OVERVIEW
Tower Heist feels like a relic of another era of Hollywood. The kind of film you’d find in a DVD bargain bin or rent from your local video store, only to get more than your money’s worth by watching it over and over again. A snappy heist comedy from a time when mid-budget productions with recognizable ensembles were still regular theatrical releases, and names like Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, and Brett Ratner were familiar fixtures of mainstream entertainment. Fifteen years later, there’s something rather comforting about the simplicity of it all. The film follows Josh Kovaks (Ben Stiller), the manager of an exclusive Manhattan residential skyscraper, who discovers that one of its wealthiest residents, Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda), has been arrested for operating a massive Ponzi scheme that also wiped out the retirement savings of the building’s employees. Determined to recover their money, Josh assembles a rather unlikely group of amateur thieves, including a petty criminal named Slide (Eddie Murphy), to break into Shaw’s heavily secured penthouse.
BACKGROUND
The project originated in 2005, when Eddie Murphy pitched producer Brian Grazer and director Brett Ratner the idea of an all-Black version of Ocean’s Eleven, with comedians such as Chris Rock, Chris Tucker, and Dave Chappelle as disgruntled employees planning to rob Donald Trump’s Manhattan skyscraper. Originally developed under the working title Trump Heist, the film underwent six years of development and numerous rewrites, eventually abandoning its original ensemble in favour of a more “conventional” (aka predominantly white) cast led by Ben Stiller. The 2008 financial crisis and Bernie Madoff scandal also reshaped the premise, transforming its wealthy antagonist into a corrupt financier responsible for stealing the pensions of ordinary workers. Coincidentally, the film was released in November 2011, right in the middle of the Occupy Wall Street movement, giving its lighthearted revenge fantasy unexpected relevance at the time. The real Trump International Hotel and Tower at Columbus Circle also served as the film’s principal exterior location.
THE REVIEW
There is very little time wasted here. The characters are quickly established, each cast member amusing in their own way. Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, Casey Affleck, Michael Peña, and Matthew Broderick are not exactly actors you’d picture together, but their chemistry works surprisingly well, each bringing their own style to the table, with the script giving everyone their time to shine. Stiller plays into his familiar persona of someone who is constantly ridiculed and annoyed, while still proving to be a capable and caring leader. Murphy, on the other hand, is a little more vulgar and aggressive than usual, bringing some welcome unpredictability to the proceedings. It is always good to see Affleck and Broderick in comedies, but Michael Peña and Gabourey Sidibe are the funniest of the bunch, the former already hinting at the comedic energy he would later bring to Ant-Man, and the latter entertaining with her Jamaican accent and confidence.
Despite being an awful human being, Brett Ratner has demonstrated a talent for this sort of film, handling the tone well and maintaining just the right balance of suspense, seriousness, and outright absurdity. It all flows naturally, from the preparations to the eventual execution of the heist. There is no overindulgence in the planning, nothing that feels unnecessarily complex or unachievable, but when things go south, the sight of a car hanging outside a skyscraper doesn’t seem all that out of place. Christophe Beck ties everything together with an energetic caper score that keeps the momentum going and makes it all feel very cool.
It is certainly a portrait of its time, particularly with the added relevance of the 2008 financial crisis, but there is something refreshing about revisiting a comedy that is so comfortable with its own ambitions. It knows how to entertain, moves at a terrific pace, and never demands much from its audience. The kind of film that remains just as enjoyable on a second or third viewing.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Tower Heist is a fun and breezy comedy that works thanks largely to the charisma of its cast and the well-executed pacing of the heist itself. It is a film that sets out to do exactly what is expected of it and does it so well. What more can you ask for?
- Where to watch
- Rent or buy at Apple TV Store, YouTube, Amazon Video
- Where to watch
Telecine
Play trailer
- Original title
- Tower Heist
- Director
- Brett Ratner
- Cast
- Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, Casey Affleck, Alan Alda, Matthew Broderick, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Judd Hirsch, Téa Leoni
- Rated
- PG
- Screenwriter
- Adam Cooper, Ted Griffin, Bill Collage, Jeff Nathanson, David Cooney
- Composer
- Christophe Beck
- Cinematography
- Dante Spinotti, Lukasz Jogalla
- Editor
- Mark Helfrich
- Country
- Language
- English
- Budget
- $75 million
- Box office
- $152.931 million