Review of Tower Heist (2011) by Neal B — 18 Aug 2012

Great Cast , and direction. Eddie Murphy shined in this movie even though his frame-time was less when compared to Ben Stiller. Still I would've thought you could've made the plot even more.

I will start by saying the very best thing about Tower Heist and that is a return of old school Eddie Murphy. This is the Eddie Murphy we loved from the eighties before he started doing downright bad slapstick and mostly kiddie comedies. Tower Heist has a lot going for it with a decent and varied cast of character actors, a funny premise, and potential for a lot of great physical comedy. It does indeed deliver on some of that. The biggest problem was that about 3/4 of the way through the movie it loses momentum and suddenly the story which is already bordering on ridiculous takes a turn for the worst and becomes completely implausible. I mean it is a comedy, maybe even an action comedy in some respects, but the story should still hold together. The ending is just absurd and gives you nothing in the way of pay out after mostly enjoying the first half of the movie. The characters are all a lot of fun and the build up to the heist is really well done. You get the perfect amount of background on the characters and you are right there with them, invested in them, and its a lot of fun...right up until the last 15 minutes basically.

Still Tower Heist is fun and silly and a good way to spend a couple of hours. A good solid comedy.