Tower Heist (2011) – another one of those movies

I had high expectations of Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy’s latest film and by the end of the movie I realised that the movie was not what I expected.

Every so often a movie comes along that doesn’t necessarily exceed one’s expectations but defies them, in the sense that they leave one surprised be it pleasantly or otherwise.

When I stumbled on to the trailer for Tower Heist and saw the pairing of Eddie Murphy and Ben Stiller I felt the movie had potential, yet at the same time there had been a number of ‘heist’ movies that usually do not live up the billing in terms of comedy.

Ocean’s 11 and the Italian Job are two examples of decent heist movies, yet the comedy aspect is kept subtle, unlike with what Tower Heist set out to achieve.

The movie starts off with Ben Stiller’s character and gets straight to the point of showing his relationship with the staff and the guests at The Tower. All of the characters are introduced within the first ten minutes of the movie and from there on the
movie gets going.

It gets interesting very quickly when one of their residents is arrested for fraud and it turns out that the Tower’s staff lose all their pensions as a result. The resident, Arthur Shaw, played by Alan Ada, claims he is innocent yet the news of the fraud
is too much for one of the staff members who attempts suicide.

It may sound dark and gloomy, yet there is a good laugh to be found between the more serious segments of the film and it never gets one down. Teaming up with Eddie Murphy and a few of his fellow staff, after he himself is fired, Ben Stiller plans on robbing
Shaw and stealing the supposed $20-million he has hidden in his penthouse apartment.

The rest is for the viewer to find out for himself and by the end of the movie one realises that this is a comedy with substance and does not rely on cheap jokes to have everyone smiling.

Tower Heist is a great feel good movie and at times will have you in fits, so do yourself a favour and give the movie a watch.

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Posted by Musa Afridi on Mar 21 2012. Filed under Entertainment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry