Since watching this, I rate all movies on a scale of Envy to 10. I've yet to find another that I dislike more.

Tim and Nick are neighbors who work at a company which makes sandpaper. It's not clear what they do but they wear suits and have offices, and they carpool together each day. Both men have a wife and kids. Nick is so annoying with all his ideas for inventions, and while they are usually ridiculous, one day he gets an idea that actually works. A spray can that eliminates what dogs do! There is a scientist (I assume he works at Nick's company) who actually comes up with the magic formula. The one question that is never answered in the movie is: where does it go when it disappears? On broadcast TV, the question may have been slightly different than the one in the original version. And I just know the original must have used one word far more than what I heard.Tim did not choose to invest in this ridiculous idea. That's okay. he and Nick are such good friends that he shares the wealth, as much as Tim tries to stop his family from being spoiled.Tim is quite envious of Nick, who built a huge mansion right across the street and has the best of everything. And yet he resists letting Nick share the wealth as much as he can, and the white horse Tim's kids love is a particularly serious problem as it does what Nick's invention can cure, only Tim won't use it. Or shouldn't have.Eventually everything falls apart for Tim, and that's when the movie really gets crazy. Tim has a big secret and the wacky J-Man to help him with a scheme to keep this secret from ruining his life even further--for a price. And you just know that whatever Tim tries to do, he will ruin his life even more and more, with hilarious results for the audience.Meanwhile, Nick's wife wants to run for State Senate.The big question we all want to know the answer to: Surely everything will fall apart for Nick too, right? And how will Tim get out of his mess? How far will J-Man go to bring Tim down? How far down can Tim go?Ben Stiller and Jack Black are both considered talented actors. Just not here. Neither man shows why they are so popular.Christopher Walken, on the other hand, stood out. J-Man is quite a character. At least for this type of movie. Let's just say he is superior to Captain Hook in that NBC live production. The weirder this movie gets, the weirder he gets.Amy Poehler does nothing for me but annoy under normal circumstances. She does even less here.But if all you want to do is laugh at something bizarre, and just escape from your own troubles, this just might work.Tim regretted not investing in what he considered a dumb idea. Someone probably should have had Tim's intelligence not to invest in another dumb idea, but I'm glad someone did.

"Envy" bombed at the box office in 2004, but that doesn't mean it's not worth watching (or owning). Jack Black and Ben Stiller play neighbors & best friends in Southern California who work at a sandpaper factory. Black strikes it rich with an invention and builds a vast mansion where his former home was. Of course, this stirs the envy of Stiller who gets mixed-up with an eccentric vagabond, played by Christopher Walken. Amy Poehler and Rachel Weisz play the wives.While "Envy" isn't very laugh-out-loud funny, it's consistently amusing and the story is good enough to maintain your attention. Walken stands out as the offbeat bum. What I like best is the film's originality; I really can't think of any other films like it. Maybe that's why it bombed. I also like the way "Envy" pokes fun at materialism and everything that goes with it, e.g. envy. In addition, it's nice to watch a comedy like this without overt sleaze and overkill cussing, like 2007's "The Heartbreak Kid" (I don't mind realistic cussing in movies, but when it's overdone it's neither impressive nor funny; it's just stoo-pid and smacks of lazy writing).Weisz and Poehler are as gorgeous as ever, but they're decidedly peripheral and the filmmakers never take advantage of their presence. Regardless, "Envy" is solid, original amusement.The film runs 99 minutes and was shot in Santa Clarita, L.A. & Culver Studios, CA, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.GRADE: B

Though he often takes himself too seriously and generates reviews that contain words too large for even a well-read thespian like myself (wink, wink), I respect Roger Ebert's opinion. I thought he was going to savage Envy, but he really didn't. Though his review was far from glowing, he didn't viciously attack the characters, plot lines or dialogue like he normally does for such low-grade flicks. I think it's a case where he expected the movie to be funny because of the reputation of the two main actors (Black and Stiller where hot commodities in 2002-04 when this film was created and released) so he attempted to contrive even the slightest bit of positivity from it.Truth is, though, there really wasn't all that much to like about it.I saw Envy for the first time six and a half years after its release in 2011 and I sort of knew what to expect. I understood the plot and pace were a little bizarre and Ben Stiller was nominated for a Razzie for his performance. So, I guess it's safe to say it lived up to it's reputation as a wondering, darkish comedy with very little character development and concrete story lines. If I would have gone in blind, I probably would have turned the damn thing off half way through, right after Stiller kills Black's pet horse in a drunken stooper.3/10 stars, I guess?