That said, the PG-13 movie still contains a lot of obscenities and brief sexual innuendo. Also, one of them ends up sacrificing his own freedom for the sake of the others. The gang of thieves is trying to get back the money stolen from them in the first place. It has a moral component some other heist movies don’t have. TOWER HEIST is expertly written and directed. As usual with this kind of movie, things don’t go as planned. They concoct a wild, funny scheme to get the money. The building manager teams up with Murphy’s criminal, the concierge, the bellhop, a maid, and an evicted tenant to steal the $20 million that Shaw’s hidden away in his safe.
He lost the building staff’s pension plan when his financial Ponzi scheme collapsed in ruins. Shaw occupies the penthouse in a fancy building in New York City. They want to get revenge on Arthur Shaw, a Bernie Madoff-style investment guru. Besides a tense, unbelievable skyscraper car theft during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the film is short on comic funds, and bankrupts itself employing millionaire movie stars to castigate the rich.TOWER HEIST stars Eddie Murphy as a jive-talking criminal who agrees to help a group of people steal back money stolen from their pension plan. Only Alda takes risks here, breaking bad and worse as the movie progresses, daring us to hate him. Stiller is hard to believe as a mastermind, and Murphy’s pounding a cliché. Stiller, Eddie Murphy, and Téa Leoni seem imprisoned in their shtick. Let us charitably say that this ensemble could have been brilliant in the Clinton years. From Josh’s out-of-character assault on Shaw’s prize possession to a concluding ploy riddled with stupidity and contrived coincidences, we walk away mad at ourselves for trusting the brilliant opening, swindled by a faked gambit.Īnd then there’s the cast. Instead, we get a film dumbed-down enough to make Jim Carrey jealous. Obviously topical, this upstairs/downstairs conflict might have inspired clever screenwriters to create something incisive and witty like Ealing Studios used to produce, something Alec Guinness might admire. His lack of remorse compounds the crime, obviating a desperate (and sometimes comic) revenge plot. The plot revolves around investment banker Shaw’s house arrest for embezzlement, as the wacky-but-cool building staffers realize their hard-earned pensions funds were among the money Shaw made disappear.
Sadly, this is the last moment in the film when sophisticated narrative ideas entertain us. Meanwhile, we’ve met the relevant players, glimpsed the setting, and get the game. “By the way, checkmate,” the rich man tells his finance-challenged foe. When they do come together, after Josh arrives at the building to solve potential problems, it’s at Shaw’s waiting car. Both prepare for their days across a cultural chasm: Shaw in penthouse and Josh in his tiny Brooklyn flat. We watch Josh (Ben Stiller), a super-efficient super for a posh apartment building, play electronic chess with Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda), the film’s Hollywoodized version of Bernie Madoff.
Tower heist movie full full#
Even this mega-watt cast can't save Tower Heist from its dumbed-down plot and contrived conclusion.ĭespite the staleness of its casting, Tower Heist opens full of sparkle and snap.
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