I can’t rank them, though Annie Hall is probably my favorite. I’m almost 29, if that matters.
Crimes and Misdemeanors also stands out in my mind, though I love so many of his movies.
I forgot to say that What’s Up Tiger Lily? is perhaps the funniest movie I’ve ever seen. That doesn’t make it my favorite Allen flic, but it’s worth mentioning.
Yes, I enjoyed Decontructing Harry.
Husbands and Wives I don’t remember too well. I think there was one hilarious scene with Sydney Pollack and his new girlfriend, his former aerobics instructor, at a party…does that sound familiar?
** Love and Death ** (Can’t beat the Village Idiots Convention, Major Loon, and Piece of Land). But I have a soft spot in my heart for ** Manhattan ** , probably for the cinematography and definitely for the Gershwin.
Which one had a commercial in the middle for the cigarettes that God smokes? Was that Bananas, or Take the Money and Run?
I think Crimes and Misdemeanors is one of the greatest movies ever made. I also have a soft spot for Shadows and Fog which, all evidence to the contrary, I consider to be a fine remake of Frankenstein.
** Kaylasdad99**, I don’t really remember, I haven’t seen either movies in a while… Was it Bananas in which Cosell (sp?) was giving a play-by-play of The Act?
Sleeper without a doubt.
Absolutely cracked me up when I first saw it.
The personal rotor backpack - the love orb - the Orgasmatron - fighting with the pudding - the bazooka guys - and so on
Great soundtrack too.
**Radio Days **
Brilliant, nostalgic, great music.
Annie Hall
Allen’s first real relationship film; both Annie and Alvy are sympathetic characters and are accorded (near) equal weight in the movie. Probably the first of Allen’s comedies in which its characterizations are more important (or, at least, equally important) than the throwaway comedic bits. An intensely personal film, it was Allen’s swansong to his previous career as a stand-up comic and comedy writer – isn’t this the first and only time he puts the spotlight on himself (as alter-ego stand-up comic “Alvy Singer”) doing a bit of stand-up? (There’s also a bitterly funny scene showing Alvy trying out as ghostwriter for a hack comic) – as well as Allen’s breakthrough to a new level of maturity in his filmmaking.
Having said that, though, his throwaway comic bits are brilliant, and many have become touchstone references (for me, at least): validation from Marshall McLuhan; the subtitled nervous conversation between Annie and Alvy; the lobsters; Annie’s singing in a noisy club; Alvy’s stopping couples on the sidewalk; Alvy’s schoolmates; Alvy’s hitting it off with Carol Kane; Annie’s hippie ex-lover; Alvy’s theory on the miserable v. the horrible; Alvy’s discomfiture at the Halls’ (and Christopher Walken as Dwayne!); Alvy’s fear of commitment; all of the jokes about California & the TV industry; Woody trying to drive in L.A.; and even that closing joke about shared delusions (the man whose brother thinks he’s a chicken…).
Brilliant stuff, all of it.
I hated Annie Hall because I couldn’t stand the characters compulsively determined to screw up their lives and then whine about the results. Typical 70s self-indulgence.
Love and Death, though… hysterical.
Favorites
Deconstructing Harry (1997)
Everyone Says I Love You (1996)
Mighty Aphrodite (1995)
Bullets Over Broadway (1994)
Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993)
Husbands and Wives (1992)
Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
Manhattan (1979)
Annie Hall (1977)
Play it Again, Sam (1972-Dir. Herbert Ross)
Liked
Sweet and Lowdown (1999)
Shadows and Fog (1992)
Radio Days (1987)
The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)
Zelig (1983)
Love and Death (1975)
Take the Money and Run (1969)
What’s Up, Tiger Lily? (1966)
Thought it was Okay
The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001)
Small Time Crooks (2000)
Alice (1990)
New York Stories (1989) (segment “Oedipus Wrecks”)
Another Woman (1988)
September (1987)
A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy (1982)
Stardust Memories (1980)
Didn’t do it for Me
Hollywood Ending (2002)
Celebrity (1998)
Broadway Danny Rose (1984)
Interiors (1978)
Sleeper (1973)
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (1972)
Bananas (1971)
Scenes from a Mall (1991) also didn’t do anything for me, but Woody didn’t write or direct it, so I left it off this list.
Pash
Wow, Pashnish Ewing, you must be the resident Woody Allen expert. It is hard to argue against your basic division. But surely you must have some top favorites in your favorite list?
My favorite is Sleeper, then Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex, then Hannah and Her Sisters, then Take the Money and Run.
Whichever one turns out to be the last one he ever makes, that will be the one that gives me most pleasure. He was a really funny stand-up in the early 1960s, and Annie Hall had some funny ideas in it. End of story. He hasn’t anything else to offer. As an ‘actor’ he’s very good at playing himself, and can’t do anything else. And as a writer… well, if he writes one more script where a beautiful, sexy young girl wants to go to bed with him, I’ll scream.
I tried to put them in order but it was too hard. I guess I could put Manhattan, Crimes & Misdemeanors, Deconstructing Harry, Annie Hall, and Husbands & Wives just a smidge above the rest, but I could make a case for the others as well.
I think Deconstructing Harry has the most laughs. Manhattan looks the best and has the best music. Crimes & Misdemeanors mixes comedy with a great morality (or is it immorality) tale. Annie Hall has great insight into pre-marriage relationships, and H&W for after marriage and after separation relationships.
Everyone Says is a great homage to old-time movie musicals (and the last few scenes between Woody and Goldie Hawn are, well, golden). Bullets has so many great performances, and the parallels between the golden age of Broadway and today’s Hollywood are spot-on). Hannah is another great relationship movie, (romantic, sibling and mentor/student). Mighty has that great Greek Chorus, Play it has Bogie and that great ending. MMM is probably the most uneven of my favorites. It drags on a bit at the end, but Woody’s interaction with his neighbors (that stamp collection!) is priceless. But they’re all funny and well written with such great casts and great performances.
And I’ll guarantee I’m not the Woody Allen expert of the SDMB. I’m just a big fan! 
Pash
Ditto on both counts.
ianzin, I certainly can’t argue against your point here (I referenced it in the subject of my first post). But have you seen any of his movies where he doesn’t play one of the characters, like Bullets over Broadway, Radio Days, Sweet and Lowdown, or The Purple Rose of Cairo? (I’m hoping like hell the answer isn’t “Yes. Celebrity.”)
If you don’t like Woody as an actor, you might want to give one of those fine movies a chance.
Pash
I agree 1000%. I haven’t seen it in awhile, but I remember feeling overwhelmed with sadness when I first watched it. It was so very touching and special, and the acting was superb.
Crimes and Misdemeanors, all the way. Martin Landau is superb, and Woody assembled a stellar cast. to complement him.
*Shadows and Fog[/i is also one of my favorites.
I thought that Celebrity sucked. Just the latest in a long line of movies I can’t watch all the way through. Except that Kenneth Branagh did an hysterical Woody Allen impression.