Envy (2004)
"I'm tell'n ya, 4 or 5 cans of this stuff and it'd be like Duplex never happened?"
Starring: |
Ben Stiller |
Released By: |
Dreamworks |
Released In: |
2004 |
Rated: |
R |
Reviewed By: |
Adam Mast |
Grade: |
D- |
Envy, in case you didn't know is a film that's been shelved for some time and even though it boasts a friendship gone awry between two of the funniest comic actors working today, it won't take audiences long to see why there's been no rush to get this evaporated piece of dog crap to the multiplex. (Which is all the more perplexing as the film was directed by Barry Levinson who's delivered such smart comic fare as Diner and Wag the Dog and proven that he can do an effective jealous buddy film with Bandits?) There are so many things that are wrong with the way this movie is put together and so many wasted opportunities for it to have been really brilliant that it's an overwhelming task to attempt to explain.
Since this movie was wrapped so long ago it's unfair to criticize Stiller for playing yet another fuss-budget up-tight foil who, winds up suffering as a result of his inability to loosen up. His Envy is a result of a hare-brained invention that his neighbor and good friend (Black) lucks into that is an aerosol spray that magically causes pet poop to evaporate and disappear. Before you can say presto Black is a rich man, and Stiller is left to rue the fact that he had the opportunity to share in all of this easy money for lousy $2000 investment.
What is so disheartening about Envy is what a unforgivable waste of Jack Black it turns out to be. He has a few moments doing infomercials and some of the ways he spends his millions get a smile here and there, but it's just really not funny. He plays this thing like a guileless lottery winner, who immediately starts spending his money by putting a bowling alley next to his Dining Room and pretty much turning his tract home into a gaudy super-mansion complete with a carousel on the grounds and Corinthian-styled stables for a white horse that's always getting loose and nibbling on Stiller's apple tree. In such circumstances you would expect Black to unleash his comic skills, but he plays it without any irony and never fails to become giddy to the point of blubbering every time he watches his aerosol invention do it's magic thing. Amid all of this sudden largess, Black is quick to throw his buddy a bone or two, because they're buddies and he wants to be nice, but these gestures only serve to further infuriate Stiller and the fact that Black remains oblivious to this fact isn't at all plausible and it's this kind of ineptitude on the part of the writers that is just inexcusable.
This is the first time that Stiller and Black have teamed up, yet rather than using this ironic twist of a plot as a means for some really interesting psychological warfare, similar to Belushi and Aykroyd in Neighbors, Levinson tries to play the thing like a Farrelly brothers comedy - more often than not, leaving both Stiller and Black with nothing better to do than try to ad-lib their way through most of this film as though the goal was to disappoint and confuse their enormous fan-base. To make matters worse there are a handful of sub-plots that manage to dilute the film even further, many of which vanish unresolved as Fido's feces.
The film might have played much better had they pulled the same smart switch that Belushi and Aykroyd did in Neighbors. By playing against type, they gave that film an edge that it would have lacked had both actors stuck to their comfort zone shtick. Envy does nothing but waste Black and allow Stiller to further dig himself into this typecast cul-de-sac that has plagued most of his last several films. Remember the Cat from Meet the Parents? One night after the horse has gotten loose and had it's way with Stiller's apple tree, the drunk Stiller acts out and accidentally kills the horse with a bow and arrow. Don't ask? Much like his Focker predicament with the cat, Stiller must now dispose of a horse. Wasn't that one in Animal House? Mercifully this scene is salvaged in the strangest way as a weird drifter played with typical bizarre aplomb by Christopher Walken helps Stiller bury the horse. This is as funny as this film gets, so make sure to enjoy this scene. The biggest example of Envy in this film was probably on the part of Black and Stiller as they watch Walken steal the show with a deadpan rendition of "I am a happy wanderer."
In the end Black's loyalty and occasional generosity toward Stiller begin to eat at his guilty envious conscience, and the movie limps across the finish line trying to foist itself off as a morality play about honesty and friendship. But it is so forced and unconvincing that every critic and I'm guessing quite a few of Stiller and Black's most diehard fans will be wishing they had a can of that magic poop spray - but you'd need a case of the stuff to make this "Cleveland Steamer" vanish from your memory.
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