Quick Review: Tower Heist

I'm trying to get to movies more often again. With my work schedule and commute, weeknights are difficult. And with my trying to catch up on sleep on the weekends, I'm not getting to the before-noon $5.00 matinees. So for the three movies I've seen in the last week or so, I've gone on a Sunday afternoon ($7.50), Wednesday night ($6.50, because the Ritz theaters in Old City have bargain shows all day on Wednesdays), and Saturday evening ($13.00, in part because I couldn't avoid 3D). Anyway, we'll see how it goes. More movies I really want to see are either already out or will be out soon. Others I'm only sort of interested in, and those are kind of falling by the wayside.

Anyhoo, first up was "Tower Heist." A Bernie Madoff-substitute, Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda), is arrested and charged in a Ponzi scheme. He's under house arrest, but his house is a super-expensive apartment in The Tower (with Donald Trump's property standing in). Josh (Ben Stiller), the building's manager, and other employees gave Shaw their savings to invest. Needless to say, their savings are gone. Josh puts together a team to break into Shaw's apartment and find his "safety net" -- the stash of cash that these Madoff types keep for themselves in case of emergency. But these people aren't criminals, so Josh enlists the help of an actual criminal, Slide (Eddie Murphy), who, as it turns out, was a playmate of Josh's when they were both in daycare. Yeah. Naturally, there are many implausible occurrences. Slide may be a criminal but he seems more like an average lowlife than someone who could mastermind a multimillion-dollar heist. And the maid just happens to have a talent for safecracking? Really? But this isn't a documentary, it's an "Ocean's 11"-style caper. There are some laughs to be had (such as when the aforementioned maid, played by Gabourey Sidibe, flirts with Murphy's character), but more often than not it falls a bit flat. My grade: B-minus.

Quick Reviews: Iron Man 2, Shrek 4

It seems right to combine these two into one post because they're both sequels, and neither lives up to previous installments. And, oddly enough, the title characters in both movies have something in common.

In "Iron Man 2" Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), with his identity of Iron Man now known to the world, seems to be enjoying himself. He charms the crowds at the Stark Expo, and in a Senate committee room where a senator played by Garry Shandling(!) is demanding Stark turn over the Iron Man tech to the government for military usage. However, the substance that powers the "arc reactor" in his chest is slowly killing him, and as a result he's acting out -- getting drunk at his birthday party (while in the Iron Man armor), turning over control of his company to Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), replacing the driver of his car at a Grand Prix race in Monaco. It's at that race that Stark is attacked by Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke), who wants revenge for what Stark's father did to Vanko's father. And it gets more complicated from there. The fight scenes aren't as interesting as the rest of the movie, to be honest. The whole thing kind of drags a bit. My grade: C-plus.

In "Shrek Forever After," fourth in the series, again things seem to be fine and dandy. Shrek (voice of Mike Myers), his wife Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz), their kids, Donkey (Eddie Murphy), Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas), everyone in Far Far Away is happy. Except Shrek really isn't happy. He misses the days when he was a "real" ogre, when the villagers were scared of him instead of asking for autographs, when he could take a mud bath in peace instead of attending to his family duties, and so on. After an argument with Fiona at the kids' birthday party Shrek storms off. He meets the sneaky Rumpelstiltskin, who offers a deal: Shrek can have a day where he's a "real" ogre again, in exchange for another day from his past. Shrek signs the deal and soon realizes he's been tricked, and has to learn the old lesson that you don't know what you have until it's gone. There are a few laughs, but more often than not the jokes fall flat. It's being touted as the "final chapter," and based on this one, it better be. My grade: C.