The next movie that I am choosing to do for my movies I'm my spare time is Tower Heist (2011). It was directed by Brett Ratner and stars Eddie Murphy, Ben Stiller and Casey Affleck. The movie is about these workers that work in a building called The Tower which is a building full of apartments and holds some very rich residents. Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda) owns The Tower and swindles the workers out of their hard earned money through a Ponzi scheme. After Arthur Shaw attempts to escape going to jail when the FBI finds out about the scheme, it is then revealed that all the workers pensions were gone after being invested into Mr. Shaws company. The manager of The Tower is Josh Kovacs (Ben Stiller) and he is determined to get the money back to the employees. He conspires with Slide (Eddie Murphy) who is a thief and fresh out of prison, Charlie (Casey Affleck) who's wife is about to have a baby and they need the money, and Mr. Fitzhugh (Matthew Broderick) who was kicked out of The Tower for not paying rent. They realize that Mr. Shaw must have had a cash safety net and that Mr. Shaw had ordered a safe two years ago. They then start to plan to steal 20 million dollars.
To be honest I thought this movie would be much funnier than it was, it was a little more serious than I expected. It was still good though. The movie sort of pokes fun at other heist movies like Oceans 11 and The Italian Job by taking these people who have never stolen anything in their lives and are attempting to steal from the richest man in New York City. It's a comedy because the characters have no idea what they are doing and everything goes terribly wrong.
This movie is a lot like Catch That Kid because they both have inexperienced people stealing a boat load of money and getting away with it. The camera views were mostly from the chest up and the only long shots were when they were showing the city or The Tower. The lighting is bright in the beginning and then gets darker when they realize they are all broke and they start to plan the robbery. Then it is bright again at the end when...oops don't want to spoil the ending! Anyways, the lighting reflects the mood of the plot and the characters. The scenes are not very long and they are constantly cutting to the other characters, especially during the robbery as if to show the urgency of the situation.
I liked the movie and I thought that it had a lot of good scenes and it kept you guessing until the end. It was a cliffhanger, yet predictable at the same time. I gave it three stars because it was good and funny but it was a little slow in the beginning. Anyone who likes comedies and heist movies would very much enjoy this movie. People that liked the movies 30 minutes or less, Oceans 11, Man on a Ledge, Mall Cop, DodgeBall, Italian Job, and Tropic Thunder would like this movie. This is the funniest scene:
I never really heard anything about this movie before reading this post. This movie has a lot of actors that like and what you said about it makes it seems that it will be alright and worth watching when you don't have anything to do. I love movies that keep you guessing till the very end, so i think i will give it a chance and watch it soon.
ReplyDeleteEmily, I agree with your review of this movie. At first I didn't have any interest in seeing this movie, but they showed it on a plane ride that I was on, so I watched it. I was surprised by it. I actually really liked the serious elements of the movie that were occasionally lightened up with funny moments. Ben Stiller did a great job acting in this film, and I believe the way it ended with him sent a very powerful message.It definitely wasn't what I expected, especially with Ben Stiller starring in it, but it was a good film. I agree with your choice of the funniest scene. I think you did a great job reviewing this film and highlighting the key elements that made it. Personally, I would have given it a 4/5 stars, but 3 sounds good as well :)
ReplyDelete