Envy - 3

This film needs some serious work. Not that I expect much from Jack Black as an inventor of spray that makes crap disappear, and it didn't make me wonder about that all important question, "where does the shit go?" Rather I knew that the shit replaced the air and emptiness of the brains of the characters. I suggests fast forwarding to the end and seeing the scene where they explain feelings of envy and how truth plays into that, other than that the film seems like waste of time. That spray might come in handy to make the movie disappear from my memory. Most of the laughs come from the outrageousness of the whole situation that is believable for about half a minute, and then rejected as just dumb. On the bight side much can be learned and discussed about the virtues and the vices of our behavior. How does envy work? Is truth-telling, especially about ourselves, part of the key to being virtuous? I think it would disappoint the makers of this film to take too much away from it or to actually engage it, but this film might be a good mix of a serious part of our society -the keeping up with the Jones' mentality- and movies as just entertainment; a way to make us laugh at ourselves and others. A Hollywood film is the last place you would think to look for a critic of our consumption culture, and this film isn't really that critique in any meaningful or intentional way.