The timing of “Tower Heist” couldn’t have been better — with Occupy protests sprouting up all over the country and the economy in tatters, who doesn’t want to see a Wall Street swindler go to jail? Brett Ratner (“Rush Hour)
The timing of “Tower Heist” couldn’t have been better — with Occupy protests sprouting up all over the country and the economy in tatters, who doesn’t want to see a Wall Street swindler go to jail?
Brett Ratner (“Rush Hour) directs this silly comedy, that has one of the most eclectic ensembles I have seen on-screen in years.
Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy lead this revenge-on-Wall Street tale, and the duo make a good pair, especially Murphy, who seems to have made the transition back to the adult comedy world. In fact, the entire cast was top-notch. Casey Affleck, Gabourey Sidibe, Matthew Broderick and Michael Pena are all great dramatic actors who prove they can portray clumsy dimwits, too.
The film centers on Ben Stiller as Josh Kovacs, the manager of New York City’s most luxurious high-rise residence. The luxurious apartment complex’s wealthiest resident is Arthur Shaw (played brilliantly by Alan Alda), a Wall Street executive who starts his days by diving into a pool of money (a swimming pool with a hundred-dollar bill emblazoned on the bottom).
His day is soured when Arthur is arrested by FBI agent Claire Denham (Tea Leoni) for a string of felony fraud charges. It seems that Arthur has ripped off all his clients, including the building’s staff, who lost their pensions in the scam.
Those ripped off include a bumbling concierge with a pregnant wife (Affleck), an immigrant housekeeper (Sidibe, who needs a little help with her Jamaican accent) and a newly-hired elevator operator (Pena).
When Josh learns that Arthur may have a secret stash of cash upwards of $20 million, Josh devises a plan to break into Arthur’s penthouse, steal it and redistribute it among the building’s employees like a modern-day Robin Hood.
Josh recruits a few staff members, a depressed financial adviser who was evicted from the building (Broderick) and a street-level con artist named Slide (Murphy).
The group isn’t exactly “Ocean’s Eleven,” but it’s their incompetence that makes up the bulk of the film’s jokes, especially when the group attempts to shoplift at a local mall at Slide’s behest.
There is no doubt “Tower Heist” is the type of silly, escapist comedy where you don’t look too closely at the execution of the heist. None of the plan is believable, but Josh and Slide’s interaction inside a car dangling from the roof of a high-rise building is one of the funniest scenes in the film.
While these would be deal-breakers in other films, it adds to the fun in “Tower Heist.”
The only shame is that Ratner and the writers didn’t develop the film’s female characters. Claire’s drunken exit from a bar reminds audience members what a fine comic actress Leoni can be.
104 minutes.
