Tower Heist

[Beate]

I just saw your tweet about the film as well, and it made me laugh out loud. I am so glad I wasn't the only one who thought the film was absolutely rubbish. Watching an episode of Hustle on TV is more fun, at least their heists are intelligent. Very disappointing but I did give it 6/10 at the time but have revised this to 5/10.

[Beate]

Oh my God, I just went to imdb to see whether there were any reviews yet and I found that the film is titled "Aushilfsgangster" in German - "Temp Gangsters"? Shudder. The German critics agree - too little tension, too little humour, actors wasted.

[kevinknapman]

I have to admit that when I saw initial trailers for this, I thought it had potential as a no-nonsense fun popcorn flick.
Sadly Tower Heist turns out to be one of the most ineptly made and illogically scripted Hollywood films I've seen in quite a while.
There is the occasional good line but I sat through this mostly unamused. Seeing Ted Griffin's name gave me some hope as he did a pretty good job writing a fun heist film with Ocean's Eleven but this had none of that film's wit or smart plotting (Apparently the other writer was responsible for Speed 2). I spent the whole film waiting for some kind of neat inventive twist that never came. The constant use of chess as metaphor also led me to expect some kind of clever p*y-off but that never amounted to anything either. Instead it just allowed me to concentrate on the stupid and ill-thought out plot points. So Ben Stiller's character thinks that the best person to help him do the heist is a petty criminal (Murphy) who is always getting caught. My other big gripe is probable spoiler territory and involves the Casey Affleck character.
[spoiler]Why would an employee who is considered a useless waster and disliked by the boss, get rehired in a higher position despite only getting fired not long before? There was no logical reason for it. Even taking into consideration the fact that his wife was pregnant, it still didn't make any sense. There was no scene that actually justified it. It just seemed shoe-horned in to create tension between him and the Stiller character.[/spoiler]

The final climax was fairly unexciting, unbelievable and marred by some incredibly poor fx work. The acting was all fairly average. Alan Alda was okay as the bad guy and Judd Hirsch suitably grumpy as Stiller's boss but Stiller and Affleck were very bland. Murphy I have no opinion of really but he could have been worse I guess. The less said about Gabourey Sidibe's Jamaican accent though the better.

Apparently there are others who did think it was a fun film, the perfect thing to see after a day's work to take your mind of things. Somebody sitting behind me laughed like it was the funniest film in the world and I was sitting two seats away from Charlie Lyne (ultraculture) who accidently broke the embargo to tweet that it was aces. Sadly I couldn't disagree more and just found it annoying and poorly made. A heist movie should leave you with the satisfaction of the underdog's triumph over the bad guys but I just didn't care.

[TheyCallMeMrGlass]

I was one of the lucky many to win a pair of tickets for this.

Cinema was half empty, i sure hope its not because of the bad reviews. i
really enjoyed this mild crime caper movie.

Its not a riotuous comedy just a charming goofy sunday matinee sort of
film with likeable stars.

Eddie Murphy is looking more energetic and revitalised close to what he
used to be in the 80s which is great to see. He isnt at his funniest but
he was still entertaining playing a hoodlum thief.

Ben Stiller...well he was never the funniest guy in the world so he seems
to like to play it straight and likeable with the odd subtle comical
reactions. And I like it. He plays the mastermind of the heist and is
confident he can pull off a mission impossible heist with his rather
incompetant friends. but we as an audience are not so confident,
particularly as he cant win a chess game with his boss.

But there are points where some comical dialogue falls flat and thats where
i would drop my rating slightly. It tries too hard sometimes. There was
some promising chemistry between murphy and stiller but that fizzled out
quickly.

But this is a fun and entertaining movie. Has a nice story and doesnt try
to be a smartass like the Oceans 11 movies. you will probably forget this
movie next week but as long as you are not expecting too much, you will
leave the cinema with a smile on your face.

So give it a snuggly warm 7/10

Edit: uh...sorry about the formatting, I didnt realise typing out on my phone will literally post as the shape of my phone!

[jeanelle]

I love your review Mr G, nicely summed up.

We saw this at Cineworld Trocadero which is a horrible cinema but there was a really lovely Virgin hostess in attendance and we had toffee popcorn!!! I don't usually eat popcorn but this was wonderful.

[Jayman]

Saw this tonight at the Trocadero Cineworld, probably my least favourite of all the theaters in terms of size and overall comfort but hey, they do switch off all the lights so 10 points to them. They also have a good track record of sticking to the schedule and never (or rarely) screwing up the projection :)

Movie was ok. Truly brainless & hopelessly illogical, but entertaining nonetheless. The cast members were all charismatic enough to keep me amused throughout. Speaking of which, just how the heck did Brett Ratner manage to convince so many top class performers to partake in this fluff?

[Jayman]

Edit: uh...sorry about the formatting, I didnt realise typing out on my phone will literally post as the shape of my phone!

I actually thought your formatting made it easier to read :)

[TheyCallMeMrGlass]

Edit: uh...sorry about the formatting, I didnt realise typing out on my phone will literally post as the shape of my phone!

I actually thought your formatting made it easier to read :)

Oh you know what, you're right! It does make it easier to read, doesnt it? Pit about the content

[minidude2000]

Despite the generally negative reviews, I did enjoy this. No, the heist is not particularly imaginative, no, the film is not especially well scripted and no, its not as funny as it could have been. Suggest watching, even if only once.

[biggins]

Cineworld at Fountainpark, Edinburgh was almost full so no spare bags of popcorn to snatch after the film!! Toffee popcorn was a bonus -hope we get that again as it was much better than the usual tasteless stuff.

Eddie Murphy wasn't the funniest he has ever been but some funny moments and although you could pick plenty of holes in the plot it was still quite entertaining. I found it better than expected after reading the reviews on here . 6/10