Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda) lives in a very recognizable building (Trump Towers) as a very recognizable character (a Madoff-esque bad guy) who pulls a Ponzi scheme from his high-rise penthouse. The building manager, Josh (Ben Stiller) is an earnest employee who uses very recognizable Manhattan suggestions when it comes to pleasing the tenants who require being kept off of “Page Six” or want to devour cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery.
But when Shaw swindles all the employees earnings and retirement, it become recognizable in an Occupied Wall Street kind of way.
With a desire to steal from the rich and give to the poor, the lovable building manager Josh, convinces his employees to take from the rich and give back to the poor. And so this Robin Hood of merry men is led by Charlie (Casey Affleck) an ambivalent and lousy assistant manager whose wife is nine months pregnant, Enqrique (Michael Pena) a ready-to-do-anything new employee who’s looking for some action, and finally an unemployed tenant about to be homeless (Matthew Broderick) or as he says “I’ve gone from Yale to Squatters.” They’re not good at their game but they’ve got the Odessa (Gabourey Sidibe) the Jamaican maid who has a history in safe-cracking.
The sympathetic underdog factor keeps adding up and soon we’re cheering them on. But something’s missing and that something is 80s icon Eddie Murphy as Slide, a slick-talking Queens punk, whose apparent movie star presence and strength adds an energy to the screen whenever he’s on the scene. And when he’s not, it’s just another movie. Problem is, it’s about forty minutes before he’s really in the film and then never quite enough.
Two and a half tiaras