Rating: 
Summary: In the beginning, Woody created a schlock mockumentary
Review: "Take the Money and Run" will not entertain or humour those of us familiar with the rest of Woody Allen's sparkling oeuvre. Its only real value is as a curiosity.This is Woody establishing his template for later movies, i.e., nebbishy loser, a failure at his chosen occupation, acquires an impossibly beautiful girlfriend, and tries to do right. The mockumentary style he chooses to utilize for the most part works nicely. At times, though, its tone feels uneven, floating from documentary to narrative fiction and back to documentary. If he had stuck to one style the power of the satire would be much stronger. And now that I think of it, choosing to do an obviously mannered genre parody with your first film is somewhat dubious. It sent him on a path that would lead to the well-meaning but uneven films "Bananas" and "Sleeper". Not till "Love and Death" would he make a film where the parody serves the story rather than the story serving the parody. While most of the jokes feel forced, there are some truly hilarious proto-Woody moments. The marching band scene (with Woody gamely trying to keep up while tugging along his cello and a chair) knocked me down flat with laughter. And a moment late in the film, with Woody trying to conduct a substantive interview with a rambling subject (Woody keeps saying "Get to the point" from behind the camera), is a most effective moment in terms of parodying the documentary form. But other than these, and few others, I was disappointed by the humour. A running gag, where Woody's glasses repeatedly get stomped on by authority figures, was flat the first time I saw it and got flatter each subsequent time. This film is definitely at the bottom of my personal list of favourite Woody Allen movies. It may be because I prefer his dexterous verbal wit to the juvenile sight gags and physical humour he employs here, or that he had yet to find his footing with this, his first outing. Either way, if you take a pass on "Take the Money and Run", you won't be missing too much.
Rating: 
Summary: No, that's an "n". It's G-U-N. That's "gun."
Review: "Take The Money and Run" is presented as a biographical documentary of Virgil Starkwell (Allen), a petty criminal. He has a difficult childhood, and plays the cello in a marching band (but sitting on a chair and trying to keep up with the others). He begins a life of crime by robbing an armored car, but is quickly caught. In prison, he models a fake gun and tries an unsuccessful escape. Later, in exchange for a pardon, he volunteers for an experimental vaccine, the only side effect is turning him into a rabbi for a few hours. From time to time, his parents are interviewed (wearing Groucho Marx disguises). Finally released, he rents a room. He then begins another life of crime with purse snatching and small robberies. Intending to steal her purse, Virgil meets a young woman, Louise, who is a laundress, and is smitten. He narrates his nauseous nature when in love. He robs a soda machine for money and goes to dinner on a date with Louise. Now he is in love. Virgil tries to rob a bank - but can't write a legible holdup note, and gets arrested and put back in prison, where he gets visits from Louise. Although she says she will wait for Virgil, he plans an escape. The warden gets wind of the plan, so the escaping group calls it off but forgets to tell Virgil, who tries it alone, and improbably escapes. Virgil and Louise get married, and of course later Louise gets pregnant. Virgil wants to go straight and tries to get job as insurance agent, but is hired instead as for the mailroom. He is ferreted out by a coworker and is blackmailed. Virgil contemplates murdering her, but is unsucessful in every attempt, including stabbing her with a turkey leg, but finally is accidentally lucky with the exploding candlesticks. Petty crimes follow in his life on the run. He thinks up another bank robbery plot, and unwittingly tell some cops about it but is not arrested. When it comes time to rob the bank, his group are confronted by rival robbers. They are caught, and Virgil gets put in a chain-gang. The group manage to escape while chained together with help from Louise. They are off on a life of crime again, and Virgil makes the "Gangster of the Year" award. He unwittingly robs a former marching band member, who is now a cop, and is arrested again. He is interviewed in captivity, while working on his next soap-gun. While a little rough around the edges, the movie has some charm and a few giggles. The narrator delivers his lines in a serious manner, even when the subject matter may not be. Decent acting by mostly unknowns. The DVD has the full-screen movie, chapters and subtitles only.
Rating:
Summary: A promising start . . .
Review: 'Take the Money and Run' is the first film directed, written by, and starring Woody Allen. While nowhere near the debute of Orson Welles, Allen shows considerable comic promise as he attempts to translate his wierd and wild though shyly neurotic stage act onto the silver screen. First of all, this movie is hilarious. No doubt about it, Allen's mockumentary about a looser con is top-notch comedy. Allen's use of gags are endless (re. glasses, rabbis, soap gun, etc). They are well-deployed and brilliant. Allen's dialogue is equally funny, the best line in the film being, "After twenty minutes, I had decided I wanted to spend my entire life with her. And after a half hour, I'd given up the idea of takin her purse". Yet, in his first film our schlemiel of a director is bound to run into difficulties. At times it appears he is trying to hard to be funny. Forced humor never works, and it works even less in Allen's case. Some jokes just seem overdone. Then the movie itself goes on for about a half hour too long. Nevertheless, despite its flaws, this is a great movie of good comedic quality, and should not be dismissed merely because it lacks the artistic brilliance of Allen's later works.
