Tower Heist

Tower Heist is a film directed by Brett Ratner and written by Ted Griffin and Jeff Nathanson.  The film’s premise is pretty basic.  Josh Kovacs (Ben Stiller) is the general manager of an expensive upscale hotel called The Tower.  The Tower is owned by a guy named Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda), a kind and considerably wealthy old man.  Josh learns that Shaw managed the pensions of every employee at The Tower and that Shaw lost the money through a series of bad business deals.  Josh realizes that the only way to recuperate the pensions of the employees is to steal money from Arthur Shaw.  Josh Kovacs decides to enlist the help of a fast talking low life neighbor Slide (Eddie Murphy) and use his criminal expertise to rob Arthur Shaw of the little money he has left.

Tower Heist is one of those films that I had very high expectations for.   The film didn’t meet my expectations.  This film was hailed as the film that would resurrect Eddie Murphy’s failing acting career but for all the hype the film was given, Murphy’s character had very few connections to the main character or the supporting cast.  Murphy’s character was funny but essentially useless to the film’s progressing plot.  Mathew Broderick is also in this film and though he is an unemployed financial analyst, none of his skills are used in the film’s hour and forty-four minute running time.  There are laughs to be had in Tower Heist and most of the cast works well together, however, all of the heart that’s injected into the film only comes from one character that we don’t see very often.  The character I speak of loses his entire retirement fund to Arthur Shaw and how that loss mentally effects him gives the film what little heart it has.

In short, Tower Heist has charm and a little bit of heart but the story is weak and the heist section of the film is boring and tedious.  This movie was not Eddie Murphy’s comeback movie.  This heist offered false promises and stole my money in the process.