Staff Writer
Tower Heist is not your average heist movie, Ben Stiller and a cast that is interestingly put together to say the least. The unusual cast makes a mediocre movie that has its amusing moments but fails to come together with anything close to extraordinary.
A misfit crew of Hotel workers find out their beloved boss schemed them out of their savings and with their back against the wall, Josh (Ben Stiller), rally’s a few others to seek revenge. The first halves of the movie drags along fairly slowly as you learn the plot to steal from Arthur Shaw, the hotel owner,and repay the money to the workers.
Tower Heist stays in a funk until the crew decides they need help from a local criminal Slide (Eddie Murphy). Murphy’s role brings some excitement and humor to the movie, but slowly dies off towards the end.
Matthew Broderick plays the scared and down on his luck business man Mr. Fitzhugh, who joins the crew after losing all his money. The role is awkward and really doesn’t fit in many scenes; Broderick is funny at times but in other moments fails to bring anything to the table.
Stiller’s character moves the movie along and holds together the cast but also fails to achieve anything great out of the script.
There were two actors who I thought stole the comedy show and saved a lot of the movie. Michael Peña (Shooter, 30 Minutes or Less) delivered a very funny performance and brought home a lot of funny moments. Also, Gabourey Sidibe (Precious), casts an excellent performance as Odessa, the maid who joins the crew to help break the safe.
In the end Tower Heist fails to find its identity, with no sorts of cool Ocean Eleven plot or witty story. Tower Heist states itself as an average comedy with sub-par action. This falls under the “maybe rent” category for recommendations and fails to capitalize on the box office drought.
Tyler Stinson may be reached at tstinson@springfieldcollege.edu