Tower Heist Lacks Feist

There’s a certain expectation one gets from a Brett Ratner directed film; one of a solid, glossy and professional studio entertainment movie that is in no way fully satisfactory. That can be applied to his thrillers (Red Dragon), super hero movies (X-Men – The Last Stand) and, as is more often the case with Ratner flicks, action-comedies (Rush Hour). And that’s a pretty accurate description of Tower Heist, a comedy heist movie that’s neither not very funny, not very clever or not very exciting.

Of course, this being Ratner, I can’t accuse it of being awful either since it’s got an impressive cast including Ben Stiller, Alan Alda and Matthew Brodrick, looks like a million dollars, has a classy, old fashioned score and has a refreshingly fun tone. But Stiller’s charisma is too low key to really make the ensemble gel, the caper itself is too brisk and the obstacles overcome too easily and the script too soggy to be consistently amusing.

Tower Heist does have one major weapon in it’s arsenal and that’s Eddie Murphy. Damn, Eddie is one funny guy, and it’s his wise-cracking, fast-talking professional criminal that rises far and above the averageness off the rest of the film. It’s a shame he’s not in it that much.