Tower Heist (2011)

With “Tower Heist,” director Brett Ratner has quite the timely revenge story: Employees at a high-end NYC apartment building (Trump Tower, actually) seek payback when the owner (Alan Alda) turns out to be a Ponzi-pushing Madoff maggot. The plan: Steal $20 million in stolen loot said to be hidden in Money Bags’ penthouse during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade. Our Mad-as-Hell Occupy heroes are played by Ben Stiller, Casey Affleck, and Gabourey Sidibe, and their tempers are righteous: Why not strike back at the Wall Street pricks who steal from us every day? Yet all piss and blood get lost amid subpar “Ocean’s 11” shenanigans. Problems abound: The one-trick pony is predictable, we’re never sure who’s in on the Robin Hoodery as characters appear and disappear nonsensically, and either bad editing or worse writing (or both) kills scene after scene. Eddie Murphy (who concocted the story years ago with a nastier streak) owns the film as a local spitfire, loose-cannon crook brought in for the job. Too-stiff Ratner foolishly drops Murphy for long periods to focus on Stiller’s “Parents/Fockers” goof. (Remember when Stiller had balls?) Talk about robbery. B-

Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (2009)

“Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire” is a scalding, relentless drama that plays as near-horror, but grounded in stark reality. All the more horrifying, that reality. We follow 16-year-old Harlem resident Clarice “Precious” Jones (newcomer Gabourey Sidibe), who is black, poor, obese, abused, lonely, and desperate to crawl out of her cramped-apartment hell. Mother (Mo’Nique) is a seemingly soulless monster: A Welfare addict/couch potato who is jealous that her boyfriend impregnated -- twice -- Precious. The man is Precious’ father. This is a shockingly violent, no-safety-bars emotional bruising, as memorable as 2000‘s “Requiem for a Dream.” It knocks you to the floor, and asks you to get up again. To keep watching. So many films feel pre-packaged. This feels real. You can smell that rotting, peeling apartment wallpaper. Chalk that up to director Lee Daniels. May he make many more films. Mo’Nique and Sidibe are shocking -- with the former’s apparent evil and the latter’s pain -- and so good I forgot they are actors. The ending is a wonder of film-making, a small ray of hope that still burns. One of the year’s best. A