Tower Heist is, in the tradition of Ocean’s Eleven (and Twelve, and Thirteen…), a heist movie. Director Brett Ratner takes a cast that boasts en Stiller and Eddie Murphy through a Robin Hood-esque mission to steal back some money financier Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda) has defrauded from Josh Kovacs (Ben Stiller) and the rest of his pension-deprived staff. Kovacs, manager of a high-rise tower block that comprises “the most expensive real-estate in North America”, enlists fellow employees, a petty criminal he exchanges insults with on the street on the way to work and even at one point an FBI agent to carry out his master-plan of revenging Shaw.
The film takes its cue from the imaginative title and goes downhill from there. Had it made full use if its obvious topicality to recent banking crises, Tower Heist might have had real political and moral interest as well as entertainment value. Sadly, it falls short on all scores. An exposition at the beginning of the film promises character development yet fails to deliver, and a dialogue that is more tedious than funny only compounds this disappointment. Ultimately, there is little to distinguish Ratner’s latest offering from the more mediocre films of the genre.