Tower Heist

I've written about this before, but I can't help but think of it every movie I watch with Eddie Murphy in it. The comedian/actor built up a huge reputation for himself in the 1980s and has basically spent the last 20-plus years tearing it apart. So when he does something positive and enjoyable, as a viewer we've got to enjoy it! Murphy is a bright spot in a solid, entertaining if unspectacular caper movie, 2011's Tower Heist.

Working as building manager for The Tower -- a swanky, classy NYC apartment for the wealthy -- Josh Kovacs (Ben Stiller) runs a tip-top operation with a helpful, hard-working wait staff. He's shocked to hear some startling news when Wall Street power broker, Penthouse owner in the Tower and all-around nice guy, Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda) is arrested for counts of fraud, wasting millions and maybe billions of his investors' money, including the pensions for all the employees of The Tower. Josh wants to believe the best but finds out otherwise and comes up with a desperate plan. With several other burned employees and a low-level crook, Slide (Murphy), Josh is going to rob Shaw's penthouse apartment and find his hidden stash. Can these amateur crooks pull the job off?

As a fan of heist movies, I'll give just about any one of them a try. The premise reminded me of an ABC show a few years back -- The Knights of Prosperity -- with a ragtag crew of amateur thieves and crooks trying to be master criminals. It isn't a straight physical comedy, and it's not quite a dark, sinister heist movie either. Instead, it falls in between. Yes, it is genuinely funny; Josh's ragtag crew bumbling and fumbling through the planning and robbery. But surprisingly enough, there is a dramatic edge to the heist setting. It isn't played entirely for laughs. There's some actual drama involved, much of that chalked up to the Shaw character being a not so thinly veiled dig at Bernie Madoff. It's easy to feel for Josh and his staff, their pensions/life savings stolen by someone who thought he could get away scot-free with his plan. Comedy and drama working well together.

Playing on the comedic heist angle with a bumbling crew of crooks, I was happy to see the cast here, including some names I wouldn't normally have thought of. Stiller is a great lead as Josh, an everyman worker who busts his butt to do what he does and do it well. He does get some laughs, but he's the straight man, letting those around him get the big laughs. As the conniving, fast-talking Slide, Murphy does provide those bigger laughs, especially his "training" of his crooks and a later explanation of his protocol about the thieving business. Murphy is such a talented comedic actor it's easy to forget that when he's in so many of his recent sub-par efforts. There is an effortless quality to Murphy's talent when he's given good material to work with, and he's got it here. And rounding out the three leads, who better to play a condescending, upper class, know it all a-hole? Yeah, Alda nails his part, his Arthur Shaw a bad guy you just love to hate.

The ensemble behind these three are the real scene-stealers here, including Matthew Broderick, Casey Affleck, Michael Pena, Gabourey Sidibe, and Stephen Henderson as Josh's crew of thieves. Broderick is a highlight as Fitzhugh, a former Wall Street whiz who's fallen on epically rough times as he's evicted from The Tower. The unlikeliest of the crooks, his deadpan, straight delivery kills it in the laugh department. Sidibe too is hysterical as Odessa, the Jamaican maid with a safecracking background. Mostly though as an ensemble, they work well together. Their scenes among the group allow each individual to shine when given the chance. Solid group of dramatic actors all given a chance in the 'Yuck it up' department. Also look for Tea Leoni as FBI agent Denham, assigned to guard Shaw, and Judd Hirsch as Mr. Simon, the bossy on-site manager who keeps pushing and pushing Josh to do this and that.

So what new thing does 'Tower' bring to the heist genre? Like 2010's The Town, it takes a somewhat familiar heist and puts it in an incredibly unique, visually different setting. Where 'Town' went to Fenway Park for its heist, 'Tower' heads to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Josh and Co. attempt to rob the apartment while thousands of people line the streets below, the giant floats filling the sky. I can't say why for sure, but it works. Yes, the heist premise has all sorts of holes and premises that just don't work in a ridiculous quality, but it is a fun, exciting extended sequence. The ending though is surprisingly sweet with one character making a huge personal decision.

Nothing flashy or spectacular about this comedy-drama-heist from director Brett Ratner, but it's fun from beginning to end. It benefits greatly from a strong cast -- the major roles and the supporting ones -- and a heist premise just unique enough to set it apart from the rest. Worth a watch.

