DIR: Brett Ratner • WRI: Ted Griffin, Jeff Nathanson • PRO: Brian Grazer, Eddie Murphy • DOP: Dante Spinotti • ED: Mark Helfrich • DES: Kristi Zea • CAST: Eddie Murphy, Ben Stiller, Casey Affleck, Matthew Broderick
Eddie Murphy hasn’t really done a ‘grown-up’ comedy since 2002’s flop I Spy, so in the almost-decade of dregs such as Norbit, Daddy Day Care and Meet Dave, Tower Heist is being touted as something of a comeback for the once King Of Comedy. The good news is Murphy is by far the best thing in the movie. The bad news is considering his company, that’s not necessarily good news.
Murphy is the career criminal who is enlisted by Ben Stiller to help him rob an embezzler (an impeccably evil Alan Alda) who owns the penthouse of a Central Park apartment tower. Stiller used to the manager of said tower, but after losing all his employee’s pension money to the embezzler, he and some fellow employees (Casey Affleck, Michael Pena, Matthew Broderick) join forces to get the money they believe he’s hiding in his penthouse and take down the bad guy.
There are some great one-liners, and one or two random scenes of out-right comedy, but all in all there are very few laugh-out-loud moments. Also, considering the script is from the writer of Oceans Eleven and Matchstick Men, the actual heist itself is entirely lacking in any kind of real surprises. There’s no doubt this movie will make a lot of money, primarily due to its inoffensive nature, but for Murphy’s big comeback, you’d kind of wish they’d pushed their boundaries even a little bit.
Rory Cashin
Rated 12A (see IFCO website for details)
Tower Heist is released on 4th November 2011
