Review of Small Time Crooks (2000) by Stuart K — 23 Apr 2012
After Woody Allen lent his voice to Antz (1998), Steven Spielberg repaid him with a deal at DreamWorks Pictures, who would release his next 4 films. It should have been a match made in heaven, but it would see some of Woody's least successful films being made, and his eventual exile from New York.
But, this was the first film, and it's a very funny crime caper which harks back to his early, funny ones. Aging crook Ray (Woody), and his friends Tommy (Tony Darrow), Denny (Michael Rapaport) and Benny (Jon Lovitz), have acquired an old restaurant, which is a few doors up from a bank.
They plan to tunnel into the vault, using Ray's wife Frenchy (Tracey Ullman) as a cover, to make cookies. The planned raid on the bank is a disaster, but the cookie business is a success, and they end up with a huge company a year later making millions of dollars.
Frenchy wants to move in higher social circles, and gets arts dealer David (Hugh Grant) to help her, even though David just wants Frenchy for her money to fund art projects he wants to do, Ray is sick of being rich and the whole lifestyle and reverts to being a crook again.
It's a film of two halves, the bungled robbery plan and the climb to wealth. It's the former half that works the best, and the film should have devoted more time to that, but Ullman holds her own against Woody, while Grant is a slimy schemer.
But, the show is stolen by Elaine May as Frenchy's dimwitted cousin May, who gets some brilliant comedy dialogue.
This review of Small Time Crooks (2000) was written by Stuart K on 23 Apr 2012.
Small Time Crooks has generally received positive reviews.
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