Filme fraco, o roteiro é fraco, as cenas são fracas, o elenco é fraco, mas ninguém ajuda a melhorar o filme, a história é fraca, os personagens sao fracos, e o filme deveria ter cenas bem melhores e relevantes para fazer o filme ser bom.

The first Woody Allen movie I simply couldn't finish.

Still reliably has me laughing out loud twenty years later. Not sure why the audience score is low -- I think this film is under-appreciated or maybe the audience is judging Woody Allen's personal life (and I get it-- he should go to jail) and not the movie.

A fun scrappy little comedy. The cinematography is legitimately masterful and seems to justify Allen's decision to just let the people involved in his movies work without too much oversight.

One of Allen's most unashamedly entertaining films. No deep themes here, just a simple rags to riches and back again love story with a laugh every minute. Great performances from Allen, Tracey Ullman and Hugh Grant with wonderful comic support from Rapaport and Lovitz. How it's not 100% fresh is a mystery.

It's typical of many Woody Allen movies with a simplistic plot with a few one liners here and there. It's worth the watch.

I honestly think this would've been a lot better if it had just stuck with the premise that was introduced in the first act. What we do end up getting isn't necessarily bad or devoid of any kind of humor or anything. It's just odd that the real gold mine of comedic potential was almost deliberately steered away from for seemingly no reason. That said, the cast is unsurprisingly solid, featuring some unmitigated heavyweights of the comedy world flexing their muscles for the audience's enjoyment. There's also no shortage of funny lines to be heard throughout this. I guess I'm just bummed that everything kind of feels like a wasted opportunity here once all is said and done.

One of the better Woody Allen films. The first half is definitely better than the last, overall one of the better comedies I've seen.

Allen depicts his view of the American Dream at the dawn of the third millenium with humor and disillusionment through a rags to riches (to rags again) story that finds in the disgusting affectation of richness an essential ancestor in Petronius' Satyricon, especially in the Trimalchio's figure. Ray (Allen himself) and Frenchy (Tracey Ullman) are relatively poor and so Ray, with his crook's past, decides with his cronies to rob a bank by digging a tunnel under it through a bakery, which has to be the coverage for their criminal operations. Unfortunately, the robbery soon proves to be a total failure; the bakery, instead, run by Frenchy, becomes a multi-milionaire empire and they will have to manage their sudden wealth. Between them, a charming Hugh Grant, in the attempt to "civilize" the couple, will try to realize his personal social climbing. It's one of the rare Allen's movie where NY isn't one of the main characters: the majority of the scenes are indeed filmed in the inside. Moreover, the movie is shot in one of the less exciting period of Allen's eternal career; despite everything, the movie is pretty enjoyable due to its perfect comic timing along with its short but effective dialogues.

I think it would be tough for me to not like a woody Allen film . 3.1

Another slow moving unfunny mess from Allen.

By the early 2000s Woody Allen's career had dropped off as he would go on to produce some of his worst reviewed work like Anything Else (2003) and Hollywood Ending (2002). This set him off on that path and while this film is a fairly enjoyable watch it is also not particularly memorable and borrows a lot from other films without doing much new. For fans of Elaine May it will be a pleasure to see her back on screen again doing her thing but they may lament the fact that there is not very much of her and a lot of Woody Allen and Tracey Ullmann shrieking at one another. Low class criminal Ray Winkler, Woody Allen, is married to brash former prostitute Frenchy Fox, Tracey Ullmann, and plans to use a cookie store as a front for his illegal activities. He employs several laborers of low intelligence to help him build a tunnel below the store but they have little success. Meanwhile Fox's cookies become popular with customers and her store becomes a sensation that she builds up into a franchise. The couple become immensely rich but leave their financial affairs in the hands of accounts while she attempts to ingratiate herself into the upper class. She does this by hiring art dealer David Perrette, Hugh Grant, to train her in etiquette while he intends to use her as a cash cow to fund his own ambitions. Fox leaves an unhappy Winkler for Perrette leaving Winkler to form a closer bond with Fox's ditzy sister May, Elaine May, who is far more forgiving of his desire for the simple pleasures in life. Fox is abandoned by Perrette after she loses all of her money due to the actions of her accounts but she returns to Fox who is ashamed after failing to carry out a planned robbery. The film that this most reminded me of was Dodsworth (1936), a classic drama about a disintegrating marriage that is brought down by the desire of the superficial wife to be accepted by the upper class. The wife in that film has three affairs with men who value her for her money as she values them for their titles and positions as members of "Old Money" families. Fox is that sort of woman here as she is desperate to be accepted by a group of people who really have little worth beyond the fact that their ancestors were also wealthy. Her interest in fine art and expanding her vocabulary is not driven by any genuine feelings but by a desire to be seen as cultured and sophisticated. Allen derives laughs from all this of course as there are plenty of jokes about Fox being overly verbose after memorizing the A section of the dictionary but it was hard to shake off the image of Ruth Chatterton describing how she barely looks a day over 30. There are also sections of the film that just aren't as funny as they should be as we spend a whole ten minutes on a faux television profile of the business and of Fox and Winkler. There are some elements of the joke that work as Michael Rapaport is decent as one of the stupidest thugs hired by Allen who later ends up as one of the heads of the business. Yet this is the issue with most of the jokes in the film as Allen stretches out sequences for far too long and expects the same old jokes to eliminate the same response each time they are delivered. He would have done better to provide more variety in the film as the fact that Fox and Winkler are of limited intellect only provides for so many moments of humor. Grant is good as the sort of old fashioned fortune hunter only really seen in films like The Heiress (1949) but as he headed into the phase of his career where he subverted his romantic comedy image this was a role that suited him well. Ullmann, who I often find irritating, hams up her New York accent enough to make Fox into a caricature but she and Allen do have a surprisingly good chemistry. Allen is his usual self and May is daffy and good natured. It was a great pleasure to witness the genius mind behind The Heartbreak Kid (1972) and A New Leaf (1971) bring her unique je ne sais quoi to her performance.

extremely funny and whlesome

A great movie from Allen. A beautiful tribute to the Italian classic I soliti ignoti.

Nice lil' Quirky Mystery from Woody.

#woodyallenretro Podcast Project Good idea turned completely dry... the initial idea with a goofy heist takes a turn for the disappointing focusing on the desires of reaching socialite status for one character halfway to the end... what a waste - waste of good cast and initial idea and just falls flat and predictable by the very end, we didn't remember this being such a wash in the past but now this just doesn't stand up to allens other films, disappointed majorly

One of Woody's sloppier efforts. But, still, this slapstick comedy has glimmers of insane writing. "What would you say if I told you that you were married to a very brilliant man?" "I'd say I'd have to be a bigamist."

A great example of cultural capital in this off the wall stuff from Woody Allen. Loads of oneliners and gags. Ullman is fantastic.

Good old style comedy from Woody, only can be done like Woody if done by Woody.

A forgotten Allen flick or at least one that you don't hear much about. A looser crook, now quite old is tired of his life situation. A wife that wants more glam gives him gentle nagging and fights all the time but with his new masterplan, things are going to change. They are planning on robbing a bank with a nice buqet of crook friends. Naturally, nothing turns out the way it should. It does take some very big turns, though. Snappy, fun, smart and chaotic character-driven comedy with a great script. It has a very good first part as it builds up and great lines are all over the scenes. I miss more of the robbery planning and it feels a bit rushed. The last half is still taking many clever turns, but they are never as fun or interesting for me. Still a solid comedy - somewhere on the middle of my Woody-charts. 6.5 out of 10 cookies.