Small Time Crooks
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Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Paramount
EAN: 9780783245430
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
ISBN: 0783245432
Label: Dreamworks Video
Manufacturer: Dreamworks Video
Number Of Items: 1
Picture Format: Letterbox
Publisher: Dreamworks Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: December 19, 2000
Running Time: 95 minutes
Sales Rank: 20852
Studio: Dreamworks Video
Theatrical Release Date: 2000
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Editorial Review:
Description:
Woody Allen's star-powered comedy follows the misadventures of an ex-con dishwasher and his manicurist wife. Their get-rich-quick scheme to rob a bank leave the characters rolling in dough--but not the kind they had in mind.
Amazon.com:
After a run of serious-tinged comedies like Deconstructing Harry, Celebrity, and Sweet and Lowdown, Woody Allen turns to pure farce with the lightweight, appealing Small Time Crooks, the sunniest film Allen's made in years. Doing a 180 from his nebbishy intellectual persona, Allen plays a less-than-smart ex-con named Ray, who can't even keep a dishwasher job and is perennially supported by his wife Frenchy (Tracey Ullman). When Ray hatches a plot to lease a storefront near a bank and tunnel into the bank's vault, Frenchy is skeptical about putting their life savings behind the scheme, especially after meeting Ray's dim-bulb trio of support (Michael Rapaport, Jon Lovitz, and Tony Darrow, all sublimely ridiculous) and learning she's supposed to provide the front by opening up a cookie store. Soon enough, their get-rich-quick scheme pays off, but not the way they anticipated, and they're suddenly swimming in money and bad taste. All of Allen's farcical shenanigans are basically a setup for a look at Ray's and Frenchy's diverging paths--she wants culture and upper-class acceptance, he wants pizza in front of the TV and poker with his pals. Soon, the lowbrow Frenchy enlists a fortune-digging art broker (Hugh Grant) to make her a lady, and Allen plans a high society robbery with the help of Frenchy's dimwit cousin (Elaine May, who makes an art form of comic stupidity). It's absolutely refreshing to see Allen making a blithely happy film after wrestling with angst over the past few years; watching Allen play a dumb schlemiel is a treat that's been sorely missed. And in Ullman he's found a leading lady who can match him line for line; she wisely resists the urge to overplay Frenchy's crassness and comes up with a finely modulated characterization that makes her relationship with Ray the film's warm, heartfelt core. We'd almost forgotten Woody Allen could be this fun and goofy; it's good to see that part of him back in form. --Mark Englehart
Average Rating: 
Rating:
- Some Definite ChucklesSmall Time Crooks is not classic Woody, but it certainly isn't pretentious or boring. The plot is ... Read More
Rating:
- Take the Money and......Everyone I hope recognizes that, if one lives long enough, that one is bound to start recycling ideas. ... Read More
Rating:
- An okay idea that goes nowhereThis movie struck me as being similar in tone to Take the Money and Run, a much older Woody movie that ... Read More
Rating:
- Woody LiteSmall Time Crooks is Woody Lite, well worth a three star rating. It is a fun little movie with some very ... Read More
Rating:
- A Woody Allen Love Story"Small Time Crooks" is a unique type of love story that seems like a cross between "Guys and Dolls", "The ... Read More
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Copyright ©2003, Mark Carey.