Seven Sins Marathon Movie 6: Envy (2004)


There’s a little green monster that likes to creep up on people every once in a while.  He’s not the absinthe fairy.  That’s a different thing entirely.  I’m talking about envy.  Envy is that thing that makes you want what you don’t have so much that you despise those who do have it.  Unless you are zoned out like Peter in parts of Office Space, then you’re likely envious of at least one thing in life.

The movie Envy was released in 2004.  It features Jack Black, Ben Stiller, Rachel Weisz, Amy Poehler, and Christopher Walken.  It was directed by the guy who directed Rain Man.  Jack Black creates popular poo removing spray, Ben Stiller becomes jealous of the money that Jack Black makes.

There’s something about Envy that keeps me coming back to it.  It’s not a great movie.  It’s okay.  It has flaws in it.  It has some major flaws.  I’ve still seen the movie at least five times now.  Something about kit just grabs a hold of me and gets me to watch it again and again.  I can’t pinpoint it.  All I can say is that it hooks me.

I don’t really have anything to write about the movie.  It exists.  It’s one of those middle of the road movies that is good enough to watch but not good enough to go down as something that will be remembered ten years after it was made.  Aside from me remembering it.  The acting, writing, music, and direction are not good enough to make it a classic movie in any way.  But I like it regardless.

There’s also a question that is brought up and repeated through most of the movie that never gets a concrete solution.  That bothers me a little bit.  What is the answer to that question?  I’ll never know.

Like I said, I really don’t have much to say about Envy.  It keeps me interested, which is something, but there’s nothing special about the movie in any way whatsoever.  I’m done writing about it.

Next up is the penultimate movie of the marathon, Death Wish.  Hopefully I have more to write about that than I did about Envy because this writeup is my worst one yet, by a longshot.

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