Tower Heist: "We're Not Criminals. We Don't Know How To Steal"

Director: Brett Ratner
Writer:    Ted Griffin
Starring: Ben Stiller
               Eddie Murphy
               Alan Alda
               Tea Leoni
               Casey Affleck
               Matthew Broderick
               Michael Pena
               Gabourey Sidibe
Rating:    **

Release Date: Out Now

A comedy crime romp, with a superb cast and extreme lack of comedy.

The Tower is a luxury apartment complex set right in the centre of Manhattan. It is owned by Arthur Shaw (Alda), a Wall Street billionaire, who unbeknownst to his staff, has stolen over 2 billion dollars, including their pensions. The staff is lead by the building manager Josh (Stiller), a thoughtful workaholic who puts the residents and staff before himself. Throughout the film it is Stiller who leads the way and takes control of all the various situations. Even when he brings in petty crook, Slide (Murphy), it is always Josh that is in control. Both actors, though well known for comedy, fail to be funny, and whether it is the script or them I don't know, but all I know is I didn't laugh once. I will say it's nice to see Eddie play one character, rather than 15 poorly constructed elderly women.

For the rest of the staff we have Charlie (Affleck), the head concierge and Josh's brother-in-law, Enrique (Pena), who is the newest member of staff, and unfortunately gets swept up in the drama, and finally Odessa (Sidibe), a Jamaican made who faces deportation. Sidibe is the only actor/character that managed to make me laugh in this film, and as well as being a fantastic dramatic actress, I really see a future for her in comedy. Mr. Fitzhugh (Broderick), is a resident at The Tower and he's also a former Wall Street investor, who is looking for revenge from Arthur. Now despite his best efforts, the character is not funny, and actually got on my nerves, which really didn't help my opinion of the film. Finally we have Claire Denham (Leoni), an FBI agent, who first gives Josh the idea of robbing Arthur, and then pursues him in the films big finale. She was meant to be the romantic interest for Josh, but there was absolutely no chemistry and I just found that storyline a dull distraction.

The writing is the biggest let down for the whole film, the jokes were stale and any attempt to try and be funny failed miserably at nearly every turn.  It is a real shame because the cast is fabulous, and everything about it should have worked, but the lame script and lack of energy let it down. It lacks the magic of the old Ben Stiller movies that we all know and love, and I hope that one day he gets his magic back. The film was vaguely interesting whenever Sidibe graced the screen, and thanks to her, and what should have been a good cast, it got 2 stars.

Tower Heist - Trailer