"Tower Heist": Action Caper Is Funny, Fleet, and Inconsequential

Details

Rated . Opens Friday at San Francisco theaters.

Related Content

• "Project X": Empty Hedonism for High-Schoolers
  March 7, 2012
• The FBI Says: Be Suspicious of People Who Pay for Lattes With Cash
  February 15, 2012
• FBI to Announce Development in Case of Daniel Andreas San Diego, Vegan Bay Area Bomber
  November 16, 2011
• The FBI Classifies Juggalos as a Gang (of Idiots?)
  November 4, 2011
• Anonymous Plans Another Protest Today While Feds Launch Investigation of Hacking Group
  September 12, 2011

More About

• Arthur Shaw
• Tower Heist
• Michael Pena
• Grand Larceny
• Crime and Law

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Events Newsletter: What's happening in town? From underground club nights to the biggest outdoor festivals, our top picks for the week's best events will always keep you in on the action.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

A revenge of the have-nots playing on the clear class stratification of the luxury high-rise, Tower Heist pits lobby against penthouse. At The Tower, an exclusive Columbus Circle apartment building, top-floor investor Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda) stands accused of financial malfeasance by the FBI, leaving building manager Josh Kovacs (Ben Stiller) to inform his staff that Shaw was managing all of their pensions, which have now evaporated. Determined to make things right, Josh decides to steal the emergency fund he's sure Shaw has squirreled away, and so he assembles a team of equally unqualified employees (Casey Affleck, Michael Pena), an ex-financier (Matthew Broderick), and a small-time thug bailed out as criminal consultant (Eddie Murphy) to break into the penthouse, where Shaw has been put on house arrest, and liberate the cash. As a heist picture, Tower Heist is as amateur as its crooks: The scenes where you'd usually be drilled on the plan of action are all about the ensemble's round-table riffing, highlighting the good supporting work. An affable, crowd-pleasing director with his hugely successful Rush Hour franchise, director Brett Ratner is at times near to crowd-pandering here, but this is a clean, well-turned job, fleet and funny and inconsequential. It gets in and gets out quickly ... and leaves no trace once it's gone.