BY THE end of this year, Ben Stiller will have shared top billing in no less than five big-screen comedies.

So far, he has goofed his way through Along Came Polly, Starsky & Hutch, Our House and DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story. He also enjoys a cameo in this week's other comedy release, Anchorman -The Legend Of Ron Burgundy.

Sad to say, Envy is the runt of the litter - a film so devoid of good humour or originality, you have to wonder why it didn't beat a hasty path straight to video and DVD.

Tim Dingman (Stiller) and Nick Vanderpark (Jack Black) have been best friends, neighbours and co-workers for years, living in similar houses on opposite sides of a leafy cul-de-sac.

Both men have raised families: Tim has a feisty wife Debbie (Rachel Weisz), a son Michael and daughter Lula; Nick is blessed with an adoring wife Natalie (Amy Poehler) and two children of his own, Nathan and Nellie.

The only thing that distinguishes the friends is that Tim is begrudgingly content with his humdrum, suburban life while Nick loves to dream up all kinds of ludicrous, get-rich-quick schemes.

When Nick suggests an aerosol spray called Vapooizer, which will dissolve dog litter into thin air, Tim laughs at the idea and refuses to invest in the hare-brained enterprise.

But Nick is soon having the last laugh when Vapooizer becomes the invention of the year.

Cans fly off the shelves of every supermarket and Tim and Natalie become very rich, very quickly.

Tim's frustration and jealousy spiral out of control, enflamed by his wife Debbie who snaps bitterly: "It was only $2,000".

When an oddball loner called J-Man (Christopher Walken) convinces Tim to get even, his envy runs amok, with disastrous consequences.

There is the seed of a good idea in Steve Adams's screenplay. Sadly, he and director Barry Levinson seem incapable of bringing it to blossom, settling for tired and obvious visual gags.

The comedic talents of Stiller and Black are completely wasted in bland, two-dimensional roles, leaving the two actors with scant opportunity to bounce off each other.

Weisz's embittered wife quickly grates and Poehler is lumbered with a superfluous sub-plot, involving her brazen blonde trying to get into politics, with very vague ideas of what this might involve.

Envy - the comedy that makes the laughter disappear.

Rating: 3/10