Small Time Crooks (2000)

I have always thought of Woody Allen as someone with his own particular take on things so it's strange - for me - to find him straying into Donald E. Westlake territory, albeit the comedy crooks side of Westlake as exemplified by Dortmunder, Kelp, etc, rather than his more serious side. Having said that Woody proves adept at homage though he soon more or less abandons his associates to concentrate on a satire of nouveau riche which has been done a million times before and often better. Nevertheless it's a rare Woody Allen film that doesn't offer some rewards - often in the shape of one-liners, sometimes (Manhattan) in the use of 'standards' on the soundtrack. This is, on balance, minor Allen but still has its moments.

This is a real uneven movie. I was absolutely loving and enjoying this movie during its first half hour or so but the movie suddenly took a turn for the worse.It's almost like you are watching two completely different movies. It seems as if Woody Allen had two different scripts laying around but only had the time and money to make one of them. What begins all so promising and get set up so well in the movie its opening gets totally abandoned in its other half. Even some promising fun characters that still played a prominent role in the first half disappear out of the story completely. Also the comedy seems to be different in its second half. The first half was more some quirky but realistic and fun comedy, while its second half seemed more silly and unrealistic with its story and the character's actions. The movie its first half definitely made me laugh and amused me, while its second half was just only being mildly entertaining. It's not like it made me hate this movie and in itself its second half is also not that bad but the contrast with its first half was still so big that it took away a lot of the enjoyment for me and made the movie as a whole still a disappointing one.You will probably still get lots of enjoyment out of this movie. I mean, it's a Woody Allen comedy, so you know you are going to get some fun moments and some fun lines, from it's excellent cast. The movie leaves the actors plenty of room to improvise away for a bit. Also the comedy itself is quite well written en weaved sneakily into the movie at times. For instance a thing that gets mentioned 5 minutes earlier in the movie suddenly will later reappear again and has a surprising great comedy effect. It would had been all even better if it had a great story to go along with it as well.The story isn't really going anywhere with its second half and only seems to preach in a very unnatural and far from convincing way. It tries to have some messages in it but it all falls flat due to the the movie its approach.An enjoyable but overall still a more disappointing movie, that showed far more premise during its first half.5/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Woody Allen,Tracey Ullman,and Hugh Grant star in Small time crooks. Small time crooks is strictly a comedy. You know that from the opening scene. It's a funny and fun film that goes in directions that you don't expect.Allen plays a crook. Him and his wife(Tracey Ullman) live in New York. When him and his gang of crooks(Michael Rappaport,Jon Lovitz and others) try to break into a bank by crawling through a ditch underneath a cookie shop, they are mistaken for trying to expand a cookie company. so instead of robbing a bank,everyone gets money from the cookie business.A year goes by. Everyone is rich. Ullman's character tries to get into the arts in stuff when she meets a wealthy man(Hugh Grant) and sort of falls for him. But it turns out that he has no interest in her,he just wants her money.Small time crooks is funny. You know that it's going to be from the beginning. It's not as good as some of Allen's other works. Such as Match point, Manhattan,Vicky Cristina Barcelona,and others. No I didn't mention Annie Hall not because I haven't seen it but because i'm not that crazy about it. It's not his best but it's not his worst. I've seen over ten of his films. I can judge.Overall, Small time crooks is funny and fun and mischievous and I enjoyed it like I enjoy all of his films. Simply, it's not his best,but not his worst. I think we can leave it that, and call it a day.Thumbs up.B+

Mr Allen has made one truly great film,"Take the money and run".Ever since he has been playing catch - up.Most of his subsequent work has been like the Curate's egg - good in parts."Small time crooks" is no exception, having the odd funny moment that does not redeem the longeurs suffered by the non - aligned movie fan. Shamelessy plundering the Hollywood vaults he cobbles some familiar enough plot lines into a competent comedy that should ensure he will never be poor,but then it is looking increasingly unlikely that he will ever reach the heights his early work promised.He should care,of course. From an angst - ridden intellectual he switches to an angst - ridden anti - intellectual as Winkler a hugely unsuccessful little league felon whose plan to rob a bank using a cookie shop as a beard goes somewhat agley. His wife and her sister make a huge success of the business and they all become mega - rich. Winkler is happy to remain a nerd but his wife wishes to spread her intellectual wings and takes on a mentor from the Art World. They go bust and their erstwhile friends turn their backs on them. I think I can see a point being made here. Miss T Ullman plays Winkler's wife as Barbra Streisand which is fine for 10 minutes but a tad wearing as the movie progresses.Elaine May is the best thing on view as her nice but dim sister.Mr H.Grant once again hardly stretches himself as an upper middle class Brit cast adrift amongst the Philistines. The more uncharitable might find the phrase "potboiler" comes to mind.