If you get shot in your HEAD, it's over. If you get shot in your FACE, the bullet will go through your cheek and come out the other side! Then, what you gonna do?

Tower Heist

(2011)

Brett Twatner's latest looks lovely thanks to regular DP Dante Spinotti's cinematography, but it ends up as competent but unmemorable as most of his films.

The high point in this comedy caper is Eddie Murphy's return to a fast-talking, streetwise role that has been largely absent from his resumé since the early '90s. And he's funny enough that you wish the film revolved around him rather than Ben Stiller's apartment manager. A safe-cracking scene between Murphy and Gabourey Sidibe is particularly funny.

The attempts at topicality (Alan Alda has fleeced the good, honest workers with his Ponzi scheme) are so much window dressing given the implausibility of the outcome but overall this is reasonably agreeable with a decent supporting cast (Matthew Broderick and Michael Pena in particular).

***

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How would Horatio Alger have handled this situation?

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No matter how innocent you are, or how hard you try, they’ll find you guilty.

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To survive a war, you gotta become war.

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The game is rigged, and it does not reward people who play by the rules.

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What do they do, sing madrigals?

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One final thing I have to do, and then I’ll be free of the past.

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Now In Full Color, with a Happier Ending

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