Small Time Crooks (2000)

Genre

Comedy | Crime

Director

Woody Allen

Country

USA

Cast

Woody Allen, Tracey Ullman, Elaine May, Kristie Nielsen, Hugh Grant, Michael Rapaport, Tony Darrow, Jon Lovitz, George Grizzard, Larry Pine

Storyline

A loser of a crook (Woody Allen) and his wife (Tracey Ullman) strike it rich when a botched bank job's cover business becomes a spectacular success.

Opinion

Woody Allen opens the new millennium with "Small Time Crooks", an engaging and hilarious comedy that is very close to to his earlier films.

The film's plot is somehow similiar to "Take the Money and Run" - one of my favourite Allen's -, and at first takes some surprising turns. Eventually the plot twists will become quite predictable but the film moves forward in a humorous way.

It's not like I didn't like his serious stuff, but once in awhile it's nice to enjoy something that doesn't involve neurotic, upper-class New Yorkers dealing with a relationship crisis. "Small Time Crooks" still is the typical Allen story with long monologues of insecure men trapped in a labyrinth that they have created themselves, but the characters makes it different. Ray Winkler is the kind of person who comes up with maniac ideas that never turns out in the way their are supposed to, but that's what makes him a good character for some laughs.

I do have a problem with the other crooks though. They are such nice characters and they are a great addition to the story so I don't understand why they vanish after a while. It feels like Allen got lost.

Anyway, the cast is good as always, especially Tracey Ullman as Ray Winkler's wife. But I would have loved to see more of Michael Rapaport and Jon Lovitz who sadly have a small part as they play the other crooks.

It may not be as good as "Take the Money and Run", but it sure is a entertaining and funny.

Take the Money and Run (1969)

Genre

Comedy | Crime

Director

Woody Allen

Country

USA

Cast

Woody Allen, Janet Margolin, Marcel Hillaire, Jacquelyn Hyde, Lonny Chapman, Jan Merlin, James Anderson, Howard Storm, Mark Gordon, Micil Murphy, Minnow Moskowitz, Nate Jacobson, Grace Bauer, Ethel Sokolow, Dan Frazer, Henry Leff, Mike O'Dowd, Louise Lasser

Storyline

When he was a child, Virgil Starkwell (Woody Allen) wanted to play cello. Grown up and with no musical talent, he joins a street gang and ends up in prison for the first time. This will be only the first of many failure at his chosen profession, being a criminal.

Opinion

A few years later the What's Up, Tiger Lily? experiment, Woody Allen made his first real film, marking the beginning of his wonderful career as a filmmaker.

Fun and original, with some hilarious moments, Take the Money and Run is an amusing comedy that will keep you glued to the screen thanks to the odd sympathy of Woody Allen.

In his first film, Allen makes fun of some film genres and television programmes. "Hit" by his pungent irony are both the law and the gangsters, and through the mockumentary style he also makes a criticism of those television programmes that exploit and monetize the lives of ordinary people. 

The satire is more than successful, and swims in a ocean of hilarious gags and never vulgar humour, but Allen does not just make people laugh, he also makes some psychoanalysis, trying to make sense of Virgil's attraction to cello, and people constantly breaking Virgil's glasses.

There are many memorable sequences that can not be omitted like the robbery with the massage on the paper that nobody seems to understand, or the evasion with the soap revolver that turns into bubbles under the rain, or the escape of the eight men tied together with the chain.

If you don't like Woody Allen because of his neurotic rich New Yorkers, you should definitely check out this one, I think it'll do for you.

Quotes

Virgil: After fifteen minutes I wanted to marry her, and after half an hour I completely gave up the idea of stealing her purse.

Louise: He is always very depressed. I think that if he'd been a successful criminal, he would have felt better. You know, he never made the 'ten most wanted' list. It's very unfair voting; it's who you know.

The Place Beyond the Pines (2012)

Genre

Crime | Drama | Thriller

Director

Derek Cianfrance

Country

USA

Cast

Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes, Ray Liotta, Ben Mendelsohn, Rose Byrne, Mahershala Ali, Bruce Greenwood, Dane DeHaan, Emory Cohen, Harris Yulin, Robert Clohessy, Olga Merediz

Storyline

A motorcycle stunt rider (Ryan Gosling) turns to robbing banks as a way to provide for his lover and their newborn child, a decision that puts him on a collision course with an ambitious cop (Bradley Cooper) navigating a department ruled by a corrupt detective.

Opinion

A few years ago I tried to watch this film, but I gave up after 10 minutes. I should have left that way. The Place Beyond The Pines is a way too ambitious attempt at making a family drama, that turned out to be not a bad film, but three bad films.

The trailer for this film is very misleading, because there’s a lot more going on than Ryan Gosling being a badass. In fact, there are three stories, each with its own main characters, that despite being linked to the same event, the all thing seems forced.

The film starts pretty good – the first story is absorbing, Gosling’s character is developed, and the chasing scene is quite good -, but when the motorcycle rider gets killed, the film dies with him. 

The film doesn't find its center, the dirty cops topic is not well-developed as it deserved to be – or as I was hoping -, and there's to much cod-psychology about fathers and sons. 

The acting could have been a lot better. Despite the great performances by Ryan Gosling as the motorcycle rider, and Eva Mendes as Romina, the rest of the cast is just disappointing - I was expecting more from Bradley Cooper, who didn’t even successfully manage to cry. 

Last words. Derek Cianfrance should have stuck to making a solid thriller, and if only he wasn't trying so hard to be a great filmmaker, maybe the result would have been better that this.

Quotes

Robin: If you ride like lightning, you're going to crash like thunder.