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Unseen Movie Review: Defending Brett Ratner – Tower Heist

By Adam D. Nov 4, 2011, 14:00 GMT

An overworked residence manager of an exclusive apartment building leads a team of the building\'s operations and maintenance workers on a heist of its penthouse tenant, a Wall Street player who defrauded the workers of their pensions. ...more

Brett Ratner has a new film coming out this week called Tower Heist. Recently, I mentioned to a friend that I wanted to see this new movie and their response was “Pass! Ratner is such a hack he makes Ed Wood look like an Oscar winning director, LOL! OMG!”

In all honesty it wasn’t a friend, but my mother who said this and I was shocked she was using language like LOL in everyday conversation, but she seems to just think it is a new form of punctuation.

For years, people have been ripping apart Brett Ratner online in movie reviews. You would think he dated Ain’t It Cool’s younger sister and then stopped calling after “pinning” her in the backseat of a Studebaker the way they treat him.

I’ve been guilty of it myself. Amongst my past quotes were “Ratner directs Rush Hour with about as much imagination as a tax accountant playing games on his calculator.”

Brett has never really locked into a style of directing the same way Scorsese, Spielberg or Oliver Stone have. When you watch a Roman Polanski movie you know it was shot by him. No one would ever watch Inglourious Basterds and think someone other than Quentin Tarantino made it. Then I began to think that maybe having no style is Brett’s style.

There are very few directors working today who can deliver blockbuster movies with (at times) difficult A-list talent in various genres. He has worked with Eddie Murphy, Halle Berry, Hugh Jackman, Pierce Brosnan, Chris Tucker, Ed Norton and Nic Cage to name a few. Although from what I hear the most difficult talent in Hollywood is actually Betty White who is constantly demanding naps.

Ratner has shot thrillers, comedies, family films and action. Each film has a straightforward approach and none of them have stood out, but they have all been fairly successful which means the movie going audience has enjoyed each one.

Brett has some issues he needs to overcome. Someone should tell him that Crockett hasn’t been on television since the eighties and that the two day beard went out of style with leggings and cocaine.

He flaunts his relationships with famous people (I told my new buddy Eddie Murphy over crackers and Perrier that he should host the Oscars show that I’m producing) as well as seeking out and befriending Hollywood legends (I was hanging with Robert Evans by the pool in speedos last week).

But that is Ratner’s gift. He can work with A-List stars and not piss them off thereby getting them to deliver the goods. I’m assuming that Ratner just stays out of their way and let’s them do their thing. I cannot imagine him telling Chris Tucker what is or isn’t funny, or directing Anthony Hopkins on how to play Hannibal Lecter ten years after the guy won the Oscar for playing that character.

It is a testament to his ability to work with talent that so many people signed on to Tower Heist. Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, Matthew Broderick, Alan Alda and Tea Leoni are all in the movie. Each of these actors could be doing their own thing but they all came together to work with Brett.

Tower Heist looks like Ratner’s past films. It’s an action comedy with big name players and nothing really spectacular happens. There is no clever style to the movie and the comedy is broad enough that it won’t offend. It is a film aimed at the lowest common denominator in order to bring the maximum amount of dollars. And I say all that as a compliment.

Having Brett Ratner’s name appear above the title will never bring people into a theater the way Spielberg’s name does. But if Brett directed the movie, chances are it will be a fun experience that will appeal to a lot of people.

Is that so wrong to want to see a movie with big stars, have a laugh and a thrill and then forget it when you leave the theater? I don’t think so, and the go to guy for that is Brett Ratner so count me in for Tower Heist.