Tower Heist Review

Judging by the trailer, Tower Heist looked like it could be hit or miss. Some of it looked funny and other parts made the film look like it would be corny. I know that you can't judge a movie by its trailer, so I was more than willing to see it anyway. It starred Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy together for the first time and also included a deep cast of solid actors, so that was interesting enough for me to at least to give it a chance.

Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda) is a Wall Street businessman who gets in trouble for scheming millions of dollars out of unsuspecting investors. A group of his victims actually work at the high-rise where he lives. Once they realize that they've been robbed of their pensions, they decide to get even by stealing back money that he may have hidden in a secret department in his apartment. Josh Kovacs (Ben Stiller) makes it his duty to the lead the team on this heist with the help of an old "friend" named Slide (Eddie Murphy), who also happens to be a career criminal. Getting together a team who wants to help is easy, but getting them to develop the fortitude to pull the heist off proves to be much more difficult.

Tower Heist is a film where the dialog is its primary source of comedy. The back and forth banter between the characters is entertaining and that's partially because the personalities were so different and they had unique things to bring to the table. All of them helped move the film along as we get to learn about them, parts of their personal lives and their relationships with one another. I'll also say that the characters are far more important to the movie than anything else, including the plot. They are the backbone of the film and it's obvious to see from the beginning.

While I acknowledge the entire cast and their positive contributions as a whole, it has to be said that Tower Heist truly comes alive when Eddie Murphy gets involved. I'm happy to say that this movie manages to brings back the Rated-R version of Eddie Murphy that's been missing for a long time. He appeared to return to his old form in this movie and that's a good thing. Murphy stole the show in every scene he was in and did some of what made him into a star. We haven't seen this version Eddie in a while and I wish he had more screen time. I hope he stays in these roles for the foreseeable future, because that would be good for business.

Although I do like Tower Heist, I wish that it was smarter than it was. It offered itself multiple chances to do that, but it rarely took advantage of those said chances. I'll also point out that it had a few blatant holes in the movie that can't be explained away easily if you tried, you'll have to see those for yourself. In the end, it was just a fun movie that I enjoyed. They brought back the real Eddie Murphy and added a lot of wise cracking jokes that made up for some of its flaws. It's not complicated and I don't think it was supposed to be. Tower Heist is a movie made for laughs and that's what you get.

Score: 3/5

Rating: PG-13

Director: Brett Ratner

Cast:

Ben Stiller

Eddie Murphy

Matthew Broderick

Casey Affleck

Michael Peña

Gabourey Sidibe

Alan Alda

Tea Leoni

Film Length: 99 minutes

Release Date: November 4, 2011

Distributor: Universal Pictures

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