Envy (2004)

Regisseur:

Barry Levinson

Drehbuchautor (WGA):

Steve Adams (written by)

Premierendatum:

30. April 2004 (USA)

Genre:

Komödie

Werbezeile:

Success didn't go to his head, it went to his neighbor.

Plot:

A man becomes increasingly jealous of his friend's newfound success.

Plot Keywords:

Profanity | Frat Pack | Best Friend | Money | Poor

Filmpreise:

1 nomination

Nutzerkommentare:

Misfires across every aspect to produce a pointless film whose only merit is how forgettable it is

Besetzung

Ben Stiller	...	Tim Dingman
Jack Black	...	Nick Vanderpark
Rachel Weisz	...	Debbie Dingman
Amy Poehler	...	Natalie Vanderpark
Christopher Walken	...	J-Man
Ariel Gade	...	Lula Dingman
Sam Lerner	...	Michael Dingman
Lily Jackson	...	Nellie Vanderpark
Connor Matheus	...	Nathan Vanderpark
Hector Elias	...	Eduardo
Angee Hughes	...	Woman at Play
Manny Kleinmuntz	...	Dimitriov
Blue Deckert	...	Cal
John Gavigan	...	Les
Terry Bozeman	...	3M Worker

Alternativ:

Neid (Deutschland) [de]

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for language and sexual/crude humor.

Länge:

99 Min

Produktionsland:

USA | Australia

Sprache:

Englisch

Farbe:

Farbe

Seitenverhältnis:

1.85 : 1

Tonverfahren:

SDDS | DTS | Dolby Digital

Altersfreigabe:

Netherlands:AL | South Korea:12 | Canada:PG (Ontario) | USA:PG-13 (certificate #40103) | Brazil:14 | Iceland:LH | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Finland:K-7 | Germany:o.Al. | Italy:T | Singapore:PG | UK:12A

Drehorte:

Brazil

Firma:

DreamWorks SKG

Dies und das:

Performed so poorly in US theaters, that it was released straight-to-video in Europe.

Pannen:

Filmfehler: When Tim goes to Nick's house after J-man answers the phone, Tim knocks on Nick's door, and when their butler opens the door, the door and the frame wobble back and forth for 2 or 3 seconds.

Dialogzitate:

Michael Dingman: [as Tim has put him to bed] Daddy, why can't we have flan?

Soundtrack:

I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)

Misfires across every aspect to produce a pointless film whose only merit is how forgettable it is

Tim Dingman and Nick Vanderpark are neighbours and colleagues working down at 3M in middle-management jobs with vague prospects for more. Tim scores highly across the board on his performance chart, but dreamer Nick flunks on focus. Constantly discussing his pipe-dreams, Nick has worn down Tim to the point where he doesn't listen any more. However when Nick does hit on something, Tim ignores the chance to invest. Eighteen months later and Nick is rich beyond his wildest dreams and has covered his house across the street into a mansion. Meanwhile Tim has been left feeling inadequate and jealous of Nick's success.

I'm surprised by the amount of hate put aside for this film, not because it is bad but more because, having seen it, I'm struggling to have any strong feelings towards it one way or another as it is all very bland and misfiring. I can understand why professional critics laid into it; it is not that often that they sees stars fall so when someone has a high-profile flop, it is almost like a competition to write the most savage review – and of course the public mostly follow suit at first. Anyway, I'm not quite sure what the plot is here because it seems to be being made up as it goes along and there is no flow to it.

Worse than this, there are no real laughs either. Occasionally (and I mean very occasionally) there are some slightly amusing moments but mostly it is just one misfired attempt at humour after another and the overwhelming impact on me was one of inducing boredom. The cast are wasted with the material, which is where the weakness lies. Stiller needed to produce a real person and then move him into extremes in the way that has worked for him before. Here though he cannot find the person and instead he just mugs his way through. Black is left on the sidelines to occasionally act like a big kid, he doesn't suit the role and he deserved something better but he is nothing compared to the waste of the fine actress Weisz, who hopefully at least had fun on this cause I can't imagine this film brought her anything else. Walken is OK but only because he is being "Walken" throughout – which is still fun because he is now like someone doing a really good impression of Christopher Walken, which is fun I guess.

Overall then a bad film but not in the ranting "burning torches in the street" sense that some reviewers have done but just in the "pointless wasted of time with nothing at all of value" sense. At best it amuses but mostly every aspect of it misfires most of the time and it only succeeded in making me bored.