The_Film_Cricket I love this period in Woody Allen's work. The 90s were a time when he made several filmed experiments. He made a social satire, a musical, a character study and semi-autobiographical study of his relationships with women. I'm glad that Woody is trying new things but STC reminded me of what I loved about his work in the first place: He can write comedies that are very, very funny STC is a flat out comedy, it has no other reasons for being then to make us laugh. It is inventive and sweet and Allen has not only surrounded himself with a cast of wonderfully talented actors but puts a new spin on his nebbish persona.Here's the story: Allen and Tracy Ullman play a blue collar couple living the in middle class doldrums of New York City. Allen is a professional criminal who hits upon the idea of renting out a store and having his wife sell cookies as a front while he and his cohorts are in the basement digging a tunnel to the bank next door. The heist is bungled when Allen and his cronies end up in a dress shop while Ullman is in the front making a fortune selling cookies. The become millionaires in the cookie business.Now, this would have been enough for any other comedy but this is Woody Allen, he has other surprises up his sleeve. The couple live it up, Ullman trying to fit into the Manhattan social scene can't escape the fact that she is a butcher to good taste (Just how much leopard skin can you fit into one Penthouse?) Allen (a sullen, dimwitted slob) on the other hand is just as happy eating cheeseburgers and watching the Nicks game The two have a wonderful rapport together but the plumb part goes to Elaine May who plays Ullman's cousin. She all but steals the show in the scene where Allen is suppose to rob a rich socialite's safe during a party. He tells her to mingle and talk about the weather. She does just that, giving out weather reports.What I loved about STC is that it never tries to be anything more than what it is, it's a flat out comedy. But, Woody being the genius writer that he is takes what would have been otherwise just a comic idea and takes it one step furthur. It is fun to watch a comedy this inventive.

fifo23 I consider this movie to be real art. It is very proactive since it is about people who are not special in any way. They don't really have a lot of "bad" habits and attributes, but nevertheless could be considered as paragons. It really puts a mirror to this society, but not in a dry way like in what many of us would consider an art movie. It is very humorous and the characters, especially, but not only the minor roles are very exaggerated. However this is intended. It is needed to describe something that you can't just express in a few words.I haven't seen any movie unifying a cozy small, humorous movie with such a huge load of provocative social criticism. Such a balancing act has been tried over and over and many have failed. Not so this movie. Woody Allen created a masterpiece.

Boba_Fett1138 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/

travis_iii If you can hold on through some lame one-liners and weak slapstick in the first half-an-hour of 'Small Time Crooks' you'll be amply rewarded with some much better comedy in the second half.There's oodles of comic talent on show (Tracey Ullman and Elaine May playing the dumb and dumber broads are wonderful) and there are enough gems in the dialogue to keep the brisk, frothy plot bouncing merrily along for a thoroughly enjoyable 90 minutes.Comic highlights? Without giving too much away look out for the Sunset Farms documentary at about half way and Elaine May's (she seems to have all the best lines) reference to her first husband Otto. In fact Elaine May, in a rare appearance, is an absolute treat.