Not quite as good as it should have been, despite spirited performances from Black and Stiller and Christopher Walken on top crazy bonkers mental form.
Comment
09/11/04
Envy (2004)
6 %
Reviews Counted: 108 Fresh: 6 Rotten:102 Average Rating: 3/10
Consensus:
Jack Black and Ben Stiller fail to wring laughs from a script that's essentially one extended poop joke.
Runtime: 1 hr 40 mins
Synopsis: Ben Stiller ("Meet the Parents") and Jack Black ("Shallow Hal") star in the outrageous comedy "Envy," under the direction of Academy Award winner Barry Levinson ("Rain Man"). Tim (Ben Stiller) and Nick (Jack Black) are best friends, neighbors and co-workers, whose equal footing is... [More]
Genre: Comedies
Starring: Jack Black, Ben Stiller, Christopher Walken, Rachel Weisz, Amy Poehler
Director: Barry Levinson
Screenwriter: Steve Adams
Producer: Barry Levinson, Paula Weinstein
Composer: Mark Mothersbaugh
Screenwriter: Steve Adams
Producer: Barry Levinson, Paula Weinstein
Composer: Mark Mothersbaugh
Reviews
Featuring two of America's most successful comic actors, you'd think it'd be hilarious. Think again.
09/11/04
Top Critic
The differing styles of the two comedians never meld, but the script is so flabby even an industrial crane couldn't lift it.
09/07/04
Top Critic
With so many dubious elements at play, even the half-good ideas get lost in the shuffle.
03/05/07
Envy crawls to its finish through a minefield of poor taste and comedic misfires.
03/05/07
I don't think any critic could have predicted a turkey like this based on the immense level of talent that is involved here.
06/20/05
A primary plot device involves the literal beating of a dead horse -- would they just like to write the reviews for us?
04/01/05
It is in fact consistently adequate and, in places, achieves nothing short of above-averageness.
10/19/04
Too broadly played and not at all funny enough, in spite of the milking of a high concept.
08/08/04
Levinson nunca foi um bom diretor de comédias (Bom Dia, Vietnã deve seu sucesso a Robin Williams), mas aqui ele definitivamente atinge o fundo do poço.
07/20/04
Obviously attempting to poach on the Farrelly Brothers territory, director Barry Levinson pushes Steve Adams' feeble screenplay over the top.
05/20/04
Pinched, airless -- and so far away from any recognizable human behavior patterns it feels like a movie made by (and for) aliens who watched too many Seinfeld reruns.
05/11/04
This may be a shining example of a filmmaker who has completely lost touch with the audience.
05/09/04
Envy's horrid mix of poorly done black comedy and the incessant striving to be zany by Black, Stiller, and former Upright Citizens Brigade member Poehler makes Death to Smoochy look like a masterpiece of comic nuance.
05/09/04
A potentially interesting story that gets sidetracked by a bunch of inconsequential nonsense.
05/09/04
So much of what was taking place onscreen was so odd and so completely NOT funny that it became, in a way, interesting.
05/08/04
Related Forums
ENVY: #3 on worst of 2004 list
by: Fidelio 1/9/05
by: Fidelio 1/9/05
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