Small Time Crooks
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Cindy Carver, Crystal Field, Diane Bradley, Ray Garvey, Tony DarrowBrand: Paramount
Primary Contributor: Ullman, Tracey
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: Letterbox, 1.85:1
Running Time: 95 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-12-19
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Dreamworks Video
Movie Reviews of Small Time Crooks
Movie Review: Take the Money and......
Summary: 3 Stars
Everyone I hope recognizes that, if one lives long enough, that one is bound to start recycling ideas. That is the case here with Woody Allen's partial revival of his early film classic Take the Money and Run, with a class twist. Here Roy (Allen's character) is just as dimwitted as old Virgil of Take the Money but as an older and wiser man he knows when to quit (for a while anyway). So when Roy and his associates' attempted bank robbery is foiled by his bugling his wife's successful cookie shop cover operation sees them through the rough spots, again for a while. After a trip through the wilds of bourgeois New York the couple, after some disasters personal and financial, go back to the old tricks of the trade. I am not altogether sure what this says about class mobility in a democratic society but Roy please do not call me for your next caper. Funny, in Allen's slapstick way, in spots but not his best in this genre.
Summary of Small Time Crooks
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.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
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