TOWER HEIST

Universal Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 104 Minutes



In Universal Pictures Tower Heist, Ben Stiller is the building manager of a large hotel tower when he realizes that the tower's richest tenant Alan Alda, who Stiller has investing the employee's pension, has not only defrauded his clients money - but has defrauded their own employee pension as well. Feeling guilty for what he did in trusting Alda, Stiller wants to make things right - by stealing $20 million dollars from Alda.

In a cross between Die Hard, Horrible Bosses, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off, this is a cute action comedy of a tower heist, of which the tower was really Trump Tower in the movie. In the ultimate Upstairs, Downstairs situation, Stiller recruits his fellow staff members - concierge Casey Affleck, elevator operator Michael Peña, housekeeper Gabourey Sidibe and evicted tenant Matthew Broderick to make the heist of Alda's safe up in the penthouse suite. Realizing they do not know how to steal, Stiller then bails out his neighborhood thief Eddie Murphy to teach them all how to steal. Planning the heist soon becomes difficult as Stiller develops a relationship with FBI agent Téa Leoni, who is in charge of Alda's incarceration.

I liked the fact that Stiller and the others timed the heist with the Macy's Day Parade. It was great to see a cameo of Matt Lauer as part of the Parade. While having what is supposedly Steve McQueen's car in the movie was cool - what was even better was what they did with McQueen's car. A cameo by Victoria's Secret supermodel Kate Upton as Mr. Hightower's mistress is also cool. I would have liked to have seen more of the residents in the tower, as well as more of the security arrangements in the movie - given that they are about to pull off a heist, how are they going to get past those? What I do not like about the film is that you do not know what happened to Eddie Murphy at the very end of the movie. I was expecting the last shot to be of Murphy since they did not resolve his character like they did all of the other characters in the movie.

Rated PG-13 for language and violence. Running time: 104 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

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