Film
Nov 13, 2011

TOWER HEIST

Tower Heist is a faced paced comedy starring Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy and an all-star cast. When a group of hard working stiffs find out that there retirement money has been swindled in a Ponzi scheme by a wealthy Wall Street businessman, they plot to rob his exclusive high rise penthouse. Think Bernie Madoff with a slightly less sophisticated Italian Job plan.

Josh Kovacs (Jerry Stiller) is the building manager of a high-rise luxury apartment complex called The Tower. Josh is a terrific building manager. The staff truly loves Josh and they all love being a part of the Tower staff. The most famous tenant in the building is Wall Street executive Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda). In what appears to Josh as an attempt to rob the building, is actually an FBI surveillance operation which leads to the arrest of Arthur Shaw. Shaw is caught by FBI agent Claire Denham (Tea Leoni) trying to flee the country. He is arrested and charged with swindling millions of dollars from his investor’s accounts in a Ponzi scheme.  Josh feels terrible because he personally asked Shaw to manage the pensions of the Tower’s employees and now there money has been lost. Shaw is released on bail and must remain in his penthouse under FBI guard until his trial.

Lester (Stephen Henderson), the building’s retiring doorman, attempts to commit suicide by jumping in front of a subway, but is saved at the last minute. Lester tells Josh that he has nothing to live for since he not only lost his pension in Shaw’s scheme, but his life savings as well. In a fit of anger, Josh goes to Shaw’s apartment with Charlie Gibbs (Casey Affleck), the concierge and Josh’s brother-in-law, and Enrique Dev’reaux (Michael Pena), the bellhop and newest tower employee. When Josh mentions Lester’s suicide attempt, Shaw appears unconcerned and Josh reacts by destroying the windows of Shaw’s prized Ferrari with a golf club. As a result of their behavior Josh, Charlie, and Enrique are all fired by Mr. Simon (Judd Hirsch).

Josh and Claire meet at a bar and after a few drinks, Claire drunkenly mentions that guys like Shaw always have a safety net of cash hidden somewhere, but the FBI hadn’t been able to find Shaw’s stash.  It is at this moment that Josh decides to find that stash and rob Arthur Shaw… but how? Josh gathers Charlie and Enrique, along with Mr. Fitzhugh (Matthew Broderick), a former Merrill Lynch employee who is being evicted from the Tower, to discuss stealing Shaw’s money. Everyone agrees to the plan except Charlie, who states the obvious- we don’t know how to steal. Josh decides to contact Slide (Eddie Murphy), the neighborhood petty thief to assist them with the robbery. Slide quickly realizes he doesn’t have the skills to crack the safe that Shaw’s money is supposedly hidden so they decide to bring in Odessa Montero (Gabourey Sidibe), a maid at the Tower, whose family ran a local locksmith business. This is where it starts to get very interesting and very funny. I don’t want to give away the details and the plot twists, but take my word for it, you are going to enjoy i

The thing that makes Tower Heist so good is the cast. Ben Stiller and Casey Affleck are the perfect good guys. Alan Alda is a great villain. Tea Leoni is the sympathetic FBI agent and Matthew Broderick and Eddie Murphy have the majority of the laughs. Actually the entire cast is just terrific.  Go see it you won’t be disappointed!