Critic Reviews

Take the Money and Run (1969) Rank 5 Reviews

Expert Review Summary

Movie critics combined give Take the Money and Run (1969) a score of 2.8764 out of 4

based on (22) reviews

Click on the numbers to the right of the graph to see reviews of that rating

Excellent

(3)

Very Good

(17)

Good

(1)

Fair

(1)

Poor

(0)

Reviews by Score:

Teen Movie Critic (Roger Davidson)

A hilariously madcap debut from the master of neurotic comedy, Woody Allen. The story spoofs various crime and prison films, to tell the tale of the life of a truly incompetent thief (Allen). The film follows his life in documentary-style, as he ...read the complete Take the Money and Run movie review at Teen Movie Critic (Roger Davidson)

efilmcritic.com (Charles Tatum)

Woody Allen's 1969 crime comedy is a mockumentary telling the story of Virgil Starkwell, possibly the world's worst criminal. Narrated by Jackson Beck, we find Virgil started out life with petty crime, and never really became successful after that. He ...read the complete Take the Money and Run movie review at efilmcritic.com (Charles Tatum)

DVD Movie Guide

MGM's recent boxed set of Woody Allen films nicely summed up most of his early directorial work, as it encompassed films released from 1971 to 1980. However, the package didn't completely cover his "formative" years as a few of the pictures he directed ...read the complete Take the Money and Run movie review at DVD Movie Guide

Chris Jarmick (--)

Take the Money and Run is Woody Allenâ��s second movie (following Whatâ��s Up Tiger Lilly), but the first one he co-wrote, directed and starred in. He was once upon a time, a television writer and stand-up comedian who made a big name for himself with ...read the complete Take the Money and Run movie review at Chris Jarmick (--)

ThreeMovieBuffs (Patrick Nash)

Woody Allen had written, acted and directed in films before Take the Money and Run. This was the first time he did them all on the same movie. The year was 1969 when Allen was 34. ...read the complete Take the Money and Run movie review at ThreeMovieBuffs (Patrick Nash)

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Woody Allen's "Take the Money and Run" has some very funny moments, and you'll laugh a lot, but in the last analysis it isn't a very funny movie. It isn't really a movie at all. I suspect it's a list of a lot of things Woody Allen wanted to do in a movie ...read the complete Take the Money and Run movie review at Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

VideoVista (--)

Woody Allen's first film as writer, director and star is a documentary style pseudo-biographical farce about Virgil Starkwell, one of the screen's most hopeless would-be thieves. Partly narrated (by Jason Beck) Take The Money And Run is a likeable spoof ...read the complete Take the Money and Run movie review at VideoVista (--)

Jiminy Critic Reviews "Take the Money and Run"

Woody Allenâ��s debut film Take the Money and Run is the most unsatisfying of his early, funny movies. While his next two films (Bananas and Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex) share a similar structureâ��an incredibly simple storyline is ...read the complete Take the Money and Run movie review at Jiminy Critic Reviews "Take the Money and Run"

Edinburgh U Film Society (Matthew Bull)

Woody Allen's first film as director-writer-actor is a mock documentary following the criminal career of Virgil Starkweather (Woody Allen) from childhood to incarceration for bank robbery. Although today Woody Allen is today known more as a director ...read the complete Take the Money and Run movie review at Edinburgh U Film Society (Matthew Bull)

DVDTown.com (John J. Puccio)

The plot is just a thin excuse on which to hang Allen's nonstop visual and verbal antics. ...read the complete Take the Money and Run movie review at DVDTown.com (John J. Puccio)

Time Out (--)

But it has plenty of hilarious jokes and concepts, like the ventriloquists' dummies at prison visiting time, and the return home from a chaingang break with five shackled cons in tow. ...read the complete Take the Money and Run movie review at Time Out (--)

Casa De Cinema (Dave Gunn)

of skits and gags woven together to connect the story of Virgil Starkwell. The film starts with his petty theft childhood days leading up to his days as an adult spending most of his time in jail for bank robberies gone haywire. It's a parody of several ...read the complete Take the Money and Run movie review at Casa De Cinema (Dave Gunn)

New York Times (Vincent Canby)

EVEN as a small, red-haired boy with poor vision, Virgil Starkwell, the hero of Woody Allen's "Take the Money and Run," is betrayed by fateâ��and by the fact that although he is aggressive he also is a schlemiel. The kid tries to rob a gumball machine ...read the complete Take the Money and Run movie review at New York Times (Vincent Canby)

Austin Chronicle (Marjorie Baumgarten)

The movie unfolds documentary style, a technique later used again in Zelig. ...read the complete Take the Money and Run movie review at Austin Chronicle (Marjorie Baumgarten)

AudioVideoRevolution.com DVD review

In the 1960s, Woody Allen's ambitions grew; no longer content to be a gag writer for other comics, or even a stand-up comedian himself (though he was very successful at both), he wanted to cross over into writing movies. His play Don't Drink the Water ...read the complete Take the Money and Run movie review at AudioVideoRevolution.com DVD review

Movie Reviews UK

An early Woody Allen comedy, Take the Money and Run is anarchic, awash with one-liners and perhaps not quite as good as people would wish it be. Put together in the documentary style, the film opens with Virgil Starkwell (Woody Allen) being born into the ...read the complete Take the Money and Run movie review at Movie Reviews UK

DVDTown (John J. Puccio)

This is the Woody Allen that a lot of people later said "why can't he be more like." This is Woody Allen's very first feature film as writer, director, and star. "Take the Money and Run" isn't so much a movie with a plot as it is a movie with an endless ...read the complete Take the Money and Run movie review at DVDTown (John J. Puccio)

Doug Pratt's DVD Review

Woody Allenâ��s first original feature, the 1969 crime film spoof has a badly paced narrative, but its scattershot humor has endured, while its structure has actually become more common and easier to tolerate as the years have passed. Allen portrays a ...read the complete Take the Money and Run movie review at Doug Pratt's DVD Review

Andrew Hicks (Andrew Hicks)

...read the complete Take the Money and Run movie review at Andrew Hicks (Andrew Hicks)

Brilliant Observations on 1173 Films (Clayton Trapp)

Some moronic grad student has no doubt long since pompously postulated that this film contains the blueprint for all of Woody Allen's later work (i.e. all of his other original work, as this came first). That's somewhat right and also impossible. Woody ...read the complete Take the Money and Run movie review at Brilliant Observations on 1173 Films (Clayton Trapp)

Cinepassion.org

A work of despairing acuity dressed up as a skittering gagfest -- the tragedy is not of being a criminal, but of being an unsuccessful criminal. What's Up, Tiger Lilly? lent Woody Allen images to goof on, thus his official debut as modernist jester ...read the complete Take the Money and Run movie review at Cinepassion.org

Prison Flicks (--)

Until recently, I used to think that Allen at least used to be funny in the old days, like in Take the Money and Run (1969).... I used to think that until I had the displeasure of watching Take recently. What a dog! Boring and tiresome, with only a ...read the complete Take the Money and Run movie review at Prison Flicks (--)