Small Time Crooks (2000)

This is vintage Allen, his powers intact after a string of increasingly cranky, creaky films in the last few years.

Handsome as all Allen films are, and it proceeds with the brisk, sophisticated air of throwaway confidence and lack of pretense that we expect from the contemporary master of grown-up comedy.

The plot is lively and the dialogue packs many good laughs.

Dumb as they (allegedly) are, the characters in Small Time Crooks are smarter, edgier and more original than the dreary crowd in so many new comedies.

It's the kind of movie you can settle into, secure in the expectation that you can steal from it more than a little vintage Allen fun.