Amateurs storm the tower

Film review: Tower Heist

MANILA, Philippines - I don’t ever recall wilfully missing a Ben Stiller movie; Tower Heist wasn’t going to be the exception. An ensemble cast, an intriguing Ocean’s franchise theme, and hey, it’s a Ben Stiller movie. Laughs are practically guaranteed.

As the much beloved, extremely efficient building manager of The Tower — a premier New York apartment — Josh Kovacs’ life is on the up and up. Until Arthur Shaw, the bigwig penthouse dweller and chum to Josh, is caught by the FBI for running a Ponzi scheme, that is.

Confused and shocked as he is, Kovacs is left reeling when he has to admit to his staff that he entrusted their pension money to Shaw because the latter had promised to triple it. Shortly thereafter, longtime doorman Lester (Stephen McKinley Henderson) tries unsuccessfully to kill himself because, on top of his pension, he had given all his earnings to the unrepentant Shaw. This pushes the mild-mannered and professional Kovacs to the brink, and he starts to plan a way to get back their hard-earned cash which had been so suavely Madoff-ed from them.

In true Ocean’s fashion, Josh assembles his crack team of professionals to literally storm the castle. Well, not exactly. For starters, the group is neither Ocean’s quality or even completely willing. Josh’s brother-in-law (and hotel concierge) Charlie Gibbs (Casey Affleck [incidentally a part of Ocean’s crew] is not exactly the most willing of participants. Enrique Dev’reaux (Michael Peña), the new bellhop, is supposed to be the electronics expert — until they learn he took an online course because he didn’t finish college. Then there’s the recently evicted and divorced Tower tenant Chase Fitzhugh (the brilliant Matthew Broderick), who is still learning to come to grips with his life’s unraveling. Completing the motley group is the real pro, the thief and robber Slide (Eddie Murphy), who provides street cred and some hands-on training to the nerdy bunch.

Add to this mix the tough FBI agent (Tea Leoni), the safecracking hotel employee (Odessa Montero), red 1963 Ferrari 250 GT Lusso, and “a gauntlet of lesbians” (watch it, and you’ll get it) and you have an exciting, meaty heist film that is not exactly professionally executed, but certainly professionally comedic.

Director Brett Ratner, who counts Rush Hour, The Family Man, Red Dragon, and X-Men: The Last Stand among his flicks, gives it de rigueur treatment. It is fast and fun — even if the underlying theme is dead serious. Some people, after all, are shamelessly criminal and will say anything to get at that money in your wallet.

Still, Tim Robey of The Daily Telegraph jibed that “it’s a little embarrassing that they can’t conceive of doing this without bailing a black criminal out of jail... but cultural sensitivity has never been Ratner’s strong suit.” Ouch.

In an interview, Eddie Murphy described the heist as sort of a Robin Hood quest, while Ben Stiller labelled it a kind of “wish fulfilment.” Indeed, who doesn’t want to “stick it to the man,” as opined by Jack Black’s character Dewey Finn in School of Rock.

So, yes, Madoff, here’s one big stick. Go stick it up…