Review of Tower Heist (2011) by Diego T — 01 Aug 2013

When you leave a movie theater thinking "Wow, that was so stupid, I loved every minute of it," you really need to reexamine your movie-watching priorities. This is the case with Tower Heist, a movie that seems, for some reason, to take incredible pride in its own stupidity. Besides a few actors who do quite well with what they're given, it's really an unremarkable and occasionally unfunny movie to watch. And considering all the incredible comic talent on display in this movie, that's a bit of a disappointment.

Ben Stiller stars as an employee of a high-end apartment building that is owned by professional rich guy Alan Alda. Alda is one of the few grace notes in the film, as he seems to revel in FINALLY getting cast as the bad guy and not Hawkeye fucking Pierce for the eleventh season in a row. Seriously, three seasons might have been good, but fucking ELEVEN? MASH was more of a fiasco than the ACTUAL Korean War. Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked-- Alda swindles his own employees out of their pensions using an elaborate Ponzi scheme, and Stiller enlists a few select operatives to help get revenge on him.

Among those chosen is Eddie Murphy, and I have to say, he electrifies every scene he's in. Not since Beverly Hills Cop have I seen him at such peak performance. If he had kept this up instead of making A Thousand Words, he could have actually had a career post-2011. But unfortunately, no. This is definitely a must-see for Murphy fans, and he's totally back in his element. Fast-talking, f-bomb dropping, loud, crude, socially unacceptable, it's the whole package. If the rest of the actors had been nearly as committed to their roles as he was, this movie would have been incredible.

However, they weren't. Casey Affleck and Ben Stiller are, unfortunately, not made to be in a movie together, and neither of them seemed to know which direction they wanted to take this film in. There was some redemption among the supporting cast with Alda, Murphy, and a sad-sack Matthew Broderick as a soon-to-be-evicted tenant, but that wasn't enough to hold this entire thing up. It just collapsed under its own weight with a ridiculous final act and ended up trying way too hard.

The comedy is mediocre, but there are some legitimately funny moments (usually due to Eddie Murphy). Although the movie never quite coheres as a whole, it's certainly fun while you're watching it. Just turn your brain off and have a good time, I guarantee you'll enjoy it. I feel like most people expected another Pluto Nash, so Tower Heist ended up getting off really easy from the critics. Unfortunately, I am not nearly as forgiving.

Final Score for Tower Heist: 4/10 stars. Sure, you might enjoy yourself while you're watching it, but some of the jokes are so stupid you'll probably feel like a moron for laughing at them. And there's really no bigger sin a movie can commit than insulting its audience's intelligence. Tower Heist isn't out to win any Oscars, it's certainly not trying to get recognition from the elitist cinema snobs (myself included), but it is an intermittently funny movie with a handful of good performances. And as far as I'm concerned, that's all it really needs to be.