Movie review: ‘Tower Heist’

I’ve written in other reviews how Jason Bateman is a good, solid actor but is not headliner material. Well, let me add Ben Stiller to that list, too. He was simply great in the Farrelly brothers’ “There’s Something About Mary” as well as the first “Focker” franchise movie, but he just doesn’t have the ability to carry a motion picture all by himself. One example of this deficiency is “Tower Heist” from 2011. It co-stars Eddie Murphy, but Stiller is the focus of the film and gets the lion’s share of screen time to the detriment of Murphy and the audience. Boiled down: Stiller is milquetoast, often boring and keeps “Tower Heist” from being even an adequate caper flick that it could have been – and just as much blame is on the shoulders of director Brett Ratner.

‘Tower Heist’
(2011; 104 minutes; rated PG-13; directed by Brett Ratner and starring Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, Casey Affleck and Alan Alda)

GREED, EXECUTIVE EXCESS AND THE ART OF THE DEAL

I like heist movies. From the well-remembered (the original “Ocean’s 11” – click here for my review – or its remake “Ocean’s Eleven” – click here for my review) to the little-remembered (Robert Redford in “The Hot Rock” – click here for my review), heist flicks are usually fun, no matter how bad. Not so for “Tower Heist” with Ben Stiller and comedy legend Eddie Murphy.

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Stiller is supposed to play a real “badass” in “Tower Heist” and an FBI agent even calls him one. However, it’s obvious he’s not. Stiller is a competent, efficient actor, but, along the same lines as Jason Bateman (try him in “Office Christmas Party” – click here for my review), Stiller is incapable of carrying a film. He’s done great comedy in “There’s Something About Mary” and the “Meet the Parents/Fockers” franchise (only the original, though), but he didn’t have to carry those films – both had big casts and other things that made you keep watching and laughing along with them.

Further about “Tower Heist,” even if you look past Stiller, you find that the film basically stinks. It isn’t a good heist film (a nice idea, but poorly executed) and it isn’t a good story film. The first 20 minutes or so are actually solid and set a nice foundation, but the rest of “Tower Heist” appears as if everyone beginning with the screenwriter gave up on it and just decided to mail it in. Oh, well. I guess it’s inevitable that Hollywood must turn out stinkbombs, too.

Here’s a quick rundown on the plot: A Bernie Madoff-kind-of-guy lives in the penthouse of “The Tower,” a ritzy high-rise in New York City. However, he’s a bad guy who has lost all his investors’ money. He’s also lost the money of the employees’ pension fund as well some of their own personal money. Well, he gets arrested and a handful of employees, led and organized by Stiller, find out about $20 million that the government doesn’t know about and that he’s hidden in the penthouse. So, they go to steal the money – but there’s a twist to how the money’s hidden.

I won’t spoil any of the plot turns as the filmmakers actually tried to do a good job and some of it is creative, but you’ll really have to suspend your disbelief for this one. In both the original and remake of “Ocean’s 11,” you didn’t care about the caper because you were too busy watching the stars. Well, there are a couple of “names” here (Murphy and a middle-aged Matthew Broderick), but you don’t watch the film for them. Actually, despite a couple of good efforts, you don’t watch it for any acting.

That said, here I go with my look at some of the principal cast:

• A Primetime Emmy winner and two-time nominee, Stiller plays “Josh Kovaks” and his character is decent, honest and ethical … at least until he decides on a little revenge. As I’ve noted, Stiller is competent here, but he gets all too easily lost and you forget his performance 10 minutes after watching the film. He’s not a giant at 5-foot-7, nor is he one of Hollywood’s micro-men. Still, he casts no physical presence, and this is major distraction for his character. He works a bunch and has more than 130 acting credits, 45 as producer and 17 as director. Whew, he’s a busy boy! However, most are two-star efforts such as the “Zoolander” flicks or the tepid, incompetent remake of “The Hearbreak Kid.” He won his Emmy for writing on his self-titled TV show and was nominated for a live-action short as well as acting in a self-titled episode of “Extras” where he plays himself.
• I don’t know what to write about Oscar nominee and Golden Globe winner (certainly not for this one) Murphy, who plays small-time crook “Slide” and contributes to the plot twists and turns at the end. Murphy shows flashes of his old screen self, but not nearly enough. He is the actor who should have been showcased here – not Stiller – and he would have made the movie much better. As it is, the character is so-so and Murphy just looks tired at times. As for his career, there isn’t much you can’t say about him. He was nominated for an Oscar for and won his Globe for “Dreamgirls” and has been in many recognizable, mega-popular films. My three favorites with him are “Trading Places,” of course (click here for my review); the cop action flick “48 Hrs.” with Nick Nolte; and “Harlem Nights” with another comedy legend named Richard Pryor (click here for my review).
• I have to say that I’m of two minds about the career of Oscar nominee (certainly not for this one) Alan Alda, who plays bad guy “Arthur Shaw.” He has a ton of nominations and wins of Golden Globes and Primetime Emmys (mostly for TV’s iconic “M*A*S*H”) and I liked him a lot in that one – at first. However, Alda became the vanguard for presenting an avalanche of the dogma of Political Correctness on TV and ruined one of the great TV shows. The PC crapfest that “M*A*S*H” came to embody was so wrong from the premise and first couple of seasons of the show that it was simply galling and Alda was the most prominent PC shill of that generation. While Alda is the best actor here and does the best job, I’m not writing any more about him today.
• I truly enjoy Téa Leoni’s work, but she comes up a bit short as FBI Special Agent “Claire Denham.” I guess there was enough to work with here for her, but since she was mostly playing off Stiller, Leoni had no chance of rising above the dreck that is “Tower Heist.” Leoni does a drunk scene almost well and basically becomes window dressing after the first half of the film. I say unequivocally that her without-a-doubt best performance is in the dark, dark drama “You Kill Me” with Ben Kingsley (click here for my review). She was also great in “The Family Man” (click here for my review) and I liked her in “Jurassic Park III” (click here for my review) and blink and you’ll miss her as a first baseman in “A League of their Own.” Leoni isn’t prolific in her acting career, with only 26 credits since the first in 1989.
• For myself and many others, Golden Globe nominee (certainly not for this one) Matthew Broderick will always be “Ferris Bueller” and his “Day Off.” No matter what I’ve seen him in (from the greats “WarGames” – click here for my review – or “Max Dugan Returns” – click here for my review – from three years before “Ferris” to “Inspector Gadget”), I always think of “Ferris.” Even here, although Broderick has plumped up a bit in his middle age, my mind first went to “Ferris.” He’s solid here, but I believe the film needed a bit different of an actor to play “Mr. Fitzhugh,” a fallen Wall Street star who becomes part of the heist. It’s not that Broderick is bad, it’s just that … well, it’s difficult to put my finger on. Of course, he was nominated for “Ferris” and has had many great credits including voicing “The Lion King.” I thought he was sensational in the little-remembered but outstanding “Family Business” with acting superstars Sean Connery and Dustin Hoffman, while he was also memorable with Marlon Brando in the “Godfather-esque” film “The Freshman.”
• Lost in the dreck of “Tower Heist” is Oscar and Golden Globe winner (certainly not for this one) Casey Affleck as “Charlie Gibbs,” who is Stiller’s brother-in-law and helps out in the robbery – until he gets Stiller’s old job, but then turns back again. Affleck here is solid and watchable (just about the only actor working on this one who you can write that about), but the character just doesn’t stand out. Affleck is smooth and comfortable on camera and is second to Alda in who gives an adequate performance department. Affleck didn’t have much of a chance to stand out in the “Ocean’s” remake franchise (click here for my review of the original remake – click here for my review of the second sequel of the remake) with a small part and he won his Oscar and Globe for 2016’s “Manchester by Sea” and was nominated for both for 2007’s “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.”

I’d like to spend more time on supporting cast members Michael Pena, the always solid Judd Hirsch and the Black woman, but the movie just isn’t worth the effort and their work here isn’t worth your time. All three are competent and watchable, but don’t really move the film forward in any way.