Tower Heist <---trailer (2011): ***/****

48 Hours

By 1982, Eddie Murphy had become the biggest, most popular member of the Saturday Night Live cast, bringing the show out of its first slump after the original cast had all left.  He was riding high and in the 1980s would make classic 1980s flicks like Beverly Hills Cop, The Golden Child, Coming to America, and Trading Places.  I always think of BHC cop as his star-making movie turn, but his first movie role came in 1982's 48 Hrs.

With this 80s comedy, we revisit one of my favorite genres of movies, the buddy cop movie.  It can be difficult looking back on these without thinking 'Been there, seen that' because in the years since, the buddy cop movie has been used to death. The 1980s seemingly had one released every week or so.  At the time though, they were original and hadn't been overused repeatedly.  The setting? San Francisco, always a good start for a cop movie. The director? Tough guy master Walter Hill. The cop pairing? Comedian and funnyman Murphy with gravelly-voiced Nick Nolte. The story and driving force is criminally simplistic, relying on its stars and their chemistry (of which they have plenty) to carry the movie.

Tagging along on a routine credit card fraud questioning, San Francisco detective Jack Cates (Nolte) is the lone survivor of a shootout when the investigation proves to be much more.  The suspects are Ganz (James Remar), an escaped convict, and Billy Bear (Sonny Landham), his former partner who busted him out. Cates comes under fire for his actions and wants to get revenge in bringing these two cop-killers to justice. He figures Ganz and Billy are looking for something in the city, and comes up with a way to figure it out. One of their old partners, a former accomplice, Reggie Hammond (Murphy), is in prison locally with six months to go on a 3-year sentence. Cates convinces Reggie to help him but with one catch; he has to have him back at lock-up within 48 hours.

Like any buddy movie, the key is the chemistry of said buddies. Newman and Redford, Gibson and Glover, any number of flicks.  Murphy and Nolte are great together, the complete polar opposites working together.  Murphy's Reggie Hammond is the fast-talking crook who agrees to help Cates, but basically he just wants to get laid and make sure his hidden away stash is in fact, hidden away.  Nolte's Jack Cates is the stereotypical grizzled, worn down cop with problems at home while constantly fighting with his girlfriend (Annette O'Toole). The nature of the relationship is that they will fight, clash, feel each other out, and end up bonding, forming some sort of genuine working/personal friendly relationship.  Follow the formula and let the actors do the rest, and you've got a winner.

The humor from the movie comes from the interactions between Murphy and Nolte.  The story itself is dark and violent, following their investigation throughout San Fran in hopes of catching the two killers.  Hill co-wrote the script with three other credited writers has some great one-liners (read IMDB's Memorable Quotes HERE) and some memorable set-pieces.  The opening hotel shootout is choreographed nicely, and Murphy's posing as a detective in a very white, very redneck bar (in San Francisco?) is priceless.  What I enjoyed most though was the banter between the stars, Murphy pushing and pulling and prodding his detective handler while Nolte growls and mutters through his lines.

Starting directing in 1975 with Hard Times, Walter Hill has carved out a great little niche for himself, especially in the 70s and 80s.  He has a reputation for hard-hitting, tough movies that don't pull any punches. Think a more manageable, not so crazy Sam Peckinpah.  Because of Hill's taut directing (and a fair share of blood squibs), the movie never really slows down. It clocks in at 96 minutes and never stays in one place too long. Setting a cop story in the home of Bullitt and Dirty Harry is never a bad idea mostly because San Francisco is just a cool place to base a story. Throw away the humor and the chemistry, and what you've got here is a police procedural.  Nothing flashy, no bigger schemes at play, just a cop and a convict in his charge trying to get their hands on two cop killers.

Groundbreaking it is not, but Murphy and Nolte look to be having a lot of fun together, and a Walter Hill-directed movie is rarely a bad thing.  Solid and entertaining with the right mix of action, humor and a never-ending stream of talk about sex.  How can you go wrong?  It also produced a sequel some years later, review to come at some point.

