Small Time Crooks
DreamWorks Distribution | Release Date: May 19, 2000 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
69
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 32 Critic Reviews
Positive:
25
Mixed:
7
Negative:
0
Watch Now
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleEdward Guthmann
A delicious comedy that starts out promisingly as a pleasant gag comedy but then turns unexpectedly into a bright social satire. Read full review
100
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Sunnier and sillier than most of Allen's recent work, makes its belly laughs heartwarming. It's a most winning movie about losers. Read full review
90
Film.comTom Keogh
This is vintage Allen, his powers intact after a string of increasingly cranky, creaky films in the last few years. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
Handsome as all Allen films are, and it proceeds with the brisk, sophisticated air of throwaway confidence and lack of pretense that we expect from the contemporary master of grown-up comedy.
88
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
The plot is lively and the dialogue packs many good laughs. Read full review
80
SalonCharles Taylor
The latest from Woody Allen is an enjoyable trifle -- but Tracey Ullman and Elaine May walk off with the picture. Read full review
80
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Allen's funniest, least sour outing in nearly a decade is a small movie with a tidy payoff. The movie gives vulgarity a good name. Read full review
80
The New York TimesStephen Holden
In this sweet, funny wisp of a movie, Mr. Allen shucks off his fabled angst and returns in spirit to those wide-eyed days of yesteryear, before Chekhov, Kafka and Ingmar Bergman invaded his creative imagination. Read full review
80
Rolling StonePeter Travers
The Woodman has recovered his common touch. On him, it looks good.
80
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Allen's movies specialize in contemplating the notion that money can somehow remove vulgarity or produce gentility. Small Time Crooks may conclude quite conventionally that money can't buy you everything, but most of it flirts even more conventionally with the opposite premise. Read full review
80
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Breezy, enjoyable romp gratifyingly zigzags in directions that aren't apparent at the outset and features some intriguingly personal subtext for longtime Woody watchers. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Dumb as they (allegedly) are, the characters in Small Time Crooks are smarter, edgier and more original than the dreary crowd in so many new comedies. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeJay Carr
It's the kind of movie you can settle into, secure in the expectation that you can steal from it more than a little vintage Allen fun. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerPaula Nechak
Allen has avoided his usual stable of jokes and one-liners, and the result is a film that feels and looks fresh from the maestro of urban angst. Read full review
75
USA TodayMike Clark
Though this is a tough movie to dislike, it plays more like a second draft than a final product. Read full review
75
San Francisco ExaminerWesley Morris
Stooge-filled farce offers low laughs but lacks a point. Read full review
70
Washington PostRita Kempley
Diverting and provides a satisfying alternative to teen-oriented summer comedy. Read full review
70
Film.comRobert Horton
Feels like a first draft, in need of toning, pruning, and a little old-fashioned discipline. As an outline, the picture is full of possibilities. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklySteven Mikulan
Small Time Crooks is definitely minor Allen that, nevertheless, offers a welcome riposte to the current national obsession with getting rich. Read full review
70
Dallas ObserverAndy Klein
Allen produces a lovable, relaxed--although not uproarious--comedy. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
For all its wispy fun, Small Time Crooks still tilts, with little-guy stubbornness, at windmills in Allen's mind. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Ullman and May make something intermittently memorable of an otherwise minor film. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Allen's most amiable, breeziest comedy in years. Read full review
63
New York PostLou Lumenick
Petty larceny - but Allen's fans won't want to miss this lowbrow caper. Read full review
63
Baltimore SunAnn Hornaday
Can be recommended even if just for the presence of Elaine May, who turns in her most charmingly ditzy performance since "A New Leaf." Read full review
54
Mr. ShowbizKevin Maynard
Only Elaine May shines, in a weird and wonderful turn. Her loopy character has such a struck-by-lightning demeanor that she's always delightfully off in her own comic orbit even in the tritest of scenes. Read full review
50
SlateDavid Edelstein
Sour and mostly feeble, with a depressingly curdled worldview. It bears no resemblance to Allen's surreal, open-ended comedies. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Allen was out of his element in creating characters who feel like East Coast cousins of the Clampetts, and his dialogue has never been more banal or forced. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
This thin, clichéd comedy of crime and social climbing contains some scattered laughs and whole lot of padding. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMarc Caro
It's a sweet little snack of a movie that leaves the heavier courses for some other outing. Read full review
50
TNT RoughCutSusannah Breslin
It's a comedic caper with a slap-your-head-in-kookiness that ends up making Allen, at this age, seem like an old man desperately still trying to ham it up at the dinner table. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
A pleasant frolic, but fairly inconsequential in terms of the overall Allen output. Read full review
More From This Movie

69 Critic Reviews

6.6 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL