MOVIE OF THE WEEK (11/4/11): TOWER HEIST
KEY CAST MEMBERS: Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, Casey Affleck, Alan Alda, Matthew Broderick, Judd Hirsch, Téa Leoni, Michael Peña, Gabourey Sidibe
WRITER(S): Adam Cooper, Bill Collage and Ted Griffin (story); Ted Griffin and Jeff Nathanson (screenplay)
DIRECTOR: Brett Ratner
WEB SITE: www.towerheist.net/
THE PLOT: A comedy with a stroke of luck given the current economic climate (and resulting political/social fervor), Tower Heist stars Ben Stiller as Josh Kovaks. Building manager at the most prestigious apartment complex in the city - "The Tower" - Josh has a pretty nice life ... And a pretty nice staff. Lester (Stephen McKinley Henderson), the doorman, always has a smile on his face, Charlie (Casey Affleck) may be late (and not great at his job) but he is nice and driven, Odessa (Gabourey Sidibe) is a good maid, Manuel (Juan Carlos Hernández) is steady in the security office and the new elevator operator, Enrique Dev'Reaux (Michael Peña), is well, new. All of the staff is pretty happy working at the building, although Mr. Simon (Judd Hirsch) does lord over them all with an iron fist.
Of all the tenants that call The Tower home, though, none is more respected, beloved and well, catered to, more than Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda). A Wall Street magnate of epic financial success, Arthur lives up in the Tower's most expensive penthouse and seemingly loves seeing The Tower's staff as much as they love working there. His riches are the reason he's not facing the same trouble Mr. Fitzhugh (Matthew Broderick) is since he's getting evicted.
Then FBI special Agent Claire Denham (Téa Leoni) shows up ... And Josh and his staff learn the awful truth.
You see, Arhtur has (allegedly) pulled off a scheme of Bernie Madoff-like proportions ... And has basically stolen the pension of every staff member of The Tower in the process, Josh included. But Josh is not going to just take that lying down, however. Oh no no - Josh is going to enact revenge. All he needs is a little help from Charlie, Dev'Reaux, Mr. Fitzhugh and one other person ... Slide (Eddie Murphy), an old friend from the neighborhood who has expertise in acquiring assets.
But does Josh and his crew really have what it takes to rob a multi-millionaire who just robbed all of them of their future? There's only one way to find out.
THE TAKE: OK, if you are regular reader, you've probably figured out my sensitivities in regards to my cinematic likes and dislikes in the realm of comedy. Thus, when I end up hating a film I hated the trailer of, it probably comes as no surprise. Well, in the case of Tower Heist, I'm going to likely throw you off track with what I say here. For while I hated, HATED the trailer for the film, I actually enjoyed the movie.
Chances are good I believe many others will, too.
Is Tower Heist on a Hangover, Bridesmaids-like level of hilarious? No, not even close - but it does succeed more than not at making you laugh when it goes for a joke. The cast does a good job at making their characters feel like real people as opposed to being a wacky group of characters where everyone is all over the place. Stiller in particular does a good job at playing the straight man and letting the cast around him (for the most part anyway) add the spice to the story. Playing against Alda's subtle and deceptive Shaw, Stiller shows he can insert drama into comedy without missing a beat.
Of course, a lot of people will want to know how Murphy does in the film as pretty much everyone knows this - coupled with his upcoming Oscars hosting gig - is part of his unofficial comeback. Well, Murphy is ... Murphy, mostly for better than worse in this case. While Slide is loud-talking and a hustler, he is a well-defined character to which Murphy adds edge ... Without going over it. Surprisingly, Broderick might turn in the funniest performance of the bunch with his performance as Mr. Fitzhugh while Sidibe continues to do her best to show her range as opposed to just getting labeled as "that girl from Precious."
Director Brett Ratner does his best to stay out of the way and letting his actors do their work while making sure that each contributes to the story as opposed to detracting from it ... And in a movie of this nature, that's the best thing he can do. (Well, other than trying to get the script writers to add in some more and better jokes.)
PARTING SHOT: While the film is far from perfect, it does have the good fortune of timing, a cast willing to commit to telling the story properly and ll in all, Tower Heist is funny on the level of a really good sitcom (think a good episode of 30 Rock versus the average episode of anything on CBS most nights). Even if you don't like it, remember it could always be worse: We all remember Ocean's Twelve, no don't we?
RATING (OUT OF FOUR BUCKETS OF POPCORN):
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