Envy (2004)

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

Director:

Barry Levinson

Writer:

Steve Adams

Stars:

Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Rachel Weisz

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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

Storyline

Ben Stiller and Jack Black star as Tim and Nick, best friends, neighbors and co-workers, whose equal footing is suddenly tripped up when one of Nick's harebrained get-rich-quick schemes actually succeeds: Vapoorizer, a spray that literally makes dog poop, or any other kind for that matter, evaporate into thin air -- to where exactly is anyone's guess. Tim, who had scoffed at Nick's idea and passed on an opportunity to get in on the deal, can only watch as Nick's fortune -- and Tim's own envy -- grow to equally outrageous proportions. When the flames of jealousy are fanned by an oddball drifter (Walken) who imposes himself into the situation, Tim's life careens wildly out of control ... taking Nick's with it.

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Plot Keywords:

envy | jealousy | best friend | neighbor | dog | 

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Taglines:

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

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Genres:

Comedy

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for language and sexual/crude humor

Details

Official Sites:

Dreamworks Pictures.

Country:

USA Australia

Language:

English

Release Date:

30 April 2004 (USA)

Also Known As:

L'envie

Filming Locations:

Brazil

Box Office

Budget:

$40,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$6,160,886 (USA) (30 April 2004)

Gross:

$12,181,484 (USA) (21 May 2004)

Company Credits

Production Co:

DreamWorks SKG, Columbia Pictures, Castle Rock Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

99 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Both Jack Black and DreamWorks' Jeffrey Katzenberg publicly apologized for the film during a press conference for Shark Tale at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.

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Goofs

In the scene when J-Man is sitting in Tim's chair after Tim left the cabin, J-Man has crumbs on his shirt and pants. However, when the shot changes to show both J-Man and Tim, the crumbs disappear, then reappear when J-Man has his close-up again.

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Quotes

Mr. Parmenter: Now, your performance chart's pretty good until here. And then your focus nosedives into the red. You see? Now, is there anything that happened around *here*... you might like to talk about?
Tim Dingman: Um, no.
Mr. Parmenter: You sure?
Tim Dingman: Yeah. No.
Mr. Parmenter: Any reason?
Tim Dingman: Reason? No, I can't think of...
Mr. Parmenter: Any reason at all?
Tim Dingman: No. No reason. No. I mean, nothing I can think of. I mean... you know, other than every day, I get into my little shit-box car and there he is... with the wind in his hair... on his great big shiny horse. And I drive ...
[...]

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Crazy Credits

During the end credits, viewers see a TV infomercial for Dingman and Vanderpark's new invention, Pocket Flan.

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Soundtracks

"I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)"
(Piangono Gli Uomini)
Written by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier & Eddie Holland (as Edward Holland Jr.)
Performed by The Four Tops
Courtesy of Motown Records
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

No Wonder Christopher Walken Plays in This

This could be looked at in many different ways. This movie sucks, its good or its just plain weird. The third one probably explains this movie best. It has strange themes and just has a strange plot. So who else but Christopher Walken would play in this no matter how bad, average or even how good it might be.

The acting was what you would expect especially out of Ben Stiller. Jack Black I have always liked so you know what you will get out of him but this is not bad. Christopher Walken is always off the wall. He is always enjoyable to watch no matter how bad the movie is. Comedy wise it is somewhat funny. This of course meaning that it does have its moments (though very few) but can get a little over top here and there which makes me feel like the movie is just desperate for laughs but of course not in a good way.

The directing was average as well. Barry Levinson is a slightly overrated director and really did not do a good job here. This movie seemed that it had a lot more potential and he did not do much to reach it. Just very average and did not seem like a lot of effort was put into making this film.

The writing is the key to a good comedy. Obviously that means the writing here failed. At best it is below average. Considering it does have its moments it was not too horrible. That is never a good thing to say about a movie though.

If not for Christopher Walken and it stupid ridiculous ending I would have given it a lower rating. He is always quite a character in his movies. Stil this is just a whacked out strange movie with strange characters that really don't go anywhere. Not completely horrible but I would not really recommend it though because it is a very forgettable movie.