157, Tower Heist

Its been at least 2 years since Eddie appeared on our screen not disguised as a Donkey sand I was hoping it would be a great return to form of his old Beverley Hills Cop days and I was not disappointed.  Eddie controls each scene he is in with the famous Murphy chuckle making an appearance a few times throughout and his character of Slide, an ex-con bailed by Stiller to help them steal $20mil in change from the richest resident of the Tower, the most expensive real estate in New York where resident Mr Shaw (played by Alan Alda) has scammed all of the staff of their pension funds and is facing FBI federal charges.

The relationship between Stiller and Murphy reaches back to grade school albeit unbeknown to Murphy at the time and the mix of hotel employee's, bankrupt wall street investors and thief are a great mix-up for an unlikely band of Robin Hood's. 

Matthew Broderick (aging gracefully) is a shadow of his Ferris Beuller days but still manages to keep the momentum up alongside Casey Affleck and Michael Pena as the crooks with a great FBI supporting cast mostly headed up by the still lovely, Tea Leoni.

This movie is not as "laugh out loud" as I was hoping it would be and does manage to pull off a far more serious side with a heartwarming back up story of one mans plight to make good on some poor decisions and see the people who trusted him get back what they deserve, even is self sacrifice is on the cards.

Stiller plays a more down to earth role in this movie than normal and has to share the screen with Murphy far more than he normally would with any other leading roles but the two bounce off of each other really well with Murphy's hard case exterior and Stiller as the more personable of the pair making for a nice on-screen double act.

Alan Alda is deviously creepy as Mr Shaw but one of the maids, Gabourey Sidibe (from Precious, 2009) plays in to Murphy's and Stiller comedy excellence with simple ease as the maid / safe cracker.

The end is a little over the top when it comes to the Steve McQueen's Ferrari but you will have to go along and watch it for yourself as no spoilers in this one.

If you are a Murphy fan of old then this definitely does take you back to the old days, before the fat suits and the CGI and even though he would have made one of the best Oscar hosts of all time, sadly this is all you will now see him in this year and with one movie in the pipeline for 2012 and a yet announced release date for Hong Kong Phooey (another animation) he wont be around much in the future either.  Take this as an opportunity to see Murphy at his best and don't let it pass you by.