Rating: 
Director: Brett Ratner
Cast: Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, Casey Affleck, Alan Alda.
Synopsis: Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy lead a gang of working stiffs against a Wall Street swindler who stiffed them all out of their pensions.
Review: Tower Heist is not exactly a modern day, technically strong heist movie. Instead, it’s old fashioned and funny. The kind that finds humor in things not working according to plan. There is nothing wrong with that, as long as you don’t go expecting a typical heist movie. “Tower Heist” is not smart, it’s not witty either. But what it does have is an agreeably fast pace and a good amount of humor.
Josh Kovacs (Ben Stiller) is the long-time building manager at the most luxurious condo skyscraper in New York. The penthouse of this skyscraper called ‘The Tower’ is owned by Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda), a Wall Street thug who swindles all the employees of ‘The Tower’ out of their pensions, amongst his many other frauds.
The FBI is put on the job of finding proof of Shaw’s guilt, but they find limited success with the crafty swindler. This motivates Kovacs to recruit a team (consisting mostly of the employees of ‘The Tower’) to break into the penthouse and steal whatever Kovacs is convinced is hidden there. So, a harebrained plan in hatched with help from a street thug called Slide (Eddie Murphy). As stupid as the plan already is, things begin to fall apart when no one sticks to the plan. It’s a laugh riot about the comedy of errors there on. How these working class employees pull off this mega million dollar heist is what the rest of the movie reveals.
‘Tower Heist’ has many laughable moments, but nothing that will get you rolling on the floor laughing and neither is the plot intriguing enough to keep you on the edge of your seat. This multi-star cast movie therefore is definitely a whole lot of fun, but nothing more. So, if you are up for some laughs, this just might be the movie of the week for you.
Verdict: It’s not a typical heist movie, but it’s enjoyable none the less; thanks to an all-star cast.
Malvika Rao