Tower Heist ***
Looking for a no-brainer to delight you while you munch on some deserved popcorn at the end of a long week? Director Brett Ratner may have come up with one of his best movies since Rush Hour (the original) yet – and there is no sign of Don Cheadle, Chris Tucker, Jackie Chan or Ken Leung either. Tower Heist offers one of the most exciting assortments of comedic acting talent at play in a long time in this tongue-in-cheek, cheap Ocean’s imitation that has elements of the ridiculous to it and touches on topical, economic current affairs while providing some golden nuggets of entertainment.
Josh Kovacs (Ben Stiller) is great at his job, managing the staff at a luxury Central Park condominium and gaining the trust and friendship of its super wealthy elite. However, after the FBI get involved (Téa Leoni as Special Agent Claire Denham), it’s soon apparent that the penthouse billionaire, Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda), is not who he seems, and has stolen Kovacs’ staff’s retirement funds he was entrusted to invest on Wall Street with promises of big returns. After getting fired, Kovacs recruits a gang of disgruntled tower workers (Casey Affleck, Michael Peña, Gabourey Sidibe etc) and a ruined banker and former resident (Matthew Broderick) to plot the ultimate revenge: a heist to reclaim what the billionaire took from them. But they are going to need some outside help from the likes of alleged ‘criminal mastermind’ Slide (Eddie Murphy).
The reason this works from the word go is nice-guy Stiller’s winning formula of sarcasm and empathy with the worker-bee character he portrays. It avoids being slapstick, with Ratner introducing a respect for the characters and giving a brief but deciding glimpse of their personalities while Kovacs does the rounds – almost like watching the first episode of a TV soap set in Trump Tower. With the groundwork set, and the position of each character established, when the penny drops and the class divide opens up, the effect is deeper felt that you would expect in such a comedy drama. This is accentuated by any subjective economic hardship the viewer might be feeling in today’s climate, gaining our backing for the heist at hand; after all, bringing down a fictitious banker with a crass dollar bill motif in his private penthouse pool is as good as it’s going to get at present.
The combination of Stiller, Affleck, Broderick and Peña is fascinating enough, but it’s not until Murphy arrives on the thieving scene that the film ups in thrill factor. Admittedly, Murphy seems to resort to stereotype, playing the hard-done-by ghetto dude, a close imitation to his brilliant Trading Places character – all mouth and devious action. With Stiller at the helm, it’s an exciting coupling of two great comedy minds that seem to compliment rather than cancel out each other on screen. That’s not to say that Ratner doesn’t get sloppy and resort to stereotypes, but it’s almost as though he encourages his comic talent to play parodies of their previous roles, with Sidibe the most clichéd of the lot in a big-hearted, opinionated role someone like Queen Latifah may have once considered.
The utter farcical moments come in the action-packed second half that include the movement of a vintage car from the penthouse to a convenient resting place with some gravity defying stunts and elevator moments, designed to enjoy Stiller, Murphy and Broderick at their out-of-control best. This is when Ratner’s trademark nuttiness shines through, although it’s all harmless fun as the bigger goal behind it all far outweighs the logic in what you are watching.
Leoni as Special Agent Denham is the down-to-earth, no-nonsense character to compare the others’ flourishing delirium against, and thankfully stays as tough and appealing a cookie as any bad boy would want to be severely reprimanded by. Matching Kovacs in sharp wit, Denham also provides a few giggles of her own that keep things hugely satisfying.
Ratner’s film is a lively comedy caper with very real personalities to reflect recession-hit times. He has one hell of a great cast to deliver these sentiments, too, making Tower Heist a surprise hit full of more than trifling comic turns, but turning out to be one full of heart and wounded soul. It’s a story you can really get behind without much investment, however flawed or foolhardy, to see a comeuppance dished out to a new global pariah.
3/5 stars
By @FilmGazer
