Tower Heist

My fiancée went back to her parents’ for Thanksgiving, but I have finals in less than a week, so I’m watching our annual Thanksgiving movie solo this year. Every year I watch this, several things make me roll my eyes: Brett Ratner’s finger prints all over this; the gooner security manager; the insensitive script that is never not flirting with cringe; Alan Alda being “a great chess player” that passed up a simple M3 for a less fool-proof M4 (I recognized that and I’m not even that good at chess); Tea Leono being one of the worst actresses to ever step in front of a camera; the countless moments when any character (but usually Ben Stiller) has a zinger that falls completely flat if you think about it just a little bit (and, further, Ben Stiller trying to be cool when he really is not), and so on. Yet, this movie has a sort of magnetic pull on me. I love it and I routinely look forward to revisiting it each year when November rolls around.