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"Tower Heist" is big-boom director Brett Ratner's attempt at social relevance, as he shapes an action-comedy robbery caper around the trendy topic of greedy Wall Street financiers.
And if the movie, with its staccato bursts of outrageous action and lowbrow humor, pandered any more to the masses, it would be running in the Iowa caucuses.
The Tower is a ritzy New York apartment complex for the super-rich (and portrayed in the film by Trump Tower). The guy in the penthouse suite, financier Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda), is so stinking rich he has Steve McQueen's Ferrari in his living room on the 65th floor. He also is being indicted for a Bernie Madoff-style fraud scheme that swindled his many clients including the retirement fund of the people who work in the tower.
The building's manager, Josh Kovacs (Ben Stiller), who keeps the staff on task and the rich tenants happy, gets fed up. After an initial outburst gets him fired, Josh decides to get even by going after the missing $20 million the feds (embodied by Tea Leoni as a seductively no-nonsense FBI agent) believe Shaw has stashed in the penthouse.
Josh enlists two other ex-employees (Michael Pena and Casey Affleck) and a destitute former tenant (Matthew Broderick). But Josh's ace is the expertise of a small-time thief named Slide. That role is played by Eddie Murphy, the movie's not-so-secret weapon, who employs the unmistakable comic swagger that has been missing, and greatly missed, since the days of "Trading Places" and "Beverly Hills Cop."
Murphy and Stiller, who's essentially the movie's straight man, have to fight to be noticed amid a sea of offbeat supporting characters including an imperious Jamaican maid (Gabourey Sidibe of "Precious") and a vaguely Slavic lawyer-in-training receptionist (Nina Arianda) and a thriller plot that plays like a dumbed-down version of "Ocean's Eleven." (Comparisons to Steven Soderbergh's sleek 2001 caper are not limited to Affleck's presence; screenwriter Ted Griffin, who wrote the "Ocean's Eleven" remake, shares writing credit here with Jeff Nathanson, who wrote Ratner's "Rush Hour 2" and "Rush Hour 3.")
A caper like "Tower Heist" requires finesse to work, and Ratner is to finesse what bulls are to china shops. Ratner goes into overdrive with the robbery plot itself, a bombastic affair scheduled on Thanksgiving morning, while the Macy's parade marches past the tower.
Yes, in case you were wondering, Ratner & Co. completely miss the irony of setting an anti-Wall Street theme in the middle of a Hollywood blockbuster that enlists Macy's and Donald Trump in its pursuit of box-office millions. By mixing in every audience-friendly cliché available, "Tower Heist" reveals in Ratner a naked avarice as transparent as that of the Ponzi-scheming Shaw. With the movie, though, the public chooses to be fleeced when it buys a ticket.
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'Tower Heist'
High-rise employees try to become master thieves in an action-comedy that's overloaded with bombastic moments.
Where • Theaters everywhere.
When • Opens Friday, Nov. 4.
Rating • PG-13 for language and sexual content.
Running time • 104 minutes.