Tower Heist

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Imagine a reputable asset manager offers to triple your savings? You have no reason to doubt his capabilities and lots of your friends are benefiting so why not? You throw caution to the wind and Bernie Madoff gets your hard-earned money.
Or imagine you  buy a house because a bank lent you the money despite your less than stellar earnings. The bank(s) realize they have overextended their loans and you lose your job. The difference is the bank(s) get a bailout but you lose your home. Sorry.
Now imagine a handful of people who have been robbed of their life savings avenging themselves and winning! That is the plot of Tower Heist.
Ben Stiller is the general manager of a very high-end apartment building in New York. He is particularity friendly with Alan Alda, a wealthy businessman who manages the employees pension fund.
One morning it appears  Alda is being kidnapped but in fact he is attempting to flee the Feds. Alda has misappropriated the money and Stiller loses his job.
Stiller takes it upon himself to get the money back by enlisting the help of former co-workers and a professional thief played by Eddie Murphy.
What follows is a series of stunts, missteps and subterfuge that could only happen in the movies. Then again you never thought you could lose your pension, your home or both did you?
Tower Heist is improbable and gloriously satisfying to watch. If you're feeling dissatisfied and can't make it to an Occupy Wall Street demonstration this is the movie to see.

Bridesmaids

Bridesmaids

The three best words to describe Bridesmaids are, “Go see it.” This movie should be the benchmark of “chick flick.” Because “chick flick” connotes a movie that’s romantic- relationship driven, therefore unrealistic the term is demeaning. This movie is about the kind of friendships women have with each other. Honest, intense and sometimes adversarial. It’s too bad there aren’t more movies like it.

Annie’s (Kristen Wiig) best friend since childhood, Lillian (Maya Rudolph) is getting married and of course she will be her maid of honor. Planning your best friend’s bridal shower and bachelorette party is stressful and Annie’s finances are precarious but there’s another complication.

Bridesmaid Helen (Rose Byrne) has lots of time, loads of money and wants to cement her place in Lillian’s life. Within minutes of Annie and Helen’s meeting the gauntlet is thrown down and their competition begins.

The ensuing events include a catastrophic dress fitting, a junket to Las Vegas that results in a circuitous route and a bridal shower that is a disaster of epic proportions. The situations are in turn funny, hilarious, entertaining and poignant. Annie’s description of how men ask for oral sex is worth the price of admission alone and there’s plenty more where that came from.

There is no nudity but the movie is rated R because of positions, literally, the characters find themselves in. The cast is pitch perfect. Film legend Jill Clayburgh appears as Annie’s mother and Melissa McCarthy is a force to be reckoned with.

At a glance it is tempting to assume Bridesmaids is a female version of The Hangover. It is not.

The characters, plot and situations are driven more by emotion than drunkenness. Odds are greater that you have competed to hold your place in a friend’s life than removing your own teeth.

It’s possible heterosexual men won’t enjoy the film (although Howard Stern seemed to like it) but it is a good first date movie choice.

Pay attention how not to ask for oral sex.