Tower Heist (2011) Review

Director: Brett Ratner
Writers: Ted Griffin and Jeff Nathanson
Genre: Comedy/Action


1.5 Cookies

Eddy Murphy is back to his funny old ways in Brett Ratner’s latest hack-job Tower Heist, problem is he barely shows up for the first 30 minutes, and when he does, he isn’t given enough to do. The marketing for Tower Heist centered on the idea that Ben Stiller and Eddy Murphy are the two stars, but really Tea Leoni has just as much, if not more screen time than Murphy. I felt a little jipped, but maybe that’s how you’re supposed to feel at a Brett Ratner movie.

The plot involves Josh Kovacs (a less than stellar, Stiller), the building manager for an upscale New York City apartment complex called the “Tower.” When Josh and his staff at the Tower fall victim to a Ponzi scheme put on by one of the buildings richest residents, Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda), Josh puts together a team to rob what he thinks is a safe in Shaw’s apartment and get even.

It’s a simple enough zeitgeist premise, with an above average cast, (Stiller, Murphy, Casey Affleck, Alda, Broderick, Leoni, Gabourey Sidibe, Michael Pena) that this should have, and could have been a very good comedy-caper flick. Unfortunately, Brett Ratner is, to put it bluntly, an awful director, and Tower Heist fizzles from the start. It’s so formulaic that it makes you cringe, and the jokes are far too few, and hit-and-miss, that there is not enough laughter to ignore the movie’s lack of a brain.

Granted, there are a few clever scenes, such as a scene where each member of the amateur team of thieves assembled by Stiller steals an item from different stores in a mall. Being a Ratner movie, of course one of the characters steals a bra and panties from a Victoria’s Secret. Michael Pena has a great time playing one of the dumber members of Stiller’s team of thieves and Gabourey Sidibe steals every scene she’s in as a Jamaican maid who can’t find a guy “that can handle her.”

Tower Heist always seems to be building to something big but it never fully delivers. Ratner, who was just fired as producer of the Academy Awards for using an anti-gay slur at a press conference, continues to make unintelligent films with big production designs that are not nearly as much fun as they should be. I’ve been debating over who I hate more, Brett Ratner or Michael Bay, and I think it may just be a tie.

The ending of Tower Heist feels rushed and unsatisfying which pretty much sums up the whole movie. It doesn’t make you want to rip your eyes out, and there have been worse movies made this year, but it’s forgettable fluff that should have at least been forgettable fun fluff.