Dir. Brett Ratner, USA , 2011, 104 mins
Cast: Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, Alan Alda
Review by Carol Allen
The title might lead to you to think “Oh, yeah, another heist movie” and you would indeed be right. But this one has a bit of originality about it.
Stiller plays Josh Kovacs, manager of a swanky tower apartment block. He looks after all the residents with servile efficiency but is particularly friendly with the resident of the penthouse, Arthur Shaw (Alda), who is something big on Wall Street. It then emerges that Shaw is also a big time swindler, who has been pilfering the money he’s supposed to have invested for his clients, including the pension fund of the tower’s staff, which Josh had entrusted to him. But FBI agent Gertie Fiansen (Téa Leoni) is unable to trace the missing millions and it looks like Shaw is going to get away with it. So Josh and his fellow workers enlist the help of petty thief Slide (Murphy) to help them find where in his apartment Shaw has hidden the loot.
The film takes it’s time establishing the situation – at times it’s reminiscent of an episode of television’s Hotel Babylon - and introducing us to its well fleshed out characters, who include Casey Affleck as Cole, who’s distracted by the fact that his wife is about to give birth; Michael Peña as Rick, a former burger server and Matthew Broderick as somewhat wimpy former Wall Street high flyer Chase, whose life has crashed in the recession and is flat broke. There’s also a good supporting performance from Gabourey Sidibe ( Precious ), successfully trying her hand at comedy here. Stiller gives a likeable and restrained performance, Alda plays Shaw with slimy charm and even though you may only catch about one word in ten of Murphy’s fast spoken dialogue, he’s still very funny.
The actual heist, when we get to it, is original, beautifully thought out and both tense and comic, with New York’s colourful Thanksgiving parade going on in the background and involving, among other things, the late Steve McQueen’s racing car swinging from the side of the building. There’s also a nicely understated suggestion of romantic attraction between Josh and Gertie. As comic caper action movies go this one is good value entertainment and a bit different.
Bonus Features:
- Alternate Ending: 15 Months Later
- Alternate Ending: Lester’s Bar
- Feature Commentary with Director Brett Ratner, Editor Mark Helfrich and Co-Writers Ted Griffin and Jeff Nathanson
- Deleted/Alternate Scenes
- Gag reel
xx - posted on 23/05/2012 13:13:28
