envy sat on the shelf collecting dust for two years before it was actually released. The simple answer is that it's just not funny. If Jack Black hadn't suddenly become huge with School Of Rock, I'd expect it to still be sitting on that shelf, or if it was very, very lucky, going straight to video.

Envy centres on two best friends in menial jobs, Tim (Stiller) and Nick (Black). Nick constantly comes up with insane inventions. When he comes up with 'Vapoorize' (yes, with two o's) that eliminates doggie waste, and offers Tim a chance to partner with him, Tim thinks he is mad and turns the offer down. Of course, Vapoorize becomes a huge success, and Nick is suddenly rich beyond his wildest dreams, as Tim watching from across the street, becoming increasingly jealous. This isn't helped with a turn to drink, and a hobo (Christopher Walken) who encourages him to carry out some revenge against his friend.

All of this is just the setup to watch could have potentially been a very funny black comedy. All of the elements are there, yet all seem to be wasted. Instead the film decides to go for entire sections on dead horses, political campaigns and a completely baffling section about a cabin in the woods. None of these things really have any major connection to the main drive of the plot, and this is most of the problem with Envy. If it had stuck to just being a direct one on one increasing battle between Tim and Nick, it could have been great. Instead, it veers off on so many tangents, we have no idea where the plot is from one minute to the next.

None of this is helped by any of the characters, who range from unlikable to those you just want to smack in the face. When the main character you're focusing on (Stiller) falls into the latter, you really have some problems. How can I have any sympathy for a character that I'm spending the majority of the running time just wanting to injure? Black isn't much better, but at least he's tinted with some shades of grey. Sure, he's become an incredibly rich, slightly arrogant guy, but on the other hand, he still cares about his best friend, so again it becomes difficult to support the motivations of Stiller's character. Then of course we have Christopher Walken, who lets be perfectly honest here, would be entertaining to watch even if he just read the phone book aloud for ninety minutes. Unfortunately though, he doesn't get such good material here and we have to suffer through a godawful character who is a completely mystery that is never fully explained. The wives of Tim and Nick, played by Rachel Weisz and Amy Poehler, also get to be around doing the usual film wife type scenes, so of course they are quickly forgotten.

Exactly how did Barry Levinson end up on this kind of drivel? The guy has directed some fantastic satires and black comedies (Good Morning Vietnam, Wag The Dog, Diner) and yet he finds himself directing this nonsense. He can do far, far better than this kind of thing, although I suppose, with the cast on offer and the potential for a plot, he, like the rest of us, did actually believe it could be good.

Envy didn't raise a single laugh out of me. Granted, I'm a tough sell on comedies and I'm very fussy about what I like, but this just didn't have anything at all. Now I'm sure a lot of people will find it very funny, and good luck to them, better to laugh through if possible rather than just sitting dreaming of ways to murder each character in the most gruesome way possible. Everyone involved in this film really should know better. Let us all just hope that they have learnt their lesson.