It’s probably not a mistake to feel somewhat robbed after “Tower Heist.”
Brett Ratner’s movie is too rigid and bland to be a good comedy and too goofy and tame to be truly thrilling.
We learn a lot of mundane details about the inner workings of a New York building that is essentially Trump Tower, including security policies, elevator codes and its many tenants.
Why we have to know so much about a building of all things is frustrating when “Tower Heist” refuses to develop its characters or even begin to get comically creative.
It’s all managed by Josh Kovacs (Ben Stiller), who although is very faithful to the tower’s owner, business mogul Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda), loses his temper and his job when Shaw gambles the entire staff’s money in a securities fraud scandal.
Josh’s plan to steal Shaw’s nest egg from his penthouse is all well and good, but we’re bogged down with a slew of detailed minutiae that isn’t funny so much as it is characteristic of the film’s dopiness.
“Tower Heist” gets a lot better when Eddie Murphy shows up and spouts a few amusing non-sequiturs about “seizure boys” and “a gauntlet of lesbians” that free the screenplay of its shackles. His role as Slide is classic Murphy, outrageous enough that he transcends the casting confines of his age.
But even his gifted ability to improvise is stifled by more sight gags and stunts. Has it come to the point in our comedies when a cast as talented as Stiller, Murphy, Alda, Casey Affleck, Matthew Broderick, Michael Pena and even “Precious’s” star Gabourey Sidibe are given next to nothing funny or interesting to do in favor of a showy genre mash-up?
There’s a sense that “Tower Heist” could’ve been a riot if it just let loose and didn’t steal away so much free time making its plot as busy and polished as the equally lavish, excessive and indulgent tower its set in.
2 ½ stars