Before the Devil Knows You're Dead | 
 enlarge | Director: Sidney Lumet
Actors: Albert Finney, Marisa Tomei, Rosemary Harris, Ethan Hawke, Philip Seymour Hoffman
Studio: ThinkFilm
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.98
Buy New: $12.99
You Save: $6.99 (35%)
New (54) Used (55) Collectible (1) from $3.57
Avg. Customer Rating:  101 reviews
Sales Rank: 1446
Format: Ac-3, Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Ntsc, Widescreen
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 112
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.7
MPN: IMEDCAP4875D
UPC: 014381487527
EAN: 0014381487527
ASIN: B00112S8RS
Theatrical Release Date: 2007
Release Date: April 15, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
Andy is an overextended payroll executive who lures his younger brother hank into a larcenous scheme: the pair will rob a suburban mom-&-pop jewelry store. The problem is the store owners are andy & hanks actual mom & pop and when the seemingly perfect crime goew horribly wrong. Studio: Image Entertainment Release Date: 08/12/2008 Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman Marisa Tomei Run time: 117 minutes Rating: R
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
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| Customer Reviews: Read 96 more reviews...
(3.5 STARS) "No One Was Supposed to Get Hurt": Absorbing (Though Depressing) Crime Drama January 4, 2009
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.
beforethe devil knows your dead December 17, 2008
it is a lot twisted thought but great acting so I would say check it out
 Engrossing movie... December 16, 2008
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.
Not every story has a happy ending December 2, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
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.
 Try Something New, Hollywood! December 1, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
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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