The movie takes about 10 minutes to do its setup: Stiller has a bug up his ass as usual, Black is zany and unfocussed as usual, Black invents "Va-poo-rizer," Stiller refuses to go in on the invention and 18 months later, Black is filthy rich and Stiller is envious. That all happens in 10 minutes. The next 10 minutes is a "how low can you go" sequence in which Stiller loses his job, wife, and kids, ends up with a pit dug in the back yard, and shoots Black's pet horse. So, we're 20 minutes into the movie, and already we've had the setup and reached what should be a technical climax.

Then things get odd.

Christopher Walken goes from friendly do-gooder to crazed extortionist and back again. Black lets Stiller in on the "Vapoorize" partnership (this should be your dramatic resolution, only it happens 45 minutes into a 2 hour movie), Black's wife tries running for Congress, Stiller's wife gets liposuctioned (I think somewhere in there was some sort of message about how wealth corrupts, but that message is lost amongst the circus theatrics), and all along there is a soundtrack in which someone sings a running commentary on the movie.

As with Bandits, there's a free-wheeling nature to the direction, as if to say, "we're just having a fun time, don't be too concerned, beacuse everything will work out." Stiller is at his uptight, nervous best, and Walken is at his creepy, eccentric best. Stiller gives a 10-minute, rambling, incoherant speech near the end of the movie that I thought was quite funny. The performances make the movie watchable. But so much of it makes you go