Brett Ratner, also known as a prolific television producer/director, will be remembered for his second feature film feature, the fast action, misfit-buddy movie Rush Hour, staring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker.  A surprisingly entertaining and well-written comedy caper, it was so successful, it spawned two sequels that Ratner also directed.  Ratner is less likely to be remembered for his latest film, Tower Heist, another comedy caper in which a motley group of disgruntled employees seek revenge on the Wall Street investment banker (Alan Alda) who squandered their pensions in a Ponzi scheme.  

Ben Stiller plays Josh Kovacs, a Queen’s boy who has worked his way up to the position of manager of one of Manhatten’s most prestigious apartment buildings. The staff is trained to pamper the residents and the services are run like clockwork. Kovacs plays internet chess with Wall Street celebrity Arthur Shaw (Alda), who lives in the penthouse with his blown up dollar-lined pool on the roof terrace and conspicuous red Ferrari in the living room.  The chess game foreshadows the more high stakes match between the two that forms the basis of the movie. The two men have bonded to such an extent that Kovacs recommended to the staff that Shaw’s firm take charge of investing their pensions.

After Kovacs learns that the retirement dreams of his trusting staff (and his own) have been dashed by Shaw’s reckless greed, he takes an axe to the Ferrari and is fired.  Now, unemployed, he persuades a group of staff (Casey Affleck, Gabourey Sidibe, Michael Pena) and a bankrupt banker who was evicted from the Tower (Matthew Broderick), to help him get back their pension.  This allows Ratner to recreate the classic round-up-of-the-gang-with specialized-skills that we’ve seen in almost every heist, revenge or conspiracy movie from Day of the Jackal to Oceans Eleven. 

Up until this point the film is amusing and interesting, thanks mainly to the Wall Street revenge motif (that we can all identify with) and the setting. But when Eddie Murphy joins the group who are in need of a real thief, and the actual heist begins, the film rapidly descends into a preposterous, tedious farce in which none of these comic actors give us anything to laugh about. 

The fact that seven writers are credited for the lame script is a warning sign, but where were Ratner and co-producer Brian Grazer?   Murphy shows an occasional glimpse of the comic timing that turned Beverly Hills Cop into a master class in comic acting, but his trajectory since then has been a sad down hill run.  The lack of imagination in Murphy’s performance is in stark contrast to Jamie Foxx’s terrific portrayal of a petty thief mistaken for a hitman in Horrible Bosses. In that film, three disgruntled employees conspire to seek revenge on their deplorable employers. While no masterpiece, it is certainly fresher and funnier than Tower Heist.