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Take the Money and Run

(1969, Rated PG, Comedy, Starring Woody Allen, Janet Margolin, Marcel Hillaire)

  • Is it age appropriate?

    About our ratings

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    Not age appropriate for kids under 9, age appropriate for kids over 11; suggested age 11.

  • Is it any good?

    4.0

  • Common Sense says

    Generous laughs in satirical early Woody Allen escapade.

Why We Rated This on for Ages 11 and Up

What to watch out for

  • Messages:

    Most of the characters here are simply drawn or joke stereotypes, some of them using popular clichés of African Americans and Jews (but not to an offensive extreme). You wouldn't want kids to imitate Virgil Starkwell (and in a passing but trademark Woody Allen gag, he's described as having been brought up as a "good atheist"), but that's part of the joke. His lawbreaking shows no meanness or sadism, even though he kills a woman blackmailing him.

  • Violence:

    Pistols and rifle fire, but nobody ever hit or hurt. Some slapstick roughhousing and gags in which characters get bashed, pummeled, exploded, or whipped, just offscreen.

  • Sex:

    A very mild, poetic montage suggesting nudity in (pre-marital) sex. Virgil's wife embarrasses him by talking (non-clinically) about their bedroom issues. Virgil is blackmailed by another woman who knows of his criminal past into a sexual relationship, but nothing is shown. Homosexuality is mentioned.

  • Language:

    "S--t" is said once.

  • Consumerism:

    Not an issue.

  • Drinking, drugs, & smoking:

    Brief social drinking.
 

What Parents Need to Know

About Take the Money and Run

Parents need to know that there is gunplay -- harmless and bloodless -- and reckless driving in this madcap comedy that makes a hero out of a criminal character. Grownup ingredients include bedroom talk and a montage suggesting nudity in (pre-marital) sex. Some jokes trade lightly on ethnic images and stereotypes, particularly of African Americans and Jews.

Did this review help you decide?

Families Can Talk About

  • Families can talk about the purpose of Woody Allen's comedy here. The movie spoofs the "serious" movies that turn robbers into folk heroes and evoke the "outlaw mystique." What about the main character here makes that idea comic? Looking at landmarks in crime-film history (Scarface, Bonnie and Clyde, The Bank Job), do you think Hollywood goes overboard in glamorizing wrongdoers?
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