Tower Heist
Continuing to play catch up...
So...yeah... here we have Tower Heist. The movie that supposedly was Eddie Murphy's return to edgier/funnier fare. That alone was supposed to make this newsworthy and watchable. And you know what? I was pumped for it. Eddie's coming back! Not even the fact that this is a Ben Stiller movie could dampen my spirits. And I rarely like Ben Stiller movies (Zero Effect is about the only one I really liked). Eddie Freakin' Murphy is back!
Then... I realized... I actually don't know any Eddie other than the Nutty Professor/Dr. Doolittle/Shrek Eddie. Oh, well, Dream Girls Eddie too. So why the hell was I so excited. It was, after all, going to be a Ben Stiller movie first and foremost. I had seen a few minutes of 48 Hours and another few minutes of Coming to America. Don't remember much of either of those movies. Never seen Beverly Hills Cop or anything like that. But, I think it's somewhat safe to say that if this is the return of Eddie Murphy, the Eddie Murphy that everyone older than 9 supposedly loves... well, then, I don't know what the fuss was about in the first place. He wasn't particularly funny here. But, then again, neither was anyone else in the movie. Eddie had his moments, but really he came off sounding like Donkey from Shrek had hit the skids pretty hard, ended up in the ghetto, and adopted that lifestyle. Amusing at times, but not really funny.
Here's the thing though. I don't think this was anything close to a return to vintage 1980s Eddie Murphy form. For one, this movie was hardly edgy. A little bit of bad language doesn't really qualify for edge anymore. And secondly, there's no way that Eddie could ever return to form starring in a movie with Ben Stiller... unless Eddie kills Stiller's character during the opening credits. Then....well, if that wouldn't qualify as a return to form, it would qualify as a huge favor.
In any event, enough about Eddie Murphy. The fact is, he didn't really even have enough screen time to justify the hype. What this all boils down to is that despite the fact that Brett Ratner was the director, this was a typical Ben Stiller movie. Chuckle-inducing at it's funniest. Cringe-inducing on the whole. The whole thing felt like a sitcom with a preposterous set up. By that I mean the jokes. And the timing and feel. It had that whole "wait for it.... cue laugh track!" feel. And that's just a darn tired approach by now. Nothing is worse than when you can feel that the people in the movie think they're doing awesomely funny stuff. It almost always comes off as overcooked and barely humorous.
Trying to think if the movie had any redeeming factors... Gabourey Sidibe came off as a gimmick... Casey Affleck just didn't seem to fit in... Ben Stiller sucks... hmmm... maybe that it was somewhat timely? I mean the whole Bernie Madoff interest, I would think, is on the slippery slope towards back-of-the-mind-ville. But, you can hardly blame a movie for not being able to keep up on the freshest of the fresh stories in this 24-7 news cycle society in which we live. Movies do, after all, take time to develop and create. I'm also not going to dock it too many points for the absurdity of the plot. No, it isn't believable. In the least. But the movie does establish a baseline of asinine and then it proceeds from there. I'm not, however, willing to be so forgiving on some of the plot inconsistencies. When you have such a simple story, the least you could do is make sure it's at least a little... tidier.
But then... you're not going to check out a Brett Ratner/Ben Stiller collaboration because it features nuanced story-telling and an airtight script. Inevitably, you end up going to see a movie like this for one of a couple reasons: a.) you're bored and nothing else worthwhile is playing b.)Against all odds you like Ben Stiller or c.) you hate yourself. Guess which camp I fall into. I suppose in truth, it's d.) you have a movie pass and sick desire to break your previous movies-seen-in-the-theater-in-a-calendar-year record. Taking one for the team, then, to continue chasing my goal. Oh well, in the end, I only lose out on two hours of my life. I just hope I don't end up dying two hours before I'm really slated to. That would suck... Ben Stiller would get the last laugh... well, at least someone would be laughing because of a Ben Stiller movie... bam.
Alright... a redeeming factor...hmmmm... ok, I have two. One: Matthew Broderick's quirky take on Mr. Fitzhugh, a failed investment banker, was probably the most amusing thing about the movie. Not that any of the scenes were particularly worth stealing, but Broderick stole every one he was in (then subsequently tried to return them, claiming the fact that he had just walked out without paying for them was an innocent mistake). Two: it wasn't the worst movie I've ever seen. By a long shot.
So there you have it. I can't say it's even mildly funny. But I also can't say it's soul crushingly bad. It's definitely closer to the latter than the former though. Now I'm just trying to figure out how I can steal two hours of Ben Stiller's life so we can even up the score.
Grade: C-
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