Tower Heist

Not as dull as its title suggests, but still somewhat flat caper flick. It has a consistent string of laughs, but never quite hits the heights. Brockerick's down-and-out businessman is a good start but lands few jokes, and the plotting seems to meander. Stiller is a highlight, and Affleck and Murphy are good solid, but Aldo is a standout.

With that much star power, you'd think the comedy would make itself, but the actors feel confined. Weirdly, I think the movie could have been better if it had foregone the heist and explored the Stiller character and his buttoned-down-but-flexible managerial style. More tower. Less heist.

Josh Kovaks (Ben Stiller) is the perfect employee. Managing a high end apartment skyscraper in New York, his team look after and cater for all the foibles of their rich charges.

Living in the penthouse suite with a rooftop swimming pool emblazoned with a Dollar Bill mosaic is Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda), a wealthy financier with Steve McQueen's Ferrari in his living room.

How did it get up there, they took it apart and moved it piece by piece, subtle this is not.

Josh plays online chess with Arthur, likes him and entrusts the employees pension fund to him to "double their money", unbeknown to his work colleagues.

With a story ripped from recent headlines, Shaw is soon in trouble with the FBI, notably pretty detective (Tea Leoni). Subsequently, the employees are left searching for their lost pension funds turning the movie into a "let's get even" escapade.

Josh is largely loyal but when rattled he can and does takes matters into his own hands, vintage car aficionados should look away.

Following subsequent events, we are left with a larcenous but incompetent gang of six. Likable and nominally in charge Josh, Charlie (Casey Affleck) who is not much good at anything but has a pregnant wife and extreme motivation. New boy Enrique (Michael Pena) who is not the brightest bulb, Slick (Eddie Murphy) supposed criminal mastermind but none of the above. Odessa, a chambermaid with a bizarre Jamaican accent and a handy sideline in safe-cracking (Gabourey Siibe) and lastly, Mr Fitzhugh (Matthew Broderick), depressed, straitlaced, crumpled ex-banker and ex-apartment owner.

We are all set for a decent farce with elements of drama, however the movie is set for fun and mostly delivers.

This a rare Hollywood comedy that is actually funny. Whether the group are planning their heist using Lego, getting distracted with Female Sexuality issues or breaking off mid heist to walk a residents pet dog.

Overall of course it's all very silly and preposterous but it is good to see Eddie Murphy funny again, his sequence with Odessa, as she teaches him the in's and out's of safe-cracking is well done. Stiller largely plays the straight-man, allowing the others to bounce their comedic lines off him. Matthew Broderick is perhaps the standout, managing to make Mr Fitzhugh both sad and funny at the same time, Broderick's comedic timing used to great effect.

It is good to see Judd Hirsch on the big screen, getting a few good scenes as the overall building boss. Alan Alda also lifts the film with his considerable talents bought to bear on the smarmy Mr Shaw.

Like any comedy caper, the tone needs to be right and the project is very much a light soufflé but Director Brett Ratner manages to pull off the various elements, to make this a fun night in.

Summary

That rare event, a Hollywood comedy that manages to both entertain and provide a light sprinkling of social commentary.

The film is largely designed to be a crowd pleaser and largely fulfils that role admirably http://julesmoviereviews.blogspot.co.nz/

"Tower Heist" is a fun comedy, action and crime thriller. It's a chess game of life. The opponents are a band of employees who run a high-class apartment building in the heart of Manhattan, and the pent-house tenant who takes their pensions and savings to the cleaners. But, one caper deserves another, and the employees are on the rebound after the FBI get into the picture.

It's all about decorum, money, position, working for a living, trusting others, greed, fraud, getting even and justice. That may not sound like the elements of comedy, but they all add up to a very good and entertaining movie. Ben Stiller is the lead character. Eddie Murphy, Alan Alda, Judd Hirsch, Tea Leoni and a host of other actors add to the fast action, bedlam and smiles in this film.

Most adults should enjoy this film. Just be prepared for city street language and some vulgarity. The end is an especially nice surprise.

This film is about a group of employees in a luxury apartment building who tries to take back what a rich financial guru in their building took from them.

"Tower Heist" tells a bunch of dedicate and hardworking people who lost their pensions because the financial guru lost all their money in a fraud. The subsequent heist may be funny and implausible, but the film is certainly watchable. Describing the greedy and unscrupulous behaviour of some people in the finance sector surely brings back memories of the financial collapse a few years ago. Getting revenge from them is likely to strike some heartstrings among the public. The action scenes include a rather cool elevator shaft scene, and a very scary scene involving aerial action which made me on edge throughout. "Tower Heist" is like a modern day Robin Hood story, with a heartwarming ending. I enjoyed it a lot.

Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, Casey Affleck, Alan Alda, Matthew Broderick, Judd Hirsch, Tea Leoni, Stephen Henderson, and Gabourey Sidibe star in "Tower Heist" from 2011.

It's a caper movie, and it's a light and fun one. Stiller as Josh Kovaks manages an exclusive apartment building, The Tower (like Trump Towers). He finds out that he and the other employees have fallen victim to a Ponzi scheme orchestrated by a tenant, Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda). After Josh nearly destroys the incredibly expensive car that Shaw has on display in his apartment, he and everyone else are fired.

Determined to take Shaw down, they learn that he kept about $20 million mad money and decide it's in his safe. They decide to rob him. Kovaks recruits a thief he knows, Slide (Eddie Murphy) to help. Meanwhile, the FBI, in the person of Tea Leoni, has arrested Shaw but it looks as if they might have to drop the charges.

Caper movies seem to be a dime a dozen these days, but there's always room for one more good one. The cast here is super talented and while it's not the most original script, there are some fun things in it.

Matthew Broderick, Gabourey Sidibe, and Eddie Murphy are especially funny. It's a shame Eddie Murphy's career took a nose dive; he's no less talented than he used to be.

With the Macy's Day Parade, particularly Snoopy in the background, Matthew Broderick hanging by a rope, Gabourey Sidibe running her trolley into a guard and knocking him out, you'll have a good time. Just don't expect Citizen Kane.