The Tower Heist trailer that was just posted online makes it look like a terrifically entertaining overmatched-underdogs-against-overprivileged-billionaires comedy that should make a fortune at the box office. And yes, I realize it’s a Brett Ratner film, but Noah Baumbach’s a credited writer and the trailer lobs a number of softballs at some very funny people (Matthew Broderick looks like he can steal this thing right from underneath Ben Stiller’s nose), then gets out of their way as they swing for the fences. Check it out for yourself (see it in HD over on Yahoo!):



Also, and this is most important, it looks like Eddie Murphy is awake, invested, fired up and ready to make people laugh for the first time since Bowfinger. That’s going all the way back to 1999, people. Comedians don’t forget how to be funny, so I can’t explain how or why Murphy chose to coast through the likes of Daddy Day Care, Norbit, Meet Dave or Imagine That for the better part of the past decade. But if Ratner somehow coaxes 48 Hours-level Murphy for Tower Heist (and tell me you didn’t think of Reggie Hammond when you saw Murphy getting sprung from jail), then I’m even more on board what’s shaping up to be a hit holiday comedy.

As the trailer suggests, Ratner’s Heist has the blue-collar grunts in a Manhattan high-rise plotting to rob the fraudulent executive (Alan Alda) who cheated them out of their pensions. Ben Stiller plays the group’s leader, while Murphy is the ex-con who may or may not be helping them out. And yes, that is Oscar nominee Gabourey Sidibe (Precious) going toe-to-toe with Murphy and holding her own. Call me crazy, but I think this one can work when it opens on Nov. 4.

For more on Tower Heist, click the movie's first poster below to visit our full gallery of high-res images.