48 Hrs. <---trailer (1982): ***/****

Beverly Hills Cop

What happened to Eddie Murphy? One of the biggest stars of the 1980s with his star-making run on Saturday Night Live and iconic 80s flicks like 48 Hours, Trading Places, The Golden Child and Coming to America, Murphy was the undisputed comedic king of the decade. With the exception of the Shrek franchise, a dramatic part here and there like Dreamgirls, and an underrated performance in Bowfinger, Murphy has been in dud after dud ever since.  It's hard to explain how someone as talented as Murphy is could choose to make horrible movies one after another.

In the 1980s though, no one was flying higher than him, and he was never better than he was in 1984's Beverly Hills Cop. Originally supposed to be a Sylvester Stallone vehicle, Murphy stepped into the lead role and turned an action heavy police story into a new breed of cop movies.  It was the buddy cop movie without the buddy.  Comedy and action around every corner, it was something audiences hadn't seen previously, and they ate it up. As Murphy points out on the DVD special features, it feels like every cop movie since has been influenced by this 80s classic.

After an undercover sting goes wrong, Detroit Detective Axel Foley (Murphy) finds an old friend, Mikey (James Russo) waiting in his apartment. They go out on the town, but coming home they're attacked and Mikey gets shot in the head twice in what seems to be a professional hit. Foley has little information to work with, but knows that Mikey had a job in Beverly Hills.  Taking some vacation time, he road trips to California in his crappy blue Chevy Nova and starts poking around. With some help from childhood friend, Jenny (Lisa Eilbacher), now the owner of a high-end art gallery, Axel finds out that Mikey had been working for Victor Maitland (Steven Bergoff), an art dealer who seems to be involved with a little bit of everything. It's not long though before Axel has rubbed the LAPD the wrong way, and he's got two detectives (John Ashton and Judge Reinhold) trailing him.

Movies like Ferris Bueller, the John Hughes flicks, Lethal Weapon, Back to the Future, all of those just scream out '1980s MOVIE!' and Beverly Hills cop certainly qualifies.  It's a snapshot of the time it was made in, and even now while it does come across as a little dated, it's still a great movie.  It was one of the first movies to blend comedy and action together so seamlessly. Director Martin Brest weaves everything together with a thin story that jumps around most of the time, content to let the cast have some fun. The music is a key -- starting with The Heat is On over the opening credits -- and then of course, Axel's theme, which I guarantee you've heard before. Listen HERE. It's hard to picture the movie without that electro-rock theme playing in the background.

Lost in the badness of Norbit, Pluto Nash and Meet Dave (among several others worth mentioning) is the fact that Murphy is one of the funniest guys to ever star in a movie.  This is Murphy at his sharpest, improvising left and right, throwing one-liners all over, and making every scene watchable because you want to see what he does next.  It's his likability, that distinctive and instantly recognizable laugh (listen HERE), that huge smile, just the general entertainment value he brings to the character. His knack for delivering a line at just the right second, setting up a fellow cast member, or doing physical comedy, it's all second to none.  It is just too bad Murphy couldn't have bottled up the 1980s and preserved it.

What jumps this movie from average to above average, near-classic is the rest of the cast.  As the detectives trailing and eventually working with Foley, Reinhold and Aston are the quintessential Odd Couple cops. Asthton's Taggart is the cynical, weary cop while Reinhold's Rosewood is the wet behind the ears, still naive officer.  They play off each other so well you can imagine them having their own spin-off.  Ronny Cox doesn't disappoint either as Lt. Bogomill, their supervisor trying to maintain his sanity. Eilbacher is the sexy friend (and that's it!), Jenny, who was originally supposed to play a love interest in the Stallone version. Berkoff is Berkoff, the villain the second he steps into the movie because...well, because he's Steven Berkoff, and he always played the bad guy.

For a comedy to be a step above all the other dreck out there, certain scenes have to leave an impression that aren't easily forgettable. 'BHC' has more than I could mention, but here's a few.  Foley goes to meet Jenny and instead meets Serge (Bronson Pinchot), a foreign art salesman. Watch HERE. If his delivery after Murphy says 'Get the bleep out! doesn't crack you up, I don't know what you think is funny. There's others like Foley getting thrown out a window and his reaction, his toying with the LA cops, but most of all it's worthwhile because of Murphy.  Read through IMDB's Memorable Quotes for a sampling, which even taken out of context are still funny.  A real winner and one of the best movies to come out of the 1980s.

Beverly Hills Cop <---trailer (1984): *** 1/2 /****