Film Review: Tower Heist

It's been a hideous 12 years, watching Eddie Murphy lurch from one terrible project to another. After 1999's Bowfinger, Murphy seemingly wanted to make the most offensively piss-poor cinema possible, and eradicate any memories of films like 48 Hours, Beverly Hills Cop and Trading Places.

In the space of 12 years, he committed the following celluloid crimes - Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (at least the first one had a few amusing moments), Dr. Dolittle 2, Pluto Nash, I Spy, Daddy Day Care, The Haunted Mansion, Norbit (possibly one of the worst films I've ever seen, and definitely the nadir of Murphy's career), Meet Dave and Imagine That. He did bag critical acclaim for a supporting role in Dreamgirls, but that's kind of like finding a quid after you stick your hand in a pile of manure.

Meanwhile Brett Ratner spent the last few years getting ideas above his station. Best suited to easy to watch stuff like Rush Hour and The Family Man (a film I really dig, when every bone in body tells me not to), he had no business going near the likes of X-Men: The Last Stand (Notice after this disaster, there has still yet to be a straight sequel) or Red Dragon (a film that dared to remake Manhunter, the cast was there, the correct director was not.)

These two wayward careers combine in Tower Heist, which is exactly the kind of stuff both men need to be doing. Frivolous, throwaway fun with more adult jokes and language. Hell, I've been waiting over a decade for Eddie Murphy to swear again...

Josh Kovacs (Ben Stiller) manages an apartment complex in New York, where only the wealthiest live. When he discovers that a financier, Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda), who lives in the buildings penthouse, has perpetrated a pension scam that has robbed most of the employees of the complex of their money, Kovacs hatches a plan to rob Shaw's safe, enlisting the help of his robber neighbour Slide (Murphy.)

Tower Heist isn't a particularly challenging film, but assembles a good cast (Casey Affleck, Matthew Broderick, Judd Hirsch, Tea Leoni, and Michael Pena also star) and kept my interest throughout. There's no spectacularly funny moment, or a wham-bam set piece, but it's an amusing, watchable action/comedy.

Ratner is so much better suited to this kind of thing, and it's an actual joy to watch Murphy reel off his fast-talking rants that are so reminiscent of his 80's and early 90's work. After years of dreadful kids films, it's brilliant just to see the guy curse again!

There's really not a great deal to say about Tower Heist. It's nothing we haven't seen before, but it's entertaining while it's on, and amuses throughout. It's more interesting for returning two people to the sort of work they should have been doing all along. Let's just hope they don't drift away again.

***
Fun while it's on, but nothing more. Good to see Brett Ratner direct something more suited to his talents, and brilliant to see Eddie Murphy do something a little more grown up. Worth a rent.