Title: Tower Heist

Opens: November 4, 2011

No doubt inspired by Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme which lightened the wallets of hundreds of hard-working people, “Tower Heist” is a caper movie that comes off mostly cheesy despite good comic timing and the expense of shooting in New York’s fabulous Trump Tower. Some will find one-liners to stimulate their funny bones, but given its derivative quality, Brett Ratner’s movie can never excite the imagination like more serious pictures like “Margin Call” and “Wall Street.” Still, if you want to see Eddie Murphy in a stereotyped role of trash-talking petty thief, Ben Stiller as the vaguely comical leader of a group determined to gain revenge on a white-collar criminal, and Casey Affleck as a boyish concierge at a posh condo, you can probably do worse than take in the shenanigans at the local megaplex.

As Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda), a multi-millionaire living in the Tower condo overlooking Central Park, Alda embraces the kind of role he knows best: that of a witty, self-confident though occasionally self-denigrating bon vivant who this time engages himself in stealing from a staff of working stiffs who manage affairs in the security-tight building. Not needing to break into quarters, he enriches himself after building manager Josh Kovacs (Ben Stiller) authorizes him to take over the unit’s pension funds, which Shaw uses strictly to enrich himself. As a resident of the condo’s penthouse with dramatic views of Manhattan seen through floors-to-ceiling glass windows, he is eccentric enough to keep what he assesses as a million-dollar Ferrari right in his living room.

Though he has not skipped town with any ill-begotten gains, he is confident that he has gotten away with his scheme, professing simply that investing money is risky, that he tried to find the right stocks and bonds to pick up, but that he lost everything. Now really: even though Netflix has lost 75% of its stock valuation since July, can an investment manager actually lose one hundred percent of his entire portfolio? Josh teams up with some of the afflicted staff including Charlie, Mr. Fitzhugh (Matthew Broderick), Enrique DevReaux (Michael Peña), Odessa (Gabourney Sidibe) and especially streetwise thief Slide (Eddie Murphy) to plan a scheme to find the lost millions, reimburse the group, and put the villain away.

Director Brett Ratner is in his métier, having knocked out such comic caper movies as “Rush Hour 3” (cops head to Paris to protect a French woman with a knowledge of the Triads’ leaders) and the more interesting “The Family Man” (hotshot investment banker wakes up to find his sports car and girlfriend have morphed into a mini-van and wife). “Tower Heist,” however, introduces nothing original, and though Téa Leoni is looks good as an FBI agent, the movie is only marginally humorous.

Rated PG-13. 99 minutes. (c) 2011 by Harvey Karten Member: NY Film Critics Online

Overall – C+