OllieSuave-007 This TV movie is proof that machines can't and shouldn't run the world. Here, an employee named Tony goes to his first day of work at a corporate high-rise, whose security system is run by a main computer with a mind of its own. When it fails to identify Tony as the new employee, and after several security breaches, it deems Tony as a security risk and attempts to terminate him.A bit of an interesting plot with some thrilling moments in and there. But, the plot doesn't really hold its own as there is really no suspense built-up or character development. Paul Reiser appeared to be miscast in this movie, showing no real drama or emotion; he acted like everything was a joke around him. The female characters were OK and were humorous at times. The romantic subplot between the two character leads didn't mix in well with the main story, though. Basically, this film appears to be a somewhat well-budgeted flick, but put together with haste.Grade C-

VanillaLimeCoke The Tower 1993 movie is definitely a very flawed but yet enjoyable SCI-FI fantasy horror film.New worker Tony Minot (played by Paul Reiser) messes his key card by using the old jimmy the lock open trick after locking himself out of his apartment (back then they seemed to issue the key cards before your first day of work).It's not quite clear what Tony's new exact job is, but he isn't the model worker. He seems to eat unhealthy (cold pizza for breakfast), goof off (play paper ball slide on vent ducts), failed to watch the orientation videos (they were boring), and tampers with the equipment which gets the security system really upset.Littlehill the boss (Roger Rees) is definitely a no non-sense guy stickler. But then again he gives Tony a huge assignment just before quitting time that day; despite the fact that Tony has a date. I mean come on, it's his first day; and then of all things Littlehill goes into his own personal sauna (a sauna at work??).But that's just the least of Tony's worries as the security system goes on night mode and turns very brutal starting to execute the employees; thinking they're Tony.Tony eventually makes it out but then his co-worker (Linda played by Susan Norman) steps in and he has to rescue her and go back through the horror fun house for round two.This film is like that X-Files episode "Ghost in the Machine" plugging into DIE HARD.While the film is set on 8/1/1992 (which is actually a Saturday), the music and sounds make it seem more like 1987 or 1988.This is just yet another underrated TV movie. The whole film seems unintentionally funny.I would definitely see the film if it sounds interesting.

virek213 Even given the fact that it's a made-for-TV affair, the execution, the screenplay, and the acting of the 1993 Fox-TV movie THE TOWER are inscrutably inane. The premise is certainly not the problem; the idea of a computer in charge of security in an L.A. high-rise going after its occupants is, in fact, dead-on perfect.The problem is, however, that even the best stories, if executed either poorly or in a mediocre fashion (the latter in this case), lose their suspenseful effectiveness. Paul Reiser, of TV's "Mad About You", is quite the obnoxious one as a tenant of the building whose smart mouth and list of security violations makes him a target for CAS, the building's security computer (voice of Dee Dee Wilkinson). What we have then is a film whose malevolent computer is basically a more sinister female counterpart to HAL from Kubrick's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, and a setting clearly inspired by THE TOWERING INFERNO and DIE HARD, but whose execution couldn't hope to compete with those masterpieces unless a talent like Steven Spielberg was in the director's seat, and Michael Crichton or Arthur C. Clarke wrote the dialogue. Despite all this, I give THE TOWER a rating of '6' for the premise, as well as some pretty nifty special effects.

palm21 This movie shows Paul Reiser in one of his worst roles ever. He usually plays in comedy movies and after this attempted thriller should definately never consider doing one ever again. The movie is a simple ripp-off from all the other "Man vs. Computer" movies we have seen in the last years("The Terminator" springs to mind). I got the feeling that the people who wrote and produced this movie just decided that they wanted to make some money and hoped they could join the hype, thereby making those big bucks... Unfortunately this meagre attempt resulted in a movie which seems to be no more than just a loose bundle of scenes joined together in no particular order. This is probably because of the lousy script and the way the camera is used(which must have seemed creepy to the makers, but looks ridiculous to me). The cheap love story could be summerised in 1 line: Man finds the love of his life in fight against machine. His 'girlfriend'(Susan Norman) acts annoyingly bad and spoils most of the scenes. But all this set aside the real problem is this: This is supposed to be a thriller and therefore should be exciting. The viewer should be starteld and feel connected to the main character in his fight against his enemy. Too bad none of the afore mentioned happened to me... Conclusion: TV rubbish of absolutely no interest to any one.