Movies

Tower Heist is a crime comedy whose crime isn't quite clever enough, and whose comedy isn't quite funny enough.

The film follows a group of blue-collar workers, led by Ben Stiller's Josh, as they attempt to rob the Penthouse apartment of a Wall Street swindler (Alan Alda) who stole their money in a fraudulent Ponzi scheme. There to complicate things are the FBI agents overseeing the swindler's house arrest, but thankfully, they're the dumbest law enforcement agents ever committed to film (the entire heist hinges on them being tricked by a forged letter and consuming laxatives).

While Stiller is the lead, Tower Heist is Eddie Murphy's picture. He pitched the initial concept, and this was supposed to be his triumphant, foul-mouthed return to quality adult comedy. Early on, Murphy delivers with lines that are fast, funny and as profane as an M rating will let them be, but as the film wears on, his performance softens.

Thankfully, Gabourey Sidibe and Nina Arianda are there to pick up his slack. As a lewd, safe-cracking, Jamaican-born maid and a budding lawyer respectively, the pair score the biggest laughs with their unfortunately minor roles.

Tower Heist is only good for a handful of laughs. It thinks it's clever, the next Ocean's Eleven, but while Ocean's heist involved a careful, well-thought-out plan to rob a casino, in this film, the heist is a matter of boarding an elevator and covering a few cameras with stickers ... it's impossible to pretend the two are even in the same league.

And it's a shame, because with a bit more conflict, and a lot more comedy, they could have been.