Review of Small Time Crooks (2000) by Tim W — 08 Jan 2005

At this point in Woody Allen's career it seems like he can just about put together some characters and a plot in his sleep. None of his movies lately has been lacking in construction or execution, but the jokes, man, sometimes the jokes aren't there.

Tonight I watched "The Curse of the Jade Scorpion", and the acting directing, etc. were all just fine. But when Helen Hunt says "Be careful eating breakfast that you don't asphyxiate because you can't swallow the toast!" there is just no planet on which that is funny. And at least half the jokes in the movie are even worse. It's like he let Mel Brookes write the dialogue.

But when the jokes are working (like when Sean Penn says to a girl on their first date "Hey let's go down to the dump and shoot some rats!" in "Sweet and Lowdown") he's doing some of the best work of his career.

I definately am excited to see "Melinda and Melinda" whenever it opens in Austin. For one thing, I don't know why, but it just seems like Woody's writing is better when he's not playing the main character. Maybe he's not willing to be as self-effacing these days, so his heroes don't seem wimpy enough. Snappy one-liners seem to work better when they come from his minor role of the comic's mentor in "Anything Else" than from the lead detective in "Curse". But I could be totally wrong, I'm still not sure.

The other reason my nads are pumped to see the new Allen movie is that it stars Will "The New Carl Spackler" Ferrel. So I'm going to busy my self building up the movie with expectations it could never possibly live up to so that I can blame two of my favorite comic voices from the safety of my stupid blog. Thank you, internet.