Take the Money and Run

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Take the Money and Run

77% Liked It
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Take the Money and Run

Howard Storm, Jackson Beck, Jacquelyn Hyde, James Anderson, Jan Merlin, Janet Margolin, Lonny Chapman, Louise Lasser, Marcel Hillaire, Mark Gordon, Micil Murphy, Minnow Moskowitz, Nate Jacobson, Woody Allen

Slapstick and gag comedy, narrated in newsreel style, about the criminal career of a petty thief and would-be bank robber.

Id: 10871694

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Recent Reviews

Take the Money and Run Recent Reviews
  • SirPant
    September 29, 2009
    SirPant
    I found it quite tame and Allen a little annoying!
  • DrZeek
    January 15, 2008
    DrZeek
    Virgil: After fifteen minutes I wanted to marry her, and after half an hour I completely gave up the idea of stealing her purse.

    Woody Allen's first big movie. It is done in the style of a mockumentary with hilarious dead pan narration.

    This movie surrounds the life of Virgil ...( read more)Starkwell, a career criminal...a terrible career criminal who gets caught nearly every time he robs something.

    The movie goes on about his life, using plenty of gags and running jokes along the way, the majority of which are very funny.

    Eventually Allen would find his calling in his dialog, but this is a very funny movie in a loony sort of way.

    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.
  • FangsFirst
    September 20, 2007
    FangsFirst
    It's hard to really review a movie like this; when you come to a joke-a-scene style comedy (think Airplane!) it's really a matter of, "Do the jokes work or not?"

    Here, most of them work. I originally caught this movie only at the tail end, maybe a half hour or so. I think...( read more) it was Christmas morning one year, and my father was watching it, possibly in the most recent years as I've begun to be the last one to wake up on Christmas Day (previously a highly unusual situation). But, I was highly amused by what I saw, and it was not what I expected of Woody Allen from what I knew, and inspired my interest in seeing his films. I've since only seen Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Sex but Were Afraid to Ask and Annie Hall--possibly others, but I don't believe so. They were more the style I sort of expected, or at least not so far from my expectations as this one was.

    I was later told the difference was due to earlier films being of a different comedic vein--this one having the most in common with Bananas (which I've yet to see, as implied above). So, I finally got back around to seeing the first half of this one (and re-viewing the second). I think, as with most, it takes a little more than it used to to get a chuckle out of me as I age, and so it was half-misfires all the same, but I saw humour in them despite that fact; the completely deadpan approach of everyone around Woody, and that his nervous energy is, in its way, also deadpan is refreshing amidst the dreck of modern comedies where everything is telegraphed, loud, bold and irritating (most of the time). Absurd situations, and especially absurd phrases and wordplay were the order of most of it, many not quite so predictable as would first be expected, so I was overall pleased.

    It's nothing I'm jumping for joy at, and, again, saying much more would simply ruin one joke or another, but I can at least leave a rough overview--we have Woody as Virgil Starkwell, fumbling, bumbling criminal mastermind and a mockumentary of his life. There's not much to say beyond that, as the rest makes up the jokes and scenarios for jokes within that framework, and I am averse to spoiling any surprises, and half the effect of comedy requires some level of surprise--at least, in my experience, and I hate ruining the experience of any work for anyone else. So, if you appreciate a good absurd film of constant sight-gags, unexpected events and ideas, and aren't annoyed by Woody Allen (as I know some people are, and he is playing essentially that same old character here) then give it a go.
  • YosemiteSamFan
    August 12, 2007
    YosemiteSamFan
    I used to love this movie when I was a youngin' - but now it seems lame.
  • jaynyca1
    June 7, 2007
    jaynyca1
    This is one of my favorite Woody Allen movies about a mock documentery about a dysfunctional public menace.
  • fredyamdc
    November 1, 2009
    fredyamdc
    Woody Allen. He is a bank robber.
  • philliprenke
    June 6, 2009
    philliprenke
    Woody Allen's first real directing job, because his first movie was just an overdubbed japanese film. It's got all the elements that Allen has been exploring in his 40 something films. It has some really funny scenes, but it's just a taste of his really great screwball comedies t...( read more)hat followed.(e.g. Bananas, Sleeper).
  • drstrangeno24
    May 3, 2009
    drstrangeno24
    Woody Allen's first work is my favorite of his. The jokes are hardly ever groan-worthy, and they come fast and clever enough to drown the stinkers out. Left me feeling good and has the power to make me laugh even on repeat viewings.
  • starlimitz2
    April 28, 2009
    starlimitz2
    It was pretty funny, but in some instances it just tried way too hard. I don't like Woody Allen, I don't like a lot of his movies and I don't like him as a person or an actor. This movie was just scene after scene of carefully planned (but not so carefully pulled-off) jokes. It s...( read more)tarted out well, and through it, it made some good gags, but in the third segment, the jokes became trident and stupid, especially when they were educating their child while running from the police. This movie could have been better, but knowing Woody Allen, it could have been a million times worse. So there you have it.
  • mtahani
    February 23, 2009
    mtahani
    NO MONEY TO SEE IT!!!
    MO.
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