Rating:
Summary: Woody Allen at his most brilliant
Review: A strange movie, to be exact... But a jewel, nontheless. Woody Allen delivers a hilarious look at crime in society, from a very Woody Allen perspective! A must for Allen fans...
Rating:
Summary: Take the movie and run !
Review: A wonderful parody of crime movies, this mock-documentary tells the story of the worlds most unlikely (and unlucky) criminal - Allen's Virgil Starkwell. This movie goes purely for laughs and is most often successful. Allen's gift of tapping into the absurd has never been displayed better. Film is full of gems : Allen being punished by being sent into a hole with an insurance salesman, his humiliated parents wearing Groucho Marx masks to disguise themselves and Allen's deadpan backhanded compliment to his girlfriend: "That's a nice hat...I see them all over town....Yeah, they're on sale...in those big bins...millions of them." A delicious comedy. If you loved "Play It Again Sam" or "Sleeper" you'll love this one.
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious first feature from Woody Allen
Review: Allen's directorial debut is a joy from beginning to end. By no means does it have the depth and sophistication of his later work, but it's consistently funny, with one gag running into the next, and there are teasing moments of that blur between fantasy and reality that characterized his films.
The story concerns one Virgil Starkwell, a bespectacled failure who resorts to crime for a living, and can't even be a success at that. He tries to stage a bank robbery, but it flops when the tellers start arguing over whether his handwritten note says "I have a gub" or "I have a gun". It's told partly in a spoof-documentary style that foreshadows Allen's later full-blown mockumentary, Zelig (1983).
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious film - Not so good DVD
Review: As others have written, this is a hilarious Woody Allen film. However, for DVD fans and film purists, be warned: the original widescreen format has been chopped down to full screen. This is a gross injustice as other films in his catalog are given better treatment and maintain their original aspect ratio.
Rating: 
Summary: Woody's best . . BY FAR!
Review: First, GET THIS MOVIE. Then, take it home and gather your friends/family. Then, push PLAY and laugh out loud for two hours! After you're done, go out and RENT "Annie Hall", Woody's supposed "masterpiece". If you CHUCKLE more than THREE times during ALL of "Annie Hall", then you got more out of it than I did! I guess "Take the Money . . ." gets no respect because it makes no attempt to be an "artistic" nor "important" nor "dramatic" film - it's just terribly sweet and funny, period! This is BY FAR my favorite Woody Allen film, or, more specifically, this is basically the ONE film Allen has made that makes me think he is actually funny. Some will say that I just don't "get" Woody's other movies - the supposed explorations of loss, divorce, family life, etc. as seen through the eyes of a "comic genius" - and that "Take the Money . . ." pales by comparison in its simplicity and lack of depth. To them, I say, "Nuts" because whenever Woody takes on a serious topic (as he does in most of his other movies) he obsesses, stresses, disects, whines, bitches, whimpers, cries and complains it to DEATH! Trust me, Woody's "genius" is anything but - more like blatantly obvious, over-ambitious, self-indulgent ATTEMPTS at genius. Honestly, there is nothing so UNfunny as someone TRYing (again and again and again . . . . YAWN) to be "important". THIS is Woody best movie effort, hands down - if you want to be nagged, bored, insulted and left mentally barren, watch "Annie Hall" or any other of Woody's frustratingly droll movies.
Rating:
Summary: HUMBLE BEGINNINGS OF A COMICAL GENIUS
Review: From around this early time, before Allen truly crystallized his peculiar brand of a nebbish neurotic New York man, I had enjoyed Bananas and Sleeper for their sheer creativity and comic pizzazz. I thought Take the Money and Run would be in a similar league but unfortunately it's not. A prescient newsreel style voiceover constitutes the narrative device of choice, putting its personal spin on events as it recounts the life of our doozy criminal, Virgil, a nerd turn notorious gangster. It is this wry commentary that lends the film its pseudo-documentary flavor, and the plot is pretty much a patchwork of such clips and thus not exactly awash with consistent humor. Certain scenes are pretty funny though, e.g., the protagonist's escape attempt at the prison that involved a bar of soap and some shoe polish, or a bizarre incident with a chain gang, etc. For Allen fans, it's a no brainer: you'll see it anyway. For the rest of the viewers, I'd recommend giving other more polished comedies from Allen a try before you get to this erratic early-in-the-game cameo. It simply hasn't stood the test of time.
Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: I am only 12 and I think this is one of my favorite movies. Woody Allen is great, and the movie gives you surprises all the way through. The movie is narrarated like a crime special on tv wich makes it even funnier.
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