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  Directed by
  Starring
  Specs
  • Widescreen 1.85:1
  • 16:9 Enhanced
  • Dual Layer ( )
  Languages
  • English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  • Czech: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  • Hungarian: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  Subtitles
    English, Hebrew, Czech, Greek, Polish, Hungarian, Arabic, English - Hearing Impaired, Turkish, Icelandic, Croatian, Hindi, Romanian, Bulgarian, Slovenian
  Extras
  • Theatrical trailer
Envy
/Sony Pictures Home Entertainment . R4 . COLOR . 95 mins . M15+ . PAL

  Feature
Contract

Tim and Nick are best friends, workmates and neighbours. Every day on the way to work Nick (Jack Black) comes up with some crazy scheme or invention that he dreams will make him a fortune but invariably ends in nothing but hot air. When Nick comes up with his latest invention, Vapooriser, an amazing spray that makes dog poo disappear, Tim (Ben Stiller) is understandably sceptical and passes up the opportunity to invest in the concept.

To everybody’s surprise the magic spray actually works, although nobody quite knows where the dog poo goes when it disappears, but it doesn’t seem to matter as Nick quickly becomes amazingly wealthy leaving Tim to continue his humdrum 9 to 5 existence.

The title of the film quickly comes into focus as Nick builds a massive mansion over his old house (over the road from Tim), buys sports cars and horses and generally flaunts his new found wealth. Tim is left feeling rejected and depressed and while downing his sorrows at a bar meets up with a strange drifter (Christopher Walken) who inspires him to do something about his situation; hilarity ensues.

  Video
  Audio
  Extras
Contract

Envyis presented in the original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is enhanced for widescreen displays.

The video transfer for Envy is mostly very good. Colour saturation is excellent and gives a realistic look to both solid colours and skin tones. The sharpness and detail of the picture is excellent throughout. Shadow detail and black levels are likewise very good which is particularly important in some of the key scenes involving Tim’s nocturnal activities.

Audio wise we have a choice of a Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track in English, Hungarian or Czech together with a wide array of subtitle tracks. The 5.1 track is a solid effort with all the usual positive points.

The surround channels are used when appropriate but given the mainly dialogue and visual nature of the movie the surround channels are mostly dormant as is the sub woofer. Dialogue is clear and crisp at all time with the exception of the opening credits where the intro music overpowers the dialogue to a small degree.

The only extras present on Envy are some trailers for the movies Suddenly 30, Mr Deeds and Spiderman 2.

It is pretty obvious that without Black and Stiller (and Walken) this would have been a pretty terrible movie and these three actors carry the weak plot and contrived situations quite well. With Ben Stiller’s manic hyperactivity, Jack Black’s extraverted class clown or even Walken’s understated homeless wacko this movie hasn’t exactly taxed the abilities of any of the actors but it doesn’t really matter.

While Envy wasn’t a blockbuster on release and received almost universal critical failure fans of either of these three actors are advised to ignore the negative reviews and give this movie a chance, it’s at least worth a rental.


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  •   And I quote...
    "It doesn't tax the acting abilities of any of the main players but fans of Stiller, Black or Walken should check this out."
    - Chris Hore
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Pioneer DV-676A
    • Projector:
          BenQ PB6100
    • Receiver:
          Yamaha RX-V995
    • Speakers:
          Wharfedale Diamond
    • Centre Speaker:
          Wharfedale Diamond
    • Surrounds:
          Wharfedale Diamond
    • Subwoofer:
          Energy 12"
    • Audio Cables:
          Standard Optical
    • Video Cables:
          Standard Component RCA
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