Crimes and Misdemeanors |  | Director: Woody Allen
Actors: Caroline Aaron, Alan Alda, Martin S. Bergmann, Bill Bernstein, Claire Bloom
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.98
Buy New: $5.71
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Seller: inetvideo
Rating:  79 reviews
Sales Rank: 9642
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Dubbed)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 104 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.1 x 0.6
MPN: D1002025D
UPC: 027616862662
EAN: 0027616862662
ASIN: B00005AUJK
Theatrical Release Date: October 13, 1989
Release Date: June 5, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
A pillar of society is about to be exposed by his long-time mistress, and he decides to get rid of her rather than lose his place in society.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 7-SEP-2004
Media Type: DVD
Amazon.com
Along with Deconstructing Harry which would follow seven years later, this is Woody Allen's most somber comedy-drama, as well as his most ambitious film of the 1980s. Allen weaves together two central stories about very different groups of Manhattanites, linking them through a mutual friend, a rabbi (Sam Waterston) who's going blind. This image is key to the sometimes ponderous, often clever musings on faith, morals, and vision (or lack thereof) that obsess his deeply troubled and unhappy characters. At its center, the film explores people who, through lack of religious conviction or arrogance, rationalize their awful, selfish acts by presuming that God couldn't possibly be watching. The central story--a neo-noir of sorts--follows a fortuitous ophthalmologist (Martin Landau, all sweat and grimaces) who faces the prospect of his obsessed mistress (Anjelica Huston) ruining his life by telling his family of their affair. Desperate, the doctor hires his slimy criminal brother (Jerry Orbach) to eliminate the situation, and then suffers overwhelming regret afterwards. The flip tale is more typical Allen. Funnier and lighter, it focuses on an impossible romance between Allen's character and Halley Reed, a film producer played by Mia Farrow. Between Allen and his Hollywood fantasy stands his brother-in-law (Alan Alda, perfectly cast as an obnoxious, successful sitcom producer), who also desires Halley. Allen is Landau's opposite: an honest, struggling documentarian who cares nothing about fortune, suffers in a loveless marriage, and is surrounded by triumphant phonies. The nice-guys-finish-last moral may be as contrived as it is devastating. Yet, when Landau and Allen finally share a final scene during a wedding, their faces, subtle body movements, and contrasting fortunes somehow suggest that indeed God may be blind, and if not, the deity has a very sick sense of humor. --Dave McCoy
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 79
 Woody at his best ! February 3, 2010
carlos egberto (Rio de Janeiro)
This picture, along with "Hannah and her Sisters" and "Zelig" are, to this date, Woody's best films. Well, you can add "Radio Days" and "The purple rose of Cairo" to the list. It's a "to see you is to love you" kind of film. The screenplay is as polished as it can be, the cast shines throughout and you'll leave the theatre with the feeling (very rare theese days) that yu've seen a great movie. No wonder the crew gave a round of standing applause after some scenes were shot.
Moving, funny, cinical and very, very humane, it's not to be missed.
Not so Petty 'Crimes' December 31, 2009
Kevin R. Sommerfield (appleton, wi)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
One of the greatest dilemmas a director can face is making a likable, relatable film when nearly all the characters presented are thoroughly unlikable. This is one of the dilemmas Woody Allen faces with his film Crimes and Misdemeanors. Let's take a look at the main hero of the film. Here is a man, Judah, in an unhappy marriage caring on with another woman for over two years who decides it's time to kill her off before she releases his secret to his wife.
How can such a man be presented as likable? Well, Woody Allen's best decision is to make him an everyman. A man caught up in the situation in which he must face his demons head on. He has made a mistake and he must deal with the consequences of such mistake. In an ordinary Hollywood film, this would mean him being caught and forced to pay for the crime that he has committed. Such is not the case here. Sure he has some regret but, by facing and admitting to what he has done, he is able to move on with his life. One of the great strengths of this film is that it doesn't shy away from what Judah has done. It doesn't make light of it and it doesn't deny that it has happen.
He is simply a man who has made this mistake and is forced to go on with his life carrying this horrible mistake. Should he have gone to jail? You bet. Should he have told his wife about his adultery? Of course. But, that is not how life works. We live in a world where we don't always get what is coming to us. Great things happen to bad people everyday and vice versa. I don't believe this makes a bad guy, just a realistic one. By crafting a movie with a central character with real flaws, Woody Allen has created a movie of uncommon power. Four days after seeing it, I still can't get it out of my head. What a great film.
 Now I understand why everybody is so crazy about Woody Allen April 29, 2009
T (NC)
After watching Woody Allen's two recent movies - "Vicky Christina Barcelona" and "Cassandra's Dream" - and being a little disappointed, I was unsure why Allen was regarded as a great writer and director. Now I know why. "Crimes and Misdemeanors" is a complex story, funny and tragic at the same time, and certainly never dull. My only complaint is that the movie has two separate story lines that I kept waiting to come together and intertwine in some amazing way, but they barely did. I also see why people think Woody plagiarized himself in "Cassandra's Dream." "Brothers-in-crime" story lines in these two movies are very similar.
 2.5 stars out of 4 February 3, 2009
One-Line Film Reviews (Easton, MD)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
The Bottom Line:
An unsucessful merger of two vastly different plots, one of which would be given the attention and nuance it deserved 16 years later in Match Point, Crimes and Misdemeanors is one of Allen's bleakest films but not one of his best; watch Match Point for the thriller plot or Hannah and Her Sisters for the relationship plot.
 Blah December 2, 2008
nodice (Manchester, Ga United States)
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
It's time I face the music, Woody Allen does nothing for me. I think I've only mildly liked one of his films and I keep watching them expecting that I'm going to have that 'a-ha' moment when it all clicks and I figure out this man's appeal. The truth is: it's not going to happen. Woody Allen's appeal is just going to have to pass me by. From what I can make out of this, the two running stories in this film have nothing to do with each other. There is a theological question posed, I supposed with Martin Landau's character and of course it's left open ended. Allen keeps trying to pass himself as a leading man, but it hasn't and never will work. I was bored thirty minutes into this thing. Watch at your own risk.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 79
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