The saddest note about “Tower Heist” is not how bad it is (it’s bad), but that it is the final credit for Heavy D. His given name was Dwight Myers and he had 30 acting credits in his entertainment career. He was a hip-hop star who crossed over to films and he has only a tiny role in “Tower Heist.” However, he got great screen time and was terrific in the underrated comedy “Big Trouble” (click here for my review) with Tim Allen. Heavy D died of a pulmonary embolism in 2011 at the age of 44.

Director Brett Ratner, who was good behind the camera for Leoni in “The Family Man” and was pitiful in directing “After the Sunset” (click here for my review), is reported to have developed “Tower Heist” over a number of years – one story is that it was first developed with Murphy as a caper flick starring a cast of African-American comedians. It should have been developed that way or left to die if that idea wasn’t good enough for Hollywood.

“Tower Heist” shows no quality and Ratner should stick with nonfiction and documentaries (he was nominated for Primetime Emmys in those categories). I never liked the “Rush Hour” franchise despite liking Jackie Chan – I simply can’t stand the shrill incompetence of Chris Tucker – and his best in my mind after “The Family Man” is the remake of “Red Dragon” with Anthony Hopkins and Edward Norton – and who could lose with those two? Plus, “Red Dragon” was remade from Michael Mann’s “Manhunter” (click here for my review).

In the final analysis … you don’t find much to watch here. However, a few brief flashes from Alda and others is enough to get you through it. After all, you don’t just watch Oscar-winning flicks, do you? Well, here’s a real non-winner that can probably hold your attention a little better than some (not very many, but some).

“Tower Heist” was the 43rd ranked film at U.S. theaters in 2011 with ticket sales of $78 million, according to Box Office Mojo. Worldwide, the film made $152.9 million on a budget estimated between $75 million and $85 million, according to Wiki. It wasn’t anywhere near the $381 million earned by the No. 1 film – “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows: Part 2” – much less the $352 million earned by “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” that came in No. 2. Here are the other films from 2011 that I’ve reviewed on my blog:

• “Horrible Bosses” (very funny raunch) – click here for my review
• “Just Go With It” (hilarious Sandler) – click here for my review
• “Midnight in Paris” (wonderful drama) – click here for my review

Assorted cast and film notes (via IMDb.com):

• Reports had Murphy becoming interested in the project again after the hiring of Stiller. My note: I can’t imagine why.
• Stiller reportedly earned $15 million for his work on “Tower Heist.” My note: He didn’t earn $14.9 million of it.
• Téa’s given full name is Elizabeth Téa Pantaleoni and she has two children with former husband and actor David Duchovny.
• As for an even longer given name, Affleck’s is Caleb Casey McGuire Affleck-Boldt and is, of course, Ben Affleck’s younger brother (although the thespian equal, I’d say).
• Ratner reportedly turned down the chance to direct “Horrible Bosses” (click here for my review) in order to do “Tower Heist.” My note: THANK GOD! “Horrible Bosses” is a great comedy! Given his track record, Brett would surely have fumbled that chance.
• Directly from IMDb.com: “The Rossa Corsa Red 1962 Ferrari 250 GT Lusso used in the film was claimed to have been the exact car owned by the ‘King of Cool, Steve McQueen.’ While it is true that Steve McQueen did own a 1962 Ferrari 250 GT Lusso, his car was Chestnut Brown, not the Italian Red used on the movie car.”
• Directly from IMDb.com: “The Ferrari Lusso used in many of the scenes was actually a heavily modified Volvo 1800.”
• Filmmakers wanted to later shoot an additional scene that explained what happened to Murphy’s character. He reportedly said it would cost them $500,000 and so the scene was not shot.
• Producer Brian Grazer said on TV that Alda’s character was inspired by Madoff.
• Finally and directly from IMDb.com: “The 1912 chess game Shaw (Alan Alda) references, while talking to Kovaks (Ben Stiller), is a real game. However, rather than playing it out, Levitsky resigned after Marshall moved his queen, realizing checkmate was inevitable. The ‘Marshall Swindle’ term did not derive solely from that game, as it was a well known tactic of Frank Marshall’s to often play a game in a lazy or relaxed style that ceded his opponent the advantage.”

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