Review of Tower Heist (2011) by Spencer H — 06 Jan 2013

I have a reason for not paying $8.00 to go see a comedy in the theater. Usually, I don't want to feel I wasted the 8 bucks (plus whatever on popcorn and a drink) on about 5 genuine (if that) laughs.

Tower Heist has the makings of being a fun "heist" movie like the Italian Job, Oceans Eleven, The Hot Rock. And yes, it genuinely made me laugh about 5 times.

I deducted stars because of its predictability, tired story of a rich guy screwing the little people and the crudeness (I'm no prude, but how many testicle jokes need to be made to make the point?). I was not an original fan of Robin Williams until he figured how funny he could be without resorting to base potty humor with a healthy dose of the "f" and "s" and "b" words.

What I did enjoy was Matthew Broderick adding depth to a shallow character (even though his past "expertise" was not exactly used in the story) and Michael Pena (the dad with the cloak in Crash) show his versatility in comedy. I've always liked Ben Stiller, but I wasn't quite sure what he was trying to be in this one.