| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Movie Name | Small Time Crooks (2000) |
| Director | Woody Allen |
| Writer | Woody Allen |
| Lead Actor | Woody Allen |
| Cast | Woody Allen, Tracey Ullman, Hugh Grant, Jon Lovitz, Andy García |
| Genre | Comedy, Crime |
| Release Date | March 17, 2000 (United States) |
| Duration | 1h 38m (98 min) |
| Budget | $25 million |
| Language | English |
| IMDb Rating | 6.7/10 |
WATCH NOW
SMALL TIME CROOKS Woody Allen is comically on the loose in a retro-in-spirit farce, circa 1930’s, about some dumb-and-dumber crooks who hope to rob a Manhattan bank by tunneling from the cellar of a cookie shop two doors away. The diggers miscalculate and emerge in the wrong place. But the cookies sell like hotcakes and make them fabulously wealthy.
The movie is full of old Depression-era truths about the pretensions and miseries of being rich, of having to (pretend to) love high culture when all you enjoy is lowbrow, and how money is the root of all you-know-what. Anyway, all you really need is true love (and, if possible, a couple hundred grand).
Woody Allen and Tracey Ullman are infectiously funny as Ray and Frenchy, the couple who unintentionally become honestly wealthy. Frenchy enjoys going upscale (with suave Hugh Grant as a tutor). But down to earth Ray misses cheeseburgers for dinner and backroom poker. He mistakes Henry James (the writer) for Harry James (the trumpeter who married Betty Grable). Grant’s smarmy art dealer comes between the couple, who also encounter some big time crooks who are after their fortune.
The jokes, visual and verbal, have broad appeal, since they range from broken water mains to subtle bits by Woody (trying to crack a safe using a stethoscope) and Elaine May (as a friend who talks too much in crucial situations). The music, as always, is bouncy jazz. It may be that Allen continues to slip ever more deeply into his romance with the past but it’s hard to argue with him. Not especially brilliant or original but good old stuff brightly executed; O.K. for general audiences.
For more movies like SMALL TIME CROOKS (2000) visit Hurawatch.
Also watch: