This comedy desperately wants to be cynical and dark, but the light comic sensibilities of director Jonathan Lynn and screenwriters Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel prevent it from being the snidely cruel satire it should have been. Noteworthy for the sinister edges they bring to their roles are Phil Hartman and Kirk Douglas. In their scenes the film bursts to energetic, gleefully savage life, but the rest of the fatuous script strives so hard after affability that the entire acquisitive point is lost. Hartman is even funnier for the contrast between his unapologetic, voracious wolfhound of a tyrant and the wishy-washy, prosaic materialism of the other characters. Typically likable and winning are leads Michael J. Fox and Nancy Travis, which means they're woefully miscast in a film that ends up being too close to reality for laughs, more sad than funny. Greedy works hard and comes frustratingly close to comic greatness, but the film backs away from being quite mean enough to generate genuine laughs.