Small Time Crooks MPAA Rating: PG Entertainment: +3 Content: -1

Woody Allen and Tracey Ullman make a hilarious married couple as Ray and Frenchie. He's an ex-convict working as a dishwasher, and Frenchie, a former exotic dancer, is a manicurist. Ray sees himself as a clever entrepreneur with a talent for breaking into safes, even though Frenchie reminds him constantly of his stupidity. Still, she goes along with his scheme to buy a vacant store a few doors down from a bank. While he and his former prison mates dig a tunnel from the store basement to the bank, she bakes and sells her homemade cookies from the store. The tunnel becomes a slapstick disaster, but Frenchie's cookies become an overnight success. Within a year, the two become millionaires with Frenchie as CEO of a huge cookie corporation. The antics of Ray and his cohorts bumbling and stumbling through the attempted bank robbery, Frenchie's comical one-liners, and Elaine May as Frenchie's dim-witted cousin make this a real entertainment gem. SMALL TIME CROOKS will appeal to wide audiences as Woody Allen displays his extraordinary talents as writer, director and actor.

Ray and Frenchie think money will solve their problems, but discover they were much happier poor. Their wealth almost destroys a 25-year-marriage. He just wants to be a beach bum, while she wants to be accepted as a cultured, philanthropic icon. To refine her crude behavior and develop a taste for cultural classics, Frenchie hires David (Hugh Grant), an art dealer who sees this diamond-in-the-rough as his meal ticket. Although she is attracted to David and goes with him to Europe, they do not become sexually involved. In fact, SMALL TIME CROOKS has no sex or sexually suggestive material. Also, the crooks never win or cause bodily harm. Ray and Frenchie even hire their down-and-out friends as executives in the company. While not a wise business decision, it does show their loyalty and generosity. A number of regular profanities and one obscenity are the only reason SMALL TIME CROOKS cant get a straight recommendation.

Preview Reviewer: Mary Draughon
Distributor: DreamWorks Pictures, 100 Universal Plaza, Bldg. 477, Universal City, CA 91608