Small Time Crooks (2000)

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Blistering performances.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The great Writer/Director/Star seems a little tired in his new attempt at a more accessible mode of slapstick ala his early movies. The cerebral comedy takes a vacation and this romp is indicative of whimsical rather than witty Woody.It somewhat works and the creative ability of the cast, as well as a half-awake Allen, deliver an easy essay on wealth and want. There are a number of laughs and it all is a rather unusual piece of fluff from a talent that more times than not stimulates the head-bone as much as the funny-bone.Compared to his other gems this one is not made of glass, but admittedly, while not a fugazi, is far from the precious piece of treasure that one normally expects from the "prophet of the misanthropes".

One of the best things about Woody Allen is his ability to take wildly unique premises and story structures and somehow make them all feel intrinsically his. When you are watching a Woody Allen movie, you know it, no mistake. That wasn't the case at all with Small Time Crooks. There have been times in his career where I've felt like he didn't even know what he was doing but he didn't want to stop working so he just shoveled something out (Whatever Works) but so far I think this is the worst example of that. For one, it doesn't feel like a Woody Allen film, but worse is the fact that it doesn't even feel like it's the same film for the whole thing.It jumps all over from one recycled plot line to the next, all mashed up with a bunch of characters that I couldn't have wanted to spend less time with if I tried. These ignorant, selfish, moronic people had none of the charm or enjoyability of most Woody characters, the ones that somehow feel fresh and entertaining and true but also like I've known them my whole life. These were just miserable dimwits acted out by some of the laziest performances I've seen in his films. It looked like he was sleepwalking through the whole thing and honestly I wish I had been too. Maybe then I could just forget this piece of garbage.

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/

One-note reworking of 1942's "Larceny, Inc." about a low-class New York couple who conspire to rob a bank, but who instead find financial success through their own ruse: by opening a bakery right next door. Writer-director-star Woody Allen doesn't appear to have his heart invested in this material (it seems a little cheeky and overtly commercial for him), though there are some good laughs after a sloppy opening. Colorful, squirrelly supporting players keep it bubbling happily for about an hour, but Allen's third act finishes limply. Slapstick chaos is no longer Woody's forte; he resorts to brash heckling to get his script over the hump, and he's hindered further by Zhao Fei's dark, disappointing cinematography. ** from ****