"I like Woodsey Allen movies apart from that nervous fella who's always in 'em." - Ned Flanders.
Small Time Crooks quickly sets up a decent caper plot in its first act, then completely abandons it, and most of the characters, for another plot, which is then abandoned as soon as the second act is over, and tries to come full circle in the last half hour, which is barely does, but it still feels like a cop-out.
Ray and Frenchie (Allen and Ullman) are a bickering couple who are looking to dip their toes back into a life of crime just enough for one big score for financial security. Ray has a hair-brained plan to buy a pizza parlor so he can use the basement to drill through to the bank vault a few doors down. He recruits friends Michael Rappaport, Jon Lovitz, and Tony Darrow to pull off the heist despite none of them having enough brain power to illuminate a low-wattage warning light. Sounds like a funny movie, and it might have been. But then it goes off in a new direction.
Frenchie turns the pizza parlor into a cookie store as a cover but is so successful that the couple become affluent millionaires within a year and attract the attention of smooth-talking con-man Hugh Grant, who has plans for Frenchie under the guise of making her more refined and educated. A bit of a jarring u-turn, but I can handle that. Then it hits another dead end and goes back to being a heist movie. It's so frustrating.
Allen's fast-talking dialogue is a tiny bit inhibited by the PG rating and while a lot of it is smart and funny it is a little overplayed. He really is a great comic performer though, echoing the pantomimes and anxieties of Stan Laurel. There are some quite nice shots in there too, and many long takes of dialogue with the camera following characters in and out of rooms. You need genuine acting ability to do something like that and Allen and Ullman riff off each other perfectly. Elaine May is also quite amusing as Frenchie's deadpan, dunderheaded cousin.
A pleasant distraction, but hardly Woodsey Allen's best.
Small Time Crooks quickly sets up a decent caper plot in its first act, then completely abandons it, and most of the characters, for another plot, which is then abandoned as soon as the second act is over, and tries to come full circle in the last half hour, which is barely does, but it still feels like a cop-out.
Ray and Frenchie (Allen and Ullman) are a bickering couple who are looking to dip their toes back into a life of crime just enough for one big score for financial security. Ray has a hair-brained plan to buy a pizza parlor so he can use the basement to drill through to the bank vault a few doors down. He recruits friends Michael Rappaport, Jon Lovitz, and Tony Darrow to pull off the heist despite none of them having enough brain power to illuminate a low-wattage warning light. Sounds like a funny movie, and it might have been. But then it goes off in a new direction.
Frenchie turns the pizza parlor into a cookie store as a cover but is so successful that the couple become affluent millionaires within a year and attract the attention of smooth-talking con-man Hugh Grant, who has plans for Frenchie under the guise of making her more refined and educated. A bit of a jarring u-turn, but I can handle that. Then it hits another dead end and goes back to being a heist movie. It's so frustrating.
Allen's fast-talking dialogue is a tiny bit inhibited by the PG rating and while a lot of it is smart and funny it is a little overplayed. He really is a great comic performer though, echoing the pantomimes and anxieties of Stan Laurel. There are some quite nice shots in there too, and many long takes of dialogue with the camera following characters in and out of rooms. You need genuine acting ability to do something like that and Allen and Ullman riff off each other perfectly. Elaine May is also quite amusing as Frenchie's deadpan, dunderheaded cousin.
A pleasant distraction, but hardly Woodsey Allen's best.