This is vintage Allen, his powers intact after a string of increasingly cranky, creaky films in the last few years.
90
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
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
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
The plot is lively and the dialogue packs many good laughs.
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
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.
75
Boston GlobeJay Carr
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.
70
Film.comRobert Horton
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.
67
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
For all its wispy fun, Small Time Crooks still tilts, with little-guy stubbornness, at windmills in Allen's mind.
67
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Ullman and May make something intermittently memorable of an otherwise minor film.
50
SlateDavid Edelstein
SlateDavid Edelstein
Sour and mostly feeble, with a depressingly curdled worldview. It bears no resemblance to Allen's surreal, open-ended comedies.
50
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
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.