Grade: D+

Verdict: Dull and duller.

Dogs make messes. Sometimes, so do Oscar winners.

Barry Levinson won an Academy Award for directing "Rain Man" and has a handful of other Oscar nominations for films like "Bugsy" and "Avalon." He also made the funny "Diner" and the funnier "Wag the Dog."

His latest film, "Envy," however, is pure poo.

It's got everything up front that looks like a perfect fit. The likeable Ben Stiller. The lovably goofy Jack Black. And a story about mounting inner rage among best friends in which Black's character, the nuttier of the two, takes a loopy idea -- a spray called Vapoorize that would make dog poo vanish -- and strikes it rich. Filthy rich. And the have-not friend can't cope.

The film's also got Christopher Walken, Hollywood's current go-to guy for edgy line delivery.

What "Envy" does right is the setup. We see Tim Dingman (Stiller) and Nick Vanderpark (Black) as best buds and neighbors in their middle-class cul-de-sac, each with the appropriate two kids (so what if Nick's son strikes out at T-ball) and sunny-faced wives. Tim drives Nick to work in a dusty, middle-class Toyota.

They're both middle managers at 3M. Tim's got a best attendance award on his office wall, and if Nick could only raise one portion of his job performance rating he could possibly, just possibly, mind you, get bumped up to the sandpaper department with Tim.

Then, Tim says, everything would be possible.

What Tim didn't count on, especially since he refused to buy into it, is that Nick's nutty concept for a spray that vaporizes dog manure ends up working.

Nick becomes ultra-wealthy and Tim becomes ultra-jealous.

The movie has a couple of decent jokes and a few honest laughs, but mostly it spits and spurts in various directions, groping for humor that simply ... isn't ... there. Few scenes feel connected. There's an out-of-nowhere trip overseas. Moments in the black hole of a script become so disjointed and out of sorts, you can start to wonder whether the reels have gotten mixed up.

Though they play best friends, Stiller and Black hardly seem to know each other, much less act together. Stiller tries physical comedy, which in this movie is just about all Black does.

Near the end, when Stiller sits down next to Black and begins to recap the entire film, moviegoers can surely be excused if they choose to make a quick exit.