Tower Heist (***)
Directed by: Brett Ratner
Starring: Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, Casey Affleck, Alan Alda, Matthew
Broderick, Téa
Leoni, Michael Peña, Gabourey Sidibe
Seen: December 1st 2011
*** Out of ****
Tower Heist is billed as a comedy, and while it definitely has its fun
and funny moments, it really also excels at being a moderately tense heist
movie with some serious elements thrown in to boot. The comedy is expertly
balanced with rather tough real-world issues; people’s pension is stolen, their
livelihoods affected by it, and one character even attempts suicide after
hearing this news.
Josh Kovacs (Stiller) is the building manager at a luxury apartment
complex, where he runs a dedicated staff who offer a pristine service to the
tenants. Josh’s brother in law Charlie (Affleck) is the building concierge; his
good friend Lester is the building doorman; and he hires a new bellhop in
Enrique Dev’reaux (Peña). Josh basically lives for his job as tower manager, and
has an uncanny sense of rooting out things that might affect their service to
the tenants. The richest of the tenants is Arthur Shaw (Alda), whom Josh plays
chess with online, the two are almost friends.
One morning Shaw is arrested by FBI agent Claire Denham (Leoni) on
allegations of massive fraud. Apparently having stolen millions of dollars from
various parties, the Tower staff pension Josh asked Shaw to invest on their
behalf is a relatively small amount, and they all stand to lose everything. Acting
out, Josh damages Shaw’s prized Ferrari 250, and is fired along with Charlie
and Dev’reaux. When Shaw seems to be headed for acquittal, Agent Denham lets
slip to Josh that these kinds of people always have a safety net, something of
value or large amounts of cash close by in case of the need for escape. The unfortunate
men start planning a robbery, with the added help of Mr. Fitzhugh (Broderick),
a bankrupt investor just evicted from the building, of the alleged $20 million
Shaw has hidden, and their first stop is to hire “professional” help – in the
form of the small-time crook Slide (Murphy), who trains them on small things,
but is out of his depth as far as the bigger picture is concerned. Another
interesting and entertaining character to join the team is Odessa (Sidibe), a
maid working in the tower looking for a husband to avoid deportation.
Everything doesn’t go exactly according to plan, and the team must
improvise here and find a new specialist member there, which all adds to the
movie’s great entertainment value. Nothing seems certain, and at times things
get quite tense as the robbery transpires, with an always present comedic edge deftly
making its presence known from time to time. The movie is fun, it keeps the
viewer involved, the actors are all great with the specific flavours they
provide, and in a sense this is what we go to the movies for – an effortless
evening of enjoyment, great entertainment value, and a good few laughs. I can
definitely recommend Tower Heist.
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