Playing Stiller’s small-time crook neighbor, Murphy owns every scene he’s in and if TOWER HEIST is a hit, this could be a big comeback vehicle for the former great.

It plays out, one expected scene to the next, with Stiller looking increasingly constipated and Murphy looking bored. And the bottom line on this Wall Street-loathing comedy is a big fat yawn.

And while Heist does a nice job of broaching the economic reality facing people who actually work for a living, those moments succumb to action sequences that could have come from an '80's cop-buddy comedy, when Eddie Murphy made for a convincing con man.

Director Brett Ratner doesn't exactly tie up loose ends; the whole movie is loose ends. But it's a kick to watch a Ponzi-schemer get his. You won't remember Tower Heist an hour later, but the top cast makes the jokes (even the lousy ones) go down easy.

Oh, well. Mediocre entertainment is not a crime — this is still America, dammit! — but Tower Heist could and should have been much more.