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Movies / On DVD / Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

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Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)

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Reviews Counted:156

Fresh:137

Rotten:19

Average Rating:7.7/10

Consensus: A tense and effective thriller, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead marks a triumphant return to form for director Sidney Lumet.

Rated: R [See Full Rating] for a scene of strong graphic sexuality, nudity, violence, drug use and language.

Runtime: 2 hrs 3 mins

Genre: Family Interaction, Thriller, Infidelity, Theatrical Release, Brothers, Affairs

Theatrical Release:Oct 26, 2007 Limited

Box Office: $6,955,841

Synopsis: From the unexpectedly graphic opening shot, director Sidney Lumet proves he hasn't lost any of his bite with age. BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD is a riveting suspense thriller that retains the... From the unexpectedly graphic opening shot, director Sidney Lumet proves he hasn't lost any of his bite with age. BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD is a riveting suspense thriller that retains the director's classic approach to storytelling while updating it at the same time. Working from an intense, expertly woven script by playwright-turned-screenwriter Kelly Masterson, Lumet establishes his tragic tone immediately. The story concerns a New York family with a roiling undercurrent of dysfunction. The eldest son, Andy (Philip Seymour Hoffman), is a frustrated, drug-abusing stockbroker who is unable to satisfy his gorgeous wife (Marisa Tomei). The youngest son, Hank (Ethan Hawke), is passive and struggles to make alimony payments. Their parents (Albert Finney and Rosemary Harris) live in Westchester and operate a small jewelry store. Their lives begin to unravel when Andy approaches Hank about pulling off a heist that will seemingly solve all of their monetary problems. Everything about this idea is risky, yet Andy convinces his timid younger brother that this is his only way out of his current situation. Naturally, their plan falls apart, resulting in a series of tragedies that they never could have predicted. BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD belongs beside such Lumet classics as DOG DAY AFTERNOON, NETWORK, and SERPICO. The cinematography and editing and score are all excellent, but the performances are what launch the film into the stratosphere. Oscar-winner Hoffman (CAPOTE) and Finney have never been better, and the rest of the cast--Hawke, Tomei, Michael Shannon--rise to the occasion with unforgettable results. [More]

Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei, Albert Finney

Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei, Albert Finney, Rosemary Harris, Michael Shannon

Director: Sidney Lumet

Director: Sidney Lumet
Screenwriter: Kelly Masterson
Producer: Michael Cerenzie, Brian Linse, Paul Parmar, William S. Gilmore
Composer: Carter Burwell
Studio: ThinkFilm

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Apr 15, 2008

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Reviews for Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

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121 - 140 (sorted by date)
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It has been exactly 50 years since Sidney Lumet made his first movie but let's hope on the basis of this shattering edge-of-your-seat stuff that he hasn't made his last.

Full Review Source: Maxim | comment Comment
10/26/07
Pete Hammond
Pete Hammond
Maxim

At 83 years-old, Lumet still manages to deliver this film in a captivating, edge-of-your-seat fashion.

Full Review Source: Cinematical | comment Comment
10/26/07
Erik Davis
Erik Davis
Cinematical

I think you'll laugh a lot at what [Lumet] has wrought here -- but only well after the movie is over and the full scale of its perversity settles into your bones.

Full Review Source: TIME Magazine | comment Comment
10/26/07
Richard Schickel
Richard Schickel
TIME Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

It revisits [Dog Day Afternoon's] claustrophobic suspense and deep compassion for its characters -- abject, grasping everymen who truly believe they're only one act of violence away from everything they've ever wanted.

Full Review Source: Slate | comment Comment
10/26/07
Dana Stevens
Dana Stevens
Slate

The true star of this nerve-racking family crime drama, shot with a minimum of fuss by Ron Fortunato, is playwright and first-time screenwriter Kelly Masterson's deft script.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
10/26/07
Ken Fox
Ken Fox
TV Guide's Movie Guide

This flick is fast and ferocious, [Lumet's] sharpest and best since Prince of the City -- and surely one of the year's finest.

Full Review Source: New York Post | comment Comment
10/26/07
Lou Lumenick
Lou Lumenick
New York Post
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

As deliberately provocative and in-your-face ugly as this film is, it still plays as second-rate Tarantino instead of first-rate Lumet.

Full Review Source: Newark Star-Ledger | comment Comment
10/26/07
Stephen Whitty
Stephen Whitty
Newark Star-Ledger
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Nothing in Lumet's filmography has contained the back alley, concrete-block pummeling of Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, a masterful, rampaging descent into the quicksand hell of desperation.

Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment Comment
10/26/07
Brian Orndorf
Brian Orndorf
eFilmCritic.com

Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead is a chronicle of destruction -- physical, spiritual and moral.

comment Comment
10/26/07
A.O. Scott
A.O. Scott
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Lumet's movie is about people rather than jewels or guns. And, at 83, he knows a thing or two about people.

Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
10/25/07
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

The skill of the movie comes in using its structure to peel away the outer layers of these people and to slowly reveal the depths of their psychological damage.

Full Review Source: Window to the Movies | comment Comment
10/25/07
Jeffrey Chen
Jeffrey Chen
Window to the Movies

You get all the weight of dishonorable people and the choices they make and the added pounds of a more modern style that probably keeps a very good film from ranking with Lumet's classics.

Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment Comment
10/25/07
Erik Childress
Erik Childress
eFilmCritic.com

Lumet hasn't been this energetic and perceptive since The Verdict, released two-and-a-half decades ago.

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
10/25/07
Chris Cabin
Chris Cabin
Filmcritic.com

Lumet tackles this material like an old master, finding scenes to settle into and hanging out there longer than a younger director might.

Full Review Source: AV Club | comment Comment
10/25/07
Noel Murray
Noel Murray
AV Club

To state it in the bluntest terms, Sidney Lumet's