Plot: Josh Kovacs is the building manager of a high-rise luxury apartment complex called The Tower in Columbus Circle. The most noteworthy tenant is wealthy businessman Arthur Shaw, who has a strong rapport with Josh and the building staff. One day, Shaw is caught by Josh and FBI agent Claire Denham trying to flee the city, and it is revealed that Shaw is being accused of a Ponzi scheme. Josh had offered Shaw his and the other building employees’ pensions for an investment opportunity which are therefore lost as a result. Shaw is sentenced to house arrest in his penthouse apartment until his guilt or innocence can be proved. Lester, the building’s retiring doorman, attempts to commit suicide by jumping in front of a subway, but is saved at the last minute and taken to a hospital. Lester reveals that he not only lost his pension in Shaw’s scheme, but his other sources of capital as well. Josh goes to Shaw’s apartment with Charlie Gibbs, the concierge and Josh’s brother-in-law, and Enrique Dev’reaux, the bellhop and newest tower employee. When Josh mentions Lester’s suicide attempt, Shaw appears insincere, suggesting his guilt, and Josh responds by destroying the windows of Shaw’s prized Ferrari 250. Josh, Charlie, and Enrique are fired by Mr. Simon, their boss, as a result.
Josh and Claire meet at a bar and after a few drinks, Claire drunkenly mentions that Shaw has a safety net of around $20 million in cash and suggests they should break in and take it.
Review: Tower Heist is a funny movie. It’s a little oddly paced, but shines when and where needed just enough to make it stand out as one of the better ensemble comedies released this year. The premise of the movie is really what helps make it accessible to the casual viewer with the film starting off by introducing Josh Kovacs (Stiller) and Arthur Shaw (Alda) and quickly setting up the relationships between the characters and their relationships with the rest of the hotel staff. The story draws a healthy amount of inspiration from the Bernie Madoff scandal and that helps especially with the current condition of the economy and it regularly making headlines. I’m sure that more than a few of have a story related to the event. It’s a fun, yet grounded, setup to give the opportunity for all the fun characters to collude in a heist of $20 million from the man who stole their pension.
There’s a lot to enjoy in this movie but there’s also a few things that just made me want to cringe while watching. A point of contention for me in film is the performance(s) of the principle characters. Ben Stiller gives a typical ‘Ben Stiller’ performance but being a typical ‘Ben Stiller’ shouldn’t immediately make you think it’s a bad thing. Ben portrays a hotel manager as well as he portrays a security guard at a museum, which means that it may not be entirely authentic but in this movie he’s incredibly entertaining to watch. He’s a relatable everyman that happens to lead this ensemble cast incredibly well giving us one of his more favorable performances in recent memory.
Eddie Murphy delivered with this movie showing that he’s still able to deliver the goods and gave us one of his best performances that I’ve seen from him in quite some time. His character really reminded me of his Billy Ray Valentine from Trading Places giving us a peek of the Murphy of the 80’s and early 90’s. He didn’t completely steal the show but you could see that his delivery and physical timing were just as sharp as you would hope. Unsurprisingly Alan Alda also delivers and a fun performance. He has a knack for portraying a person you hate and he creates the perfect antagonist that you sit in the theater hoping that one of the other characters get worked up enough to punch in the face.
One thing I didn’t like was the pacing of the movie. There were points and scenes in the movie that either took too long to setup or one particular scene that was quickly advanced with a poorly delivered montage. In a movie called “Tower Heist” you really want the actual buildup of the heist and the actual heist itself to deliver but the buildup in this movie wasn’t well crafted. After the tepid first half the movie thankfully does a ‘180’ and really picks up while actually producing a few unexpected thrills along the way. The actual heist is the centerpiece of the film, naturally, and it’s fairly fun and entertaining heist to watch. I don’t want to spoil much but there were a few occasions where I watched and sat in disbelief at what the hell I was seeing on film while clutching my armrest. It was the kind of thrill that I might expect from any other movie but Tower caught me completely by surprise and manged to spice things up.
I hated the performance of Gabourney Sidibe. Everytime she opened her mouth I felt blood coming from my ears due to having to hear her horrendous attempt at a Jamaican accent. She gave me the impression that her research for the role primarily consisted of watching old Miss Cleo commercials. I hated about every scene she was in just due to her awful synthetic accent. Tea Leoni didn’t really impress me in this either. She’s a little tougher for me to judge as I sometimes have a hard time discerning when she’s giving a ‘real’ performance or when she’s sleep walking through a role. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy watching Ms. Leoni in just about everything she does but while watching this movie I got the impression that she wasn’t as much “acting” as she was “reading” and just going through the motions. This wasn’t the Tea Leoni that almost made me cry while watching “The Family Man” this was the Tea Leoni I wanted to see killed in “Bad Boys” and “Jurassic Park 3”. Once I realized what she was doing I quickly got turned off by her character and looked forward to scene transitions.
Overall: I thought this movie was really enjoyable. Stiller, Broderick, Murphy, Affleck and co. have some fun chemistry with each other and setup quite a few funny moments throughout the entirety of the movie. Some bad pacing made me feel it could have been shorter and the ending isn’t completely satisfying due to it’s abruptness but that and a few underwhelming performances couldn’t keep this movie from delivering an entertaining experience. It’s not a ‘big’ movie that demands that you watch it in theaters, but you’ll enjoy what you get if you do, and I’d feel more comfortable recommending it as a purchase or rental when it hits home release.
I give Tower Heist a 7 out of 10.
