Small Time Crooks (2000)

Take the Money and......

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.
February 19, 2008

An okay idea that goes nowhere

This movie struck me as being similar in tone to Take the Money and Run, a much older Woody movie that he stars in as an inept bank robber. Small Time Crooks starts off the same, with Woody and his rag tag group of wannabe crooks who are working at tunneling underground to a nearby bank. The cookie bakery his wife, played by Tracy Ullman, is using as a front for the operation ends up becoming an overnight success which turns them into millionaires.

From that point on, the movie stopped being entertaining. It really does just come to a screeching halt. Practically nothing interesting happens from this point on with Woody and Tracy, and the rest of the cast is pretty much discarded with. There was far too much of Tracy in this movie and Hugh Grant just bored me everytime he was on screen. Jon Lovitz, Michael Rapaport and Tony Darrow are completely underused as Woody's gang. Elaine May actually turned out to be pretty funny as Tracy's dim bulb cousin and should have had more screen time.

I was really hoping to see more of the old Woody spirit in here, but it just felt really unimaginative. Not to say that he's completely lost it. Scoop is a good recent example of Woody recapturing that old magic again, but this one just missed the mark with me.

November 8, 2007

Woody Lite

Small Time Crooks is Woody Lite, well worth a three star rating. It is a fun little movie with some very engaging actors including Tracy Ullman and Hugh Grant. This is good fun, if not memorable. It hearkens back to the older Woody movies that are fun for the sake of being fun. July 18, 2007

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 Unsinkable Molly Brown", and "Take the Money and Run". I was going to add "without the music" but I really enjoyed the music in "Small Time Crooks" as I do with almost all of Woody Allen's post-"Annie Hall" movies.

This movie is more on the humorous side like the earlier Allen movies. Woody's humor usually had a lot of political and mostly social satire as the core of his humor and "Small Time Crooks" is no exception. What makes it a cut above some of his earlier comedies is his focus on the pitfalls of trying to become someone and/or something you're not and probably never will be. Through this window, Allen is able to poke fun at both the wannabes and the established in High Society.

The movie begins with a look at a bumbling small time crook named Ray Winkler, played by Woody Allen. His "gang" is about as inept as he is (maybe even more so since they follow his lead). The brilliant plan of theirs metamorphs itself into something else entirely and they all get a look at what they supposedly want out of life. The problem is that their dreams were really just nightmares in disguise.

Ray's wife Frenchy is the real lead in "Small Time Crooks" and it is she who develops the highest asperations. Her reach for elegance extends well beyond Ray's bewilderment as to his own future. In the end, they discover their own common wants and needs were in the familiar territory that they left behind. I don't think I'm giving anything away with that synopsis because the movie's humor keeps us attentive throughout and can be enjoyed on its' own; with or without a morality play. However, Woody Allen's genius as a director is that he cannot create a story without making a statement. "Small Time Crooks" is good enough as comedy to leave the statement optional. May 4, 2007

Congenial Throwback to Allen's Earlier Character-Driven Farces with a Sharp Cast

Even though Tracey Ullman is a quarter-century younger than Woody Allen, her spot-on comic turn as his tacky manicurist wife makes her the filmmaker's most compatible co-star since Diane Keaton. Together, they winningly play Ray and Frenchy, a vulgar, working-class married couple who rent a restaurant space in order to rob the bank next door. The twist is that Frenchy's cookie business thrives, and they become wealthy beyond their dreams. Written and directed by Allen, this surprisingly free-wheeling 2000 comedy contains little of the deeper life themes that Allen had been exploring for the previous two decades. For the most part, it represents a complete throwback to his first film as a director, the frenetic, nonsensical 1969's "Take the Money and Run", as both are character-driven slapstick farces with a slew of funny one-liners.

The film starts out strong with Ray and his bumbling partners preparing the heist with every conceivable complication standing in their way, in particular, their own stupidity. The storyline makes a unique turn once Ray and Frenchy become successful. They open up a nationwide chain of cookie stores, move to the posh Upper East Side like the Jeffersons, and start hobnobbing with Manhattan's social elite. Their marriage begins to unravel when Frenchy becomes obsessed with being cultured, while Ray is happy to live his life the same way as before. I don't think the movie is consistently flat-out funny like Allen's earlier works, but it does boast a sterling comedy cast. Freed from his intellectual pretensions, Allen looks like he's having a good time playing the unapologetically guttural Ray. Sporting a convincing New Yawk accent, Ullman, the most chameleonic of comic mimics, dexterously captures the ongoing battle between Frenchy's aspirations for social acceptance and her innately tawdry sensibilities.

Michael Rapaport, Tony Darrow and Jon Lovitz play Ray's trio of thick-skulled cohorts with élan, though they unfortunately disappear for the film's second half. It's good to see Elaine May back onscreen playing Ray's ditzy cousin May, and her crack timing with Allen makes me wish she would resuscitate her clever comedy routines with her ex-husband, film director Mike Nichols. As Frenchy's Pygmalion teacher of art and manners, Hugh Grant plays to his suave persona with subtle venality. The film ends almost like a parable albeit with a hilarious development inspired by the cocktail party scene in Alfred Hitchcock's "Notorious". Allen must be quite a fan since he would later use the same plot device in "Scoop". This is lightweight fare though certainly among Allen's most entertaining movies of late. The 2000 DVD provides the theatrical trailer as its only significant extra. January 15, 2007

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