“Tower Heist”, Ben Stiller’s latest movie will hit the screens on November 2, 2011. After Jim Carrey’s “Fun with Dick and Jane” a dozen movies with similar synopsis flocked the screen. “Tower Heist” too has a similar script. But, we can certainly expect more from Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy. News is afloat that Ben Stiller is paid $15 million for this movie. We hope the actor does justice to his payment.
Brett Ratner, the director of “Tower Heist” is no new face. He is quite famous for his Rush Hour series. He has a unique style of mixing humor with action. We can see his trademark action scenes and mind-blowing comedy in this movie too. Eddie Murphy and Ben Stiller both are known for their exemplary humor sense. The other cast includes Casey Affleck, Matthew Broderick, Michael Pena, and Gabourey Sidibe. Brian Grazer who enthralled us with his earlier productions like “A Beautiful Mind” and “American Gangster” is the producer of this movie.
The synopsis
Ben Stiller plays the character of Josh Kovacs, a worker in the luxurious Central Park condominium ‘The Tower’. His crew manages the day-to-day activities of many well-secured residences in the condominium. One resident in the building Arthur Shaw, robs their pension money in a Wall Street scam. Alan Alda plays the role of Arthur Shaw. He is under house arrest in his deluxe penthouse for stealing more than two billion dollars in the scam.
“Fun with Dick and Jane” fame Tea Leoni plays the part of a FBI agent Claire Denham. She is responsible for guarding Arthur Shaw and capturing the stolen money. Arthur is waiting for the right moment to escape with the stolen money. The staffs of the condominium strongly believe he has hidden the money in his penthouse. They join together under Ben Stiller to hire a petty thief to steal the money from the high security house. Eddie Murphy is comical thief who manages to commit the crime amidst countless blunders.
The burglary takes place amidst the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The film’s crew had taken painful steps to recreate the original parade with hundreds of amateur actors. All the leading artists in the film, including the Tea Leoni, Ben Stiller and Alan Alda are native New Yorker’s. They have grown up witnessing the parade year after year. They co-operated fully with the director’s effort to recreate the parade, sacrificing their Thanksgiving holidays.
“Tower Heist” trailer promises a complete family entertainer. The script and the cast had increased the expectations of the film widely. We have no doubt that, this humor cum action movie will be a great pre-festival entertainer.
Movie Review: Tower Heist
Book Review – Our Iceberg Is Melting
In the movie “Prince”, the Queen summons the American girl who won the heart of her son, the sole heir to the Denmark throne, to her royal office. The Queen says, “I don’t like change. I don’t like change. I like consistency. I like traditions. But, when that change is for the better I must reconsider.” This apology came after weeks of hating the American girl who is to be the next Queen of Denmark…
Our Iceberg Is Melting, (St. Martin’s Press 147 pp.) by John Kotter, a Harvard professor and Holger Rathgeber, a business manager does more than just talk about change, they creatively show eight effective ways to bring positive change to any situation or organization through the life of Fred, a young inexperienced penguin.
Fred the main character discovers a problem that will destroy the lives of thousands in the penguin colony, if not the entire colony. But, he doesn’t have a position in the colony to be heard by the Leadership Council or the reputation to request time to speak at the town meeting, if he did, he probably wouldn’t be taken seriously.
Fred knew within his penguin heart that the problem would be a major catastrophe but worried how to get the Leadership Council to listen and to buy into the problem without making a fool of himself and ruin his no profile reputation. After all, the penguin colony is a close-knit colony. And, having a vision to see a problem that no other penguin sees would make Fred the newest laughing stock of the colony.
This adult cartoon illustrated book is an easy read and uses the power of networking and teambuilding to save and eventually grow the colony beyond every penguin’s imagination. Fred gains the help of fellow penguins Alice, Louis, and Buddy his first support and cheering squad of penguins.
Although, Fred the visionary penguin who discovered this disastrous problem could only highlight the problem and provide the proof needed to show the threat is real. But, he lack the solution needed to help the colony, which he understood.
So, after gaining the attention of the Leadership Council along with its naysayers, the problem becomes a colony crisis. It becomes the responsibility of the Leadership Council to protect the colony penguins and provide for its growth and success under this urgent situation, especially for the young.
Our Iceberg Is Melting, does a unique job of showing that most problems be it personal or business under any condition can be solved with the right strategy in place and when it is properly supported by those in the positions to effect positive change and can make it happen.
This book is great for managers finding it difficult to effect change at any level with their staff. It is also for the staff member who can’t understand how and why change takes place in corporate organizations expected and unexpectedly. This book provides a quick lesson in change management for any business professional.
To Kill a Mockingbird – A Book Review
The novel To Kill A Mockingbird revolves around a young girl named Jean Louise Finch who goes by the nicknamed “Scout”. Scout experiences different events in her life that dramatically change her life. Scout and her brother Jem are being raised by their father, a lawyer named Atticus and a housekeeper named Calpumia in a small town in the south. At this point in time in the South racism and discriminations towards black was a big issue . The story begins when Scout is 6 years old, and her brother is about to enter the 5th grade. That summer Scout and her brother meet a young boy named Dill who comes from Mississippi to spend the summers there. They become fascinated with a man named “Boo” Radley, a man in his thirties who has not been seen outside of his home in years, mainly because of his suppressed upbringing. They have an impression of Mr. Radley as being this large ugly and evil man. Then comes the trial. Scout’s father becomes a defense attorney for a black man, Tom Robinson, who is falsely accused of raping a white women. This has a big affect on Scout. During this trial she gets teased by friends because her father was helping this black man. Scout starts to see the racism that exist. During the trial Scout and her brother and close friend Dill witness the trial. Even though they are young they can see that Mr. Robinson is innocent. Even though Mr. Robinson’s innocence was clear even in the eyes of kids, Mr. Robinson was still found guilty. Later in an attempt to escape, Mr. Robinson is shot dead. Scout is extremely disappointed at the verdict and even more at the death of Mr. Robinson and realizes the injustice that exist. Later in a cowardly attempt by the alleged rape victims father, tries to kill Scout and her brother in order to get even with her father for making him look back in court. This is when Mr.Radley makes an appearance again an stabs their attacker. Even though Mr. Radley kills a man he is not tried for murder because he was defending the Scout and her brother. Finally some justice. This gives Scout some hope that is a chance for improvement in this unjust world.
(Discussion of main themes in To Kill A Mockingbird)
There are many different themes present in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. The first theme which I will discuss is “Prejudice”. The whole story revolved around the prejudice views of this Southern community. The whole reason why the trial was going on was because of people views towards blacks in the south. Since the alleged rape victim’s father has such a prejudice view towards black, he is embarrassed that his daughter was actually flirting with a black man. To combat this he falsely accuses the innocent Mr. Robinson of rape. If it wasn’t for the prejudice view which existed in the south the accusation would had never been brought against Mr. Robinson. These prejudice views in the south created a double standard of justice. With all the negative points that can be found in the story in respect to prejudice, there was a bright spot when it came to the prejudice issue. This “ray of light” came in the form of Scout’s father Atticus. Atticus represented hope. Hope that good people still exist. Even in a society filled with hate. Atticus represented the hope that one day things can change
The “Prejudice” theme also ties in well with the title of the book “To Kill A Mocking Bird.” In Chapter 10, Scout and Jem Finch get air rifles for Christmas. Scouts father tells her and her brother that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird because mockingbirds are harmless creatures who do nothing but sing for our enjoyment. In the story To Kill a Mockingbird Mr. Robinson is clearly the “Mocking Bird”. He is a good man who has never harmed anyone and is figuratively and literally shot by society because of prejudice. The jurors sentence him to death not because he did anything wrong but because of prejudice. He is then later shot for trying to escape this unjust ruling. Mr. Robinson just like a mockingbird is shot for no reason at all.
The second theme which I will discuss is “coming of age”. The “Coming of age” theme basically entails a character who evolves to a new level of self awareness through his or her experiences in life. This is clearly the case with Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird. An example of Scout’s “coming of age” can be seen when she meets her friend Dill. Dill comes from a broken home and lives somewhere beyond Alabama. Scout who comes from a good home is awaken to the different quality of life that exist and is able to come to a conclusion that life exist beyond the world she knows. Through these experiences she grows more tolerant of others, learning how to “climb into another person’s skin and walk around in it.” On her first day of school she finds that just like with Dill there are both social and poor classes in society, some are respectable and others not. She also learns that her father is an extra-ordinary man, fighting for a Negro’s rights in court. During the trial of Tom Robinson Scout learns about equality and inequality and finally about racial prejudice. By the final chapters of the novel, Scout goes to another “coming of age experience.” She learns that good people can still suffer injustice. She realizes this when she see’s Tom Robinson suffer injustice even though they did nothing to deserve it. She discover that the courts does not always result in justice. In the end after all of Scout’s experiences and discoveries we get the sense that she will not follow the prejudice views which her society upholds. In the end Scout had matured and grown more as a kid, than many adults will do in there lifetime.
The third and final theme which I will discuss is “Justice”. In the story To Kill a Mockingbird I feel,the author, Ms. Lee portrays true justice as being best seen through the eyes of the innocent. In the story Scout and her brother, being the innocent,can clearly see the injustice being done to Mr. Robinson. In contrary to Scout and her brother other people in society more specifically the older people in the town, the people who have lived through different experiences, become blinded when it comes to true justice. Or maybe they are not blinded but just choose to ignore it. This is clearly seen when they sentence an innocent man to death. This ignorance of justice can be blamed on the prejudice views which are present and eventually instilled in society in the south. So I feel that Harper Lee is connecting justice with innocence to a certain extent. In my opinion Harper Lee portrays justice as being easily detected. The reason I say this is even the young justice. The problem is society can instill beliefs that can act as a veil and blind the people from justice. The only way to uncover this veil is through people like Atticus who can pass his morality and nobility to the young and the “blinded”
(Would I recommend this book?)
I would definitely recommend people to read the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I found it to be an interesting and powerful book. I feel the book does a great job in portraying the extreme prejudice that existed in the south at that time. I feel this book makes a powerful statement on how justice can be altered through racism. I also think that the themes found in the book are themes which can still be found in our current society and that makes it the more interesting. You can even make a case that prejudice still has an effect in our legal system today. So if you are looking for a powerful book of “coming of age” and the battle for justice I would highly recommend To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.