Tower Heist

Critic Reviews

Cheerfully crappy schlock.

Made me laugh and held my interest more than it should have, given how sloppy it is. Call it an acceptable bit of B-minus work from a C student.

-Eric D. SniderFull Review

So what if it's sheer petty escapist enjoyment? Tower Heist delivers the laughs in desperate times.

-Tom LongFull Review

Alan Alda plays the billionaire, and his oleaginous smarm is so good that you almost wish Alda were starring in a hard-edged movie about Madoff instead of this goofy heist picture that takes way too long getting to the heist.

-Peter RainerFull Review

This is, of course, Hollywood schlock, directed by shlock-master Brett Ratner. But it's also a surprisingly effective social drama.

-Robert LevinFull Review

Highly recommended if you want to watch an assortment of rich movie stars feel your pain.

-J. R. JonesFull Review

The latest comedy-action film from director Brad Ratner is a shaggy affair, but it's intermittently inspired in its action sequences and the comic business of its sprawling cast.

-Liam LaceyFull Review

Between the protracted setup and the fizzled execution, however, Tower Heist finds a nice comic groove in the job's planning stages, when Murphy finally bursts onto the scene and pings jokes off his timid counterparts.

-Scott TobiasFull Review

You really want these poor schlubs to get their very justified revenge - just like you want to like this movie. It co-opts you from the very start.

-Stephen WhittyFull Review

Tower Heist feigns being an Ocean's 11 for schmucks, but plays like a retread of 48 Hours.

-Scott BowlesFull Review

"Tower Heist" is an improbably satisfying action comedy, the kind of wax-on-wax-off, slickly machined Hollywood widget that meets its audience's expectations without once aspiring to exceed them.

-Ann HornadayFull Review

It's a cunningly engineered movie that's as much fun as "Ocean's 11," a tale of a Renoir of ripoff who matches skills with freewheeling, improvisational rivals -- the Jackson Pollocks of plunder.

-Kyle SmithFull Review

Another thing Ratner is good at is not wasting our time when he runs out of ideas. But he leaves us smiling, if not believing our own eyes.

-Peter HowellFull Review

The most that can be said for Tower Heist, the new action comedy from Brett Ratner, is that it's a middlingly well-done evocation of the big-budget caper you remember with vague fondness from long-ago matinees at the mall.

-Dana StevensFull Review

Eddie Murphy reignites his inner firecracker in Tower Heist, a middling comedy caper that can't match its star's focus.

-Chris VognarFull Review

"Tower Heist" might not be a classic (it's not), but at least for a little while it will make you laugh instead of cry about the current state of affairs, which is more than you can say about a lot of things.

-Betsy SharkeyFull Review

The type of film with which Mr. Ratner has claimed to be infatuated is itself like a caper -- it requires precise execution. "Tower Heist" is more like that 10-story Snoopy, as he drunkenly bobs along Central Park West.

-John AndersonFull Review

It's hard to go completely wrong when you've got Broderick shuffling around in a bathrobe and Murphy scampering in black leather.

-Mary F. PolsFull Review

You won't remember Tower Heist an hour later, but the top cast makes the jokes (even the lousy ones) go down easy.

-Peter TraversFull Review

Mr. Ratner goes for the safe bet and the easy score, which means that, for all his shows of solidarity with the working stiffs, he has more in common with the wealthy scam artist who took their hard-earned money.

-A.O. ScottFull Review

Devoting more time to the setup than to the follow-through, Tower Heist doesn't really build suspense so much as it builds impatience - for the thing to be over.

-Steven ReaFull Review

Comedy is funnier when it rebounds off a hard reality, and the money woes underpinning "Tower Heist" give the caper a solid bounce.

-Colin CovertFull Review

"Tower Heist'' is smoothly made and smart enough. It's not going for too much, but I laughed a lot, despite knowing better, which was more or less any time Eddie Murphy says anything to Ben Stiller.

-Wesley MorrisFull Review

Tower Heist constantly makes you aware of the buttons and levers the movie is pushing and pulling: There's something artificial and plastic about the film that keeps you from ever truly getting lost into it.

-Rene RodriguezFull Review

"Tower Heist" is funny in the way of so many Hollywood comedies, meaning that individual scenes are often crisply written and played, but the whole doesn't add up to anything.

-Andrew O'HehirFull Review

This is a sadly common example of a filmmaker designing his production for inattentive, lazy audiences who don't really care about story coherence or consistency. It's a "turn off the brain" movie.

-James BerardinelliFull Review

Boasts an unusually strong cast of actors, who boost the slick screenplay into a satisfying popcorn picture.

-Elizabeth WeitzmanFull Review

A movie so elaborate that the New York Thanksgiving Day Parade plays a supporting role, complete with balloons and thousands of spectators, "Tower Heist" won't stay with you long. But, like popcorn, it's enjoyable while it lasts.

-Moira MacDonaldFull Review

For what it is - recessionary wish-fulfillment escapism, with a lot of highly skilled familiar faces in its amply qualified cast - it's fun.

-Michael PhillipsFull Review

This isn't a great heist movie for a lot of reasons, beginning with the stupidity of its heist plan and the impossibility of these characters ever being successful at anything more complex than standing in line.

-Roger EbertFull Review

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