This is one of those movies where stealing is morally fine cuz the thieves just want to return what is theirs. Also timing of the movie couldn’t be better with all around the world demonstrations against “wall street” money gamblers. The story of the movie is like this – a rich guy Arthur Shaw (Alen Alda)that lives at the penthouse on the top of the skyscraper gets arrested cuz did a fraud and stolen some money. Now, nothing unusual these days, but the problem is that money that was stolen included the pension fund of the skyscraper employees cuz Shaw was their pension investor. Arthur Shaw is put into house arrest on the top of tower in his penthouse and the worker crew, led by Tower Hotel manager Josh Kovacs (Ben Stiller) decide to get 20 million dollars from Shaw.
Kovacs makes a team of Tower employees, elevator guy Enrique (Michael Pena), concierge Charlie (Casey Affleck), maid Odessa (Gabourey Sidibe) and former finance guru Fitzhugh (Matthew Broderick). Only problem they have is, they don’t know how to make it work and that’s where the professional thief Slide (Eddie Murphy) comes along. Kovacs pays the bail to get him out of jail and help them in their plan. Director Brett Ratner (Rush Hour movies) is really good in making action-comedy mix and here he has great actors to work with. Stiller and Murphy work really well together, Broderick and Tea Leoni in really good shape and Alen Alda always giving great acting.
Tower Heist is definitely worth the money, great action, great comedy and have a dose of the Ocean 11 but little more on the comedy side. Too bad that Retner didnt fully allowed the Murphy and Sidibe characters relation spread more cuz they are hilarious. Good to see Murphy in his best cuz I always liked his comedy and I am looking forward to next Oscars when he will be the main host.
