![]() Woodcock, which are more antagonist movies than buddy comedies. Also, as much as we wanted to include Role Models on this list, we could not make the leap to Paul Rudd from Will Ferrell’s Blades of Glory without going through School for Scoundrels and Mr. Sure, there are some dead ends and some switchbacks, but if you follow our route, you will see that there was a direct line from Murphy to Stiller the whole time, it just took a while to get there.ĪDDENDUM: The list only includes male buddy comedies (sorry, Outrageous Fortune!) because once you go intergender, it becomes a romantic comedy, which is a whole different route. If you start at Murphy and, applying the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon rules, leap from buddy-movie co-star to co-star, project to project, you will eventually end up at Stiller and have hit nearly everybody. And yet, in tearing IMDb apart, we made a discovery: The reason why this pairing feels so familiar is because Eddie Murphy and Ben Stiller are the two ends of a road map that leads through nearly every buddy-movie alumnus of the past 50 years, from Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau to Jonah Hill and Michael Cera. We searched our buddy movie database top to bottom for reassurance that this was in fact a reunion, but no. There are a finite number of big comedy stars in the world and therefore a finite number of buddy-movie combinations looking at these two it seemed inconceivable that this could be their first pairing and yet we could remember no other joint project. Ben Josh Kovacs: Eddie Slide: Combined filmographies (66) Year Production Production / Year Ben Stiller Eddie Murphy 2015: Being Canadian Being Canadian (2015) Actor. When we first saw the poster for Tower Heist (which opens tomorrow), with its buddy-movie touting of STILLER and MURPHY at the top, the whole thing simultaneously felt very familiar and very disorienting. Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy have starred in 1 movie together in 2011, Tower Heist. (Sorry to end on that pun.Photo: Photo-Illustration: Mary-Louise Price Photos: iStockphoto, Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. A film that’s funny to the point of being criminal. Ultimately, the result is a worthwhile comedy that is sure to end up on the list of classics alongside films such as “Sister Act” and the “Naked Gun” trilogy. It provided us characters that are endearing and easy to care about. It kept a nice, consistent blend of action, comedy and drama. Overall, I had a wonderful time while watching this film. Again, though, it kept the connection subdued, only mentioning it when necessary. It also didn’t jump all the way to the holiday that most companies are keen to acknowledge (Christmas), but instead acknowledged Thanksgiving. Such subtlety hasn’t been seen in comedies for quite a while.Īnother thing that I liked was that while most films released at this time of year try to milk the holiday season, “Tower Heist” kept it subtle, only mentioning how it ties to the whole heist. While there were innuendos here and there, the jokes were tasteful without being uptight. What I also liked about this film is that it didn’t go the route of the recent string of raunchy comedies that have been over-saturating the box office as of late. Since this is a heist movie, it doesn’t inject the elements of action and mystery into the film, which included material that would be deemed spoilers. It’s not all black and white with this film either. It uses misfortune to endear you to the characters. ![]() It just doesn’t bum you out with all the bad stuff that happens to the characters. This doesn’t mean that this film is a dark comedy. Instead, “Tower Heist” keeps the comedy consistent in the sense that you find yourself laughing as the drama unfolds. Thankfully this film did not fall prey to the Adam Sandler formula in which comedy is at the beginning and the end with the out-of-place drama in the middle. When it’s revealed that Shaw is responsible for investing the money for the staff’s collective pension, Kovacs, along with two other staffers and one recently evicted tenant (played by Casey Affleck, Michael Peña and Matthew Broderick respectively), team up with a petty thief (Eddie Murphy) to raid Shaw’s apartment to steal back the money. One of the wealthiest tenants, a Bernie Madoff allegory named Arthur Shaw (played by veteran actor Alan Alda), is arrested when he’s found guilty of securities fraud. It is a place where only the rich and famous can afford to live. “Tower Heist” follows the life of Josh Kovacs (Ben Stiller), the manager of an upscale apartment building. Ben Stiller (left) and Eddie Murphy headline the action-comedy "Tower Heist." (Universal Pictures) The appeal of this celluloid walk on the wild side is undeniable, but what if a group of regular people decided to try it? That’s what today’s subject strives to answer. The one genre where we root for the criminals, often following an all-star gang going in for one last big score. ![]()
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