Rating: 
Summary: One of the top 100 films of all time.......
Review: This is no exaggeration. The film contains the caliber of humor one only finds with Allen, amid a drama of philosophical questions ...... Landau is a weatlhy optometrist off rendezvouing with a slightly psychotic/emotionally needy Anjelica Houston. Stop. Oh no, Landau's conscious has gotten the best of him (after two years), and he is ready to let go. However, someone else is not and she is prepared to expose every ugly secret hidden in this man's closet to Everyone, including his loving wife and friends.cant let this happen.... What shall I do? Listen to the rabbi, or my seedy brother who can "take care of the problem"? Don't worry Woody fans, he is in here too. And he is a genius at interplaying the stories to a full overly satisfying conclusion. Woody is unhappy (who would have guessed?) in life and marriage, until he meets a producer (Mia Farrow) on the documentary he is working on. One that is following the life of his slimey Hollywood -type brother-in-law (Alan Alda). You would not believe what people get away with in this film.......And do You Believe that God is watching?
Rating:
Summary: Next to "Annie Hall" This IS Allen's Best Film
Review: I was impressed with this film the first time I viewed it when it was first released in 1989. The performances are simply brilliant and Allen's handling of the material is astonishing. I never tire of seeing this great movie, and I view it every few months!
Rating:
Summary: Woody's best, most enduring work.......
Review: A masterful hybrid of comedy and drama, this film is one of the few on record that can use verbal humor while simultaneously probing the nature of morality and faith. In addition, the very nature of success, both of the romantic and artistic variety, is given an extensive treatment. In vintage Woody fashion, he asks how, in a godless, indifferent universe, can man be expected to maintain a lasting moral structure? If the conscience of an individual is truly without guilt and the institutions of the state have failed to apprehend a transgressor, has he or she truly "gotten away with it?" What constitutes compromise and how well can (and should) we put up with it? Woody continues to equate awards and social praise with artistic prostitution and the truest sign of moral bankruptcy, and he refuses to soften the harsh reality that everything, including life, death, and love are mere instruments, tools in a worldwide marketplace where all is truly up for sale. But have I mentioned the acting? And the acerbic screenplay? And the rich social satire? Few films are able to present such bold ideas with charm and wit, yet this film challenges the notion that such things are impossible. A truly wonderful film, one of best ever made.
Rating: 
Summary: Craft without substantive ideas
Review: I watched (the DVD version of) this film for the first time yesterday. I was expecting more than I finally got. I had read and heard how it was maybe Allen's best film (quite a claim given his stature and many good films) and how it was full of important moral and philosophical issues about human existence (an attractive notion for those who desire more than Hollywood fluff). For about four-fifths of the film these expectations are heightened. There are a variety of complicated relationships and themes that finally must be worked out in some coherent fashion. The viewer is waiting and more and more looking for what seems promised from the beginning, viz., a challenging proposal about how all these difficulties of life are to be understood and handled. Unfortunately one lone scene is given to unite what has been the building suspense and development of the movie and that scene falls rather flat. We are left feeling that the film cannot do what it had hoped or led us to hope it would do. It asks and incites many questions about how we should live with the life (for whatever reasons) that comes to us, yet it has no interesting or nonsuperficial answers ready to propose or investigate. If you think, as some suggested to me, that this film includes important or valuable thinking on moral issues you probably have seen too many movies and need to read some books. On the other hand there is much to like in the film including some self-reflective moments where older films are used to comment on the content that we are watching. And the making of films within the film also provides intriguing moments of reflection about what we are doing as we watch. If you want to watch Allen the craftsman at work the film is rather wonderful. If you want to watch a thinker offering ideas about human problems then forget about this film.
Rating:
Summary: The best
Review: This has to be one of the best Allen movies ever made. The majestic Shakesperian sweep of the script dips in out of tragedy and comedy so deftly. A must.
Rating:
Summary: Stunning, powerful film
Review: This is a movie for grown-ups, folks. Allen shows, in this more than in any other project, that "brilliant" is a word that can apply to him ...even when humor has nothing to do with it. Well worth the investment.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Movies of All Time
Review: Clearly the best Woody Allen movie aned one of my top 5 movies of all time. But ponder this...is it Martin Landau that committed the real crime and Woody only the misdemeanor? I think not. Couldn't the suicide of the philosopher be attributed to Woody's dropping the documentary about him to do one about the sit-com producer? And which is the greater crime, causing the loss of one of the great minds of the century, or the murder of the completely self-absorbed and scheming Angelica Huston?
Rating:
Summary: Allen's best!
Review: Crimes and Misdemeanors is an immense, thoughtful, and extremely intelligent picture. Clearly, it is one of the finest films of contemporary cinema. Allen's obsession concerning the drama of winners and losers is fascinating. He skillfully suceeds in discussing such themes as death and one's place in the universe, while cleverly presenting a tale in which those who lack in moral and emotional vision ultimately remain unpunished. Crimes and Misdemeanors is certainly Allen's most pessimistic, concisely humorous, and best picture.
Rating:
Summary: Leaves the appreciating viewer in awe.
Review: Granted, I am a very devoted Woody Allen fan. However, that does not mean I like everyone of his movies w/o question. I can barely get thru some of his "earlier, funnier" movies. Crimes and Misdemeanors is a film that I quite honestly cannot believe. It is proof that there are things only Woody can accomplish. The drama of the scence in which Landau imagines discussing his plan with his rabbi leaves me as awestruck as the humor of viewing Woody's rough draft of the documentary he makes of Alda. To laugh at the latter scene would not do it justice, it is simply too brilliant. Alan Alda is so perfectly directed by Allen. He is the perfect actor to repeatedly declare the empty, psuedo-intellectual, "If it bends, it's funny; if it breaks, it isn't". The theme of eyes and seeing is interesting: the doctor can't make the rabbi see, and as the rabbi tries to make the doctor "see", he goes blind himself, and does not know if he has succeeded or not. Alda is so obnoxious, and Farrow so sweet, that one becomes ever aware of how women are all too often unable to choose the right man. Absolutely Brilliant! Possibly his best, certainly his most ambitious.
Rating:
Summary: A brutal and brutally funny film classic
Review: Allen's story is painful and humourous all at the same time. He reveals human nature for what it is in a completely honest light, and, if not for its pace and excellent acting would be impossible to watch. As it is it is impossible to miss. Woody Allen has a masterpiece, one of his finest films to date.
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