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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 Used: $5.19
You Save: $14.79 (74%)
New (53) Used (63) Collectible (1) from $5.19
Rating:  99 reviews
Sales Rank: 1840
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
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Excellent!
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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 94 more reviews...
 Not every story has a happy ending December 2, 2008
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 1 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.
BAD IDEA!.... GONE REALLY REALLY WRONG! November 30, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
'Before The Devil Knows You're Dead' will make you think twice about doing something you know is bad, but you do it anyway! With a premise that shows how wrong a seemingly easy solution can go horribly wrong this film pulls no punches! An engrossing story of two brothers in desperate need of cash, decide to pull off a robbery!....that's as far as I'll go with the plot. What happens next is absolutely tragic.
The story is told flash back and flash forward style, which works well in story for the most part. Although, I did feel the film dragged needlessly in the middle sometimes because they didn't reveal enough new information during some flashback/forward segments. This didn't hurt the overall experience, but with a little more information, it would have really pulled me in. Regardless, it's a very solid film with solid performances. The ending was abrupt and left a couple of important loose ends. For those small grievances I deduct 1 star.
A Descent into Evil November 23, 2008
"Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" is a dark tale of human greed and deceit. What starts out as a thoroughly corrupted crime against parents descends into something even worse. There is a horrible viscous circle at work which no one is able to right.
Andy Hanson (Philip Seymour Hoffman) convinces his younger brother, Hank (Ethan Hawke), to rob their parents' jewellery store in the suburbs of New York. The parents are not meant to be working on the day of the heist and, although they may be disturbed by the crime, insurance will cover their losses. The brothers each have their own financial difficulties and the robbery will relieve them of their troubles.
The crime, however, goes terribly wrong. Their mother is unexpectedly working on the day and dies of a gun shot wound. The trail left by the brothers slowly unravels and the especially conniving Andy is seen for being the epitome of evil. Needless to say, the brothers are found out. In a particularly bleak scene, Andy gets his comeuppance. At least some justice seems to be at work in a roundabout way.
The performances of both Hoffman and Hawke are good. They are plausible in their roles. Their father, played by Albert Finney is also well managed. His grief at times is palpable.
Overall, the film is good without being great. It is worth the effort but is unlikely to win a swag of awards.
Great November 20, 2008
This is a really good movie, you have to pay attention and stay in the room the whole movie...Or pause it if you have you leave the room...
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