Beyond the fact that we all harbor at least a grain of larceny in our hearts, the big caper flick generally places the audience on the wrong side of the law. The films always focus on the meticulous planning and ingenuity of the thieves, after all, thus enlisting the viewer in the gang. Such a film revolving around revenge against a fraudulent financial manipulator should speak even more directly to audiences in our time.

"Tower Heist" reflects with considerable humor, polish, and verve a number of subjects familiar to anyone who follows the news, especially those millions suffering from any of the devious actions that triggered the Great Recession. Ben Stiller plays Josh Logan, the manager of a sumptuous high-rise apartment building in Manhattan; located on Columbus Circle, right by Central Park, it is obviously the Trump Tower, perhaps the most expensive address in New York City. He runs a tight ship, supervising a corps of highly efficient employees who provide just the right amount of obsequious coddling that the wealthy always demand.

The fabulously wealthy Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda) occupies the penthouse apartment, an amazingly posh accommodation complete with its own rooftop swimming pool. Charmingly condescending to all the help, he enjoys all the good things that money can buy, including a unique Ferrari once raced by Steve McQueen ("the coolest guy in the world," Shaw points out), decorating his living room. Beneath his genial surface, however, Shaw turns out to be a crook, arrested for fleecing investors out of billions of dollars; worse, he even stole all the money invested with him by the Tower staff.

Confined to the rigors of house arrest in his posh apartment, Shaw knows that his sharp lawyer will beat the rap, and smugly rejects Josh Logan's pleas for some consideration for the impoverished Tower employees. Resolving to steal Shaw's fortune, Logan assembles a comical crew of victimized staff to plan a big caper; he also brings in a former childhood friend, a petty thief named Slide (Eddie Murphy), to show the gang just how to go about the business of theft. Eddie Murphy's several droll bits in his instructions to the crew and eventual execution of the plan demonstrate the comedy that often underlies the big caper flick and once again emphasizes the attractiveness of the crooks, making us all complicit.

As in any caper movie, the plan depends upon split-second timing, complicated maneuvering, and several stratagems and subterfuges that surprise the audience and baffle law enforcement. The gang avoids the surveillance of the security cameras, constructs a series of feints and tricks, and in the long, exciting robbery sequence itself, execute their plot in the middle of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Overcoming several obstacles, including their own incompetence, they manage a final daring act that may inspire intense acrophobia in the most phlegmatic viewer.

Like prison and military films, the caper flick also depends upon an ensemble cast, who in the comic versions constitute a whole cereal box of nuts and flakes. In addition to Stiller and Murphy, "Tower Heist" features a handful of goofy amateurs, played by Matthew Broderick, Casey Affleck, Michael Pena, and Gabourey Sidibe, who mostly perform in harmony with each other and the demands of the script. Even Affleck's whispery voice seems less annoying than usual, and though grown surprisingly puffy and dissipated, Matthew Broderick acquits himself adequately.

Playing his part with deadly seriousness, Ben Stiller represents a nice contrast to Eddie Murphy's various exaggerated comic ploys, which recall his work in some earlier films, like "48 Hours" and the "Beverly Hills Cop" movies. Impersonating a figure who combines the personalities of Donald Trump and Bernie Madoff, two of the more noxious examples of contemporary capitalism gone wild, Alan Alda seldom varies the smug smile he deploys in every situation, but he also makes a most convincing villain, who finally gets everything he deserves.

In addition to the fun in the story and the success of the performances, the cinematography in "Tower Heist" simply dazzles. The camera roams all over New York, from Astoria to Central Park, capturing the beauty of a number of familiar locations and imparting a rare glamor to a sometimes gritty and violent genre.