Tower Heist

Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy...two comedians with built up reputations and, for the most part, a good record of successful films. However, over the last decade, Stiller's reputation has stayed strong but Murphy's has arguably sank. So, when I first saw trailer's for "Tower Heist," I was a little skeptical knowing that Murphy had not been in the best films over the past several years. Do the two actors hold this action/comedy together?

Josh Kovacs (Stiller) has a pretty great life...he's the manager of a high luxury apartment complex and has a strong (business) relationship with the apartments most wealthy customer, Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda). Kovacs' neighbor isn't as lucky. Slide (Murphy) has no job, no life, and is soon carried off by the police department for unknown reasons. But the two very different men will soon cross paths because soon a scandal is exposed revealing that Arthur Shaw is being accused of a Ponzi scheme. If Shaw is proven guilty, all of the workers including Kovacs will loose all of their money which they gave to Shaw to have him invest. Angry at Shaw's deception, Kovacs decides to rob the most secured building in New York and since he has no idea how, he bails Slide out of prison to get him to help. Now the two, along with a few other co-workers will have to put on the most elaborate heist in order to get revenge on the richest man in the New York.

Two words...Eddie Murphy. The man is absolutely hilarious. I can't remember the last live action film where he succeeded in being the great comedian that he can be. All of his lines were comedy gold and though Stiller may be the main character, this is Murphy's film. Granted, Stiller is great at his iconic deadpan comedy and the supporting actors each contribute laughs throughout the film. Overall, the cast has great chemistry in times of both laughter and seriousness.

The Robin Hood esque story line doesn't really bring anything new to the table. A group of guys seek to rob an insanely rich guy for the benefit of the needy whom the "evil" rich man has taken from. The popular story arc along with the many other films in the Heist genre make "Tower Heist" pretty predictable but there was still enough fun and craziness to keep me interested and entertained.

Yeah I may have been able to call the movie scene by scene, but it didn't matter to me. I love movies like "Ocean's 11" and "The Italian Job." Movies like that and like "Tower Heist" are entertaining and creative. Throw in a great cast and the return of Eddie Murphy to quality comedy and you've got a great movie. I give it three stars out of four.

"Tower Heist" has a running time of 104 minutes and is rated PG-13 for language and sexual content.