 | | Tower Heist ***
| Year: | 2011 | | Director: | Brett Ratner |
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If you like heist movies, you probably remember the line in
Ocean’s 11 where George Clooney has a conversation with a silent Brad Pitt. “You think we need one more? You think we need one more. All right, we’ll get one more.” That was to give him a gang of 11 and a film fast and frothy enough to exploit all of them.
Tower Heist wheezes along with 5 and can’t even use those properly.
You might think I’m being unfair. This is a Ben Stiller comedy after all, with Eddie Murphy in a supporting role (at last!). It surely isn’t supposed to be cool and slick like Soderbergh’s movie, but consider that Clooney’s lot are far funnier and then you see we have a problem. In fact, we have several.
Ben Stiller is the first one. He’s a genuinely talented comedy actor, but he plays it virtually straight here as manager of The Tower, a prestigious hotel. While it might be commendable that he isn’t relying on gags, it means he has to rely on his characters personality (zero), good dialogue (very rare, aside from a routine about vaginas!) or at least some sort of surprise for the viewer (very predictable instead).
The next problem is director Brett Ratner. Again, it’s commendable he clearly wants to make a film with a little more substance than a rom-com that relies on fart gags and he’s never been that kind of director anyway. Say what you like, but
Rush Hour is a decent action flick, a nice attempt at the sub-genre that includes
48 Hours, and here he has Eddie Murphy at his disposal. Except he’s trying to make a heist movie and he just doesn’t have the deft touch required. I don’t know if he’s responsible for the dreadful editing, but the first third drags, setups are never exploited and scenes can feel disjointed. Seriously, though this isn’t that kind of film, mark my words that the DVD release will have “Excluded Extended Unseen Edition” stamped on it, or at least, deleted scenes running to about 25 minutes. That can’t excused in a film like this. You need a rhythm and you need to know that the characters know every angle better than you do. There are way too many leaps of faith and contrivances though.
Finally there’s the script that pulls every punch. This film plays it so safe. The very funny conversation about “small vaginas” is the only recourse to old sparky Stiller and an edge. It’s not all bad. It’s harmless and optimistic (the plot is about compensating the hotel staff that lost their pensions to wily old crook and soon-to-be-fleeced Alan Alda on the top floor). The plot’s ok and the last act where the job is being pulled is a pretty good sequence; though possibly only because you’ve been brainwashed into lowering your expectations over the preceding hour or so.
Where this film does win is in the supporting cast. Their characters are daft, their motivations confused, but they are great fun and it feels like they could give a lot more, if only the dialogue was there. But in any case, Alan Alda brings some old fashioned class and it was good to see Matthew Broderick adding some natural charm as a down on his luck banker. Gabourey Sidibe is a gem, cutting loose after
Precious with some serious sass! She is the funniest one in the film for definite. Casey Affleck is excellent too because he has to work at making an impact. As a straight man to Stiller, who is already a straight man himself, Affleck was poorly served by the script, but makes the best of it and he’s always worth watching. And of course, we can’t forget Eddie Murphy. Well, we can, after the run of terrible movies for the past decade. Here he is great and back on old form. I wish there had been room for him to really cut loose, because he proves how good he can still be, especially acting with others; there is no sign of that horrible ego that has weighed down all his movies since
Nutty Professor. He could have coaxed more out of Stiller if the script could have allowed it, I’m sure, because that’s what Tea Leoni does. There’s a half-arsed predictable romance between the two of them (Soderbergh again, I know, but
Out of Sight this is not), but she like Affleck brings something a bit more punchy to the role and Stiller responds. It’s like he wakes up every time she speaks. I don’t blame him! She’s still sexy and long missed. Just more scenes with the cast being allowed to be freer, then we’d have a cracking movie on our hands instead this strange hybrid of half-efforts.
Tower Heist is out of its depth in the heist genre; it doesn’t flow whether you see it as a full-on comedy or slightly more serious caper, but the cast work hard and by the end, it’s harmless fun that everyone can enjoy. With names like Stiller, Broderick and Murphy it should have been electric, but at least I left the film with a smile.
