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Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
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Starring: Rosemary Harris, Aleksa Palladino, Michael J Shannon, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Arija Bareikis, Lee Wilkof, Albert Finney, Marisa Tomei, Ethan Hawke, Philip S Hoffman
Director: Sidney Lumet
MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: ThinkFilm
Running Time: 112 minutes
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Amazon.com Sales Rank: 1725
Average Customer Rating: 
UPC: 014381487527
List price: $19.98
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Product Description:
Master filmmaker Sidney Lumet directs this absorbing suspense thriller about a family facing the worst enemy of all itself. Oscar®-winner Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Andy, an overextended broker who lures his younger brother, Hank (Ethan Hawke) into a larcenous scheme: the pair will rob a suburban mom-and-pop jewelry store that appears to be the quintessential easy target. The problem is, the store owners are Andy and Hank s actual mom and pop and, when the seemingly perfect crime goes awry, the damage lands right at their doorstep. Oscar-winner Marisa Tomei plays Andy s trophy wife, who is having a clandestine affair with Hank. The stellar cast also includes Albert Finney as the family patriarch who pursues justice at all costs, completely unaware that the culprits he is hunting are his own sons. A classy, classic heist-gone-wrong drama in the tradition of The Killing and Lumet s own The Anderson Tapes, BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOW YOU RE DEAD is smart enough to know that we often have the most to fear from those who are near and dear.
From Amazon.com:
Sidney Lumet?s Before the Devil Knows You?re Dead is an exceptionally dark story about a crime gone wrong and the complicated reasons behind it. Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke are outstanding as brothers whose mutual love-hate relationship subtly colors their agreement to rob their own parents? jewelry store, and more explicitly affects the anxious aftermath of their villainy when their mother (Rosemary Harris) ends up shot. Hoffman?s steely, emotionally locked-up Andy, despite pulling down six figures as a corporate executive, is supporting an expensive drug habit while trying to leave the country with his depressed wife, Gina (Marisa Tomei). Hank (Hawke), a whipped dog of low intelligence, owes back alimony and child support to his ex-spouse. Both men need money and agree to rip off their parents' business, a decision that goes awry and puts both men in various kinds of jeopardy while their mother remains comatose and their father (Albert Finney) lurches along trying to make sense of anything. Writer Kelly Masterson's screenplay employs a perhaps now-overly-familiar time-shifting tactic, jumping around the chronology of the story's events and replaying scenes from different vantage points. The effect is a little tedious but successfully deconstructs the film's drama in a way that shows how such terrible events are directly linked to family dysfunction, old wounds between parent and child, between siblings, that fester into full-blown tragedy. Eighty-three-year-old director Lumet (Serpico) employs bleached colors and scenes of blunt sexuality and violence, adding to the moral rudderlessness and banality of this airless world. If Devil feels a little reductive and insistently grim, it is also a generally persuasive work by an old master. --Tom Keogh
(3.5 STARS) "No One Was Supposed to Get Hurt": Absorbing (Though Depressing) Crime Drama - 
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Before the Devil Knows You're Dead Review
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No one gets hurt. That was what Hank Hanson was told and he needs money desperately. But of course, someone gets hurt. Actually, very seriously. What was thought a very easy way of getting money turns out a big mistake, and as the melodramatic story unfolds, things get out of control leading to more disastrous consequences.
I know my summery is vague, but I believe you should enjoy this kind of first-rate thriller without knowing anything about it. I can promise "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" has terrific acting of two leads Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke as brothers. I never was a big fan of Ethan Hawke, but I was quite impressed with his superb performance here. As to Philip Seymour Hoffman, he proved his enormous acting talent again. Some may complain (understandably) that they don't look like brothers, but maybe that is the point. The fact doesn't change that the scenes their characters share are strong and dramatic.
Sidney Lumet, acclaimed director of "12 Angry Men" "Serpico" "Dog Day Afternoon" and many other masterpieces, has come back with this highly emotional crime drama. Frankly this is a bit of surprise because he hasn't made a great film since the 1980s when he did "The Verdict" and "Running on Empty." (And he shouldn't have made "Gloria"). I also admit "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead," engrossing as it is, is not his best. The now familiar non-linear narrative method (with flashbacks) starts to look repetitious in the second half of the story, and some characters (especially female ones) are slightly flat.
You may not the tone of the film. You may think it is too depressing. This is not "Pulp Fiction" or "The Bank Job" (both my favorite films). "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" may make you think, but not smile. Still its tension and great acting is undeniable, to which my four stars go.
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beforethe devil knows your dead - 
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Before the Devil Knows You're Dead Review
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it is a lot twisted thought but great acting so I would say check it out
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Engrossing movie... - 
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Before the Devil Knows You're Dead Review
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The acting was superb. Ethan Hawke, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, who never dissapoints, Marisa Tomei, Albert Finney. All big names, and great performances. The movie was engrossing and ultimately kind of tragic. Loved it.
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Not every story has a happy ending - 
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Before the Devil Knows You're Dead Review
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I thought this was the best movie I had seen in years. The acting was very good and yes its a depressing story, but that should not mean its a bad movie (not sure why those people who rated this movie as poor did so just because it was disturbing and depressing). If you need a happy ending and hate flashbacks and forward in movies so much that you can't enjoy such films, well then, this movie isn't for you.
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Try Something New, Hollywood! - 
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Before the Devil Knows You're Dead Review
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All this fancy flip-flopping fore and aft in time, showing every scene twice, might save money on script but it couldn't save a scrawny turkey like "Before the Box Office Knows You're Dead" on the day after Thanksgiving. It's been done, dudes! Get a new gimmick!
I hope they paid Philip Seymour Hoffman a bundle for this humiliation. He's a great actor but his freckled b_tt does nothing for me.
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