Envy

Envy is a 2004 American comedy film directed by Barry Levinson. It stars Ben Stiller and Jack Black.

Plot
Tim Dingman (Ben Stiller) and Nick Vanderpark (Jack Black) are best friends, neighbors and co-workers at 3M. Nick is constantly coming up with crazy ideas to get rich quick, and when he invents Vapoorize, a spray that instantly removes dog feces, he actually succeeds. As Nick's wealth continues to grow, so does Tim's envy, as he had initially scoffed at the idea and squandered an opportunity to invest and become mega-rich himself. Nick is blissfully unaware of Tim's jealousy, and his generosity only serves to make Tim more envious of him. Meanwhile Nick's wife Natalie (Amy Poehler) decides to run for state senate but is continually plagued by questions about her husband's product.

After Tim's wife (Rachel Weisz) and children temporarily leave and he is fired from 3M, Tim's jealousy reaches new levels. In a bar he meets J-Man (Christopher Walken), a bizarre drifter, who lends a sympathetic ear and offers advice. After a drunken night out, Tim accidentally kills his neighbor's beloved horse, Corkey, and buries the horse in his abandoned swimming pool.

Nick offers an $50,000 reward for the return of his horse and together J-Man and Tim concoct a plan whereby J-Man would discover the horse and claim the reward, splitting the proceeds. However a series of unfortunate events, including the sequestering of Tim's family in J-Man's mountain cabin, leads to the horse's carcass being lost in a rain storm.

Nick reveals to Tim that he is going to Rome for the debut of Vapoorize there, and gives Tim the opportunity to now join him in a 50/50 partnership, which he accepts. J-Man finds out that Tim is now rich, and, feeling betrayed, tries to blackmail him. After confessing to his wife, now enjoying her rich lifestyle, Tim agrees to pay J-Man; however J-Man ups his demands and asks to be Tim's partner. Tim accidentally shoots him in the back with an arrow and J-Man, believing that Tim has tried to kill him, backs down in fear.

Tim eventually confesses all to Nick who forgives him for his jealousy and agrees to continue with the partnership; however at a press conference for Debbie's electoral campaign (where she promises to withdraw her candidacy if it's proven Vapoorize is harmful to the environment in any way), Corkey's body is seen floating down the nearby river, and the animal hospital's post-mortem discovers that the horse was not killed by the arrow as previously thought but actually poisoned by a by-product of Vapoorize, used by Tim to treat his garden after Corkey came to eat the apples off of his tree. The veterinarian informs the pair that she is obliged to inform the Environmental Protection Agency, and Vapoorize is immediately pulled from the market. Nick and Tim almost lose all their wealth and glory - until Tim comes up with an invention of his own: Pocket Flan, inspired by Nick and his family's love for the dessert. J-Man is shown in the audience of Tim and Nick's infomercial for Pocket Flan, apparently reconciled.

Cast

 * Ben Stiller as Tim Dingman
 * Jack Black as Nick Vanderpark
 * Rachel Weisz as Debbie Dingman
 * Amy Poehler as Natalie Vanderpark
 * Christopher Walken as J-Man
 * Ariel Gade as Lula Dingman
 * Sam Lerner as Michael Dingman
 * Ofer Samra as Pete

Production
This was the first co-production between Columbia Pictures and Castle Rock Entertainment since 1999, and the first film produced by the latter to be distributed by the former since that same year, when Castle Rock switched distribution of most of its films to Warner Bros. Pictures. DreamWorks also co-produced the film, and handled US distribution.

Reception
Envy earned nearly universally negative reviews and scored only a 7% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 112 reviews, including a 0% score among top critics.

The film had been shot almost two years before its release, and was in danger of going straight-to-video in the US due to poor audience response during test screenings. It was only due to Jack Black's School of Rock (2003) that it finally got a theatrical release. Nevertheless, the film performed poorly in US theaters, so much that it was released straight-to-video in several European countries and Australia.

At the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, during a press conference for Shark Tale (2004), both Black and DreamWorks' Jeffrey Katzenberg publicly apologized for Envy.