Movie Review: Tower Heist

Last month I checked out an advanced screening of Tower Heist, which opens tomorrow, and although it isn’t actually Horror or SF, there is more than a little fantasy involved in the film.

My wife described the premise as “an everyman’s Ocean’s Eleven” and honestly that may be the best description I can give. The film focuses on the staff of a fancy-shmancy apartment building in New York who find out one day that the financial genius living in the penthouse was a scam artist and has bankrupted the entire staff’s pension plan. So, lead by the building manager, four of the staff members get together to rob from the rich and give to the poor – the poor being the rest of the staff at the tower.

The film was directed by Brett Ratner, who directed the Rush Hour series with Jackie Chan and Red Dragon, a really good remake of the 1986 film Manhunter, so I figured the movie would probably be a pretty fun evening.

Honestly – the movie was great. Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy play off each other really well, and it’s nice to see Eddie moving away from the Disney films he’s been putting out for the last few years – honestly, the more foul-mouthed and less family friendly he can be, the funnier he gets.

The movie has a great sense of humour and honestly, as November and December tend to fill up with drama’s contending for the Oscar, a nice comedy would be a great palate cleanser. A really fun film.

Genre Character of the Week: Chandler Jarrell

I recently read an article in Entertainment Weekly that talked about the most iconic role of actor Eddie Murphy (they chose Axel Foley), and it got me thinking about my own favourite role of his, a social worker named Chandler Jarrell in the 1986 fantasy film The Golden Child.

To be fair I will state that this movie was one of the only two films I can remember my father taking me out to see (the other was E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial), and I had the movie poster (pictured left) up on my wall from the age of eleven to twelve so I may have my own personal bias when I think back on this film, but hey, it’s my blog so you’ll have to live with my point of view.

Here’s what I’ve got to say about Chandler, we first see him in the film doing a television interview about the disappearance of a young girl to the annoyance of the journalist interviewing him. The majority of the film follows him as he attempts to first locate the girl, and then a young Tibetan boy; the Golden Child.

What I like best about the character is that he is willing to go to incredible lengths to help these kids. The film involves demons, mystical trials and all sorts of adventure and through it all I totally bought the character as a guy out of his depth, simply trying to do his best.

For some Eddie Murphy will by Axel, for my kids he’s Donkey, but for me, he will alway be connected to The Golden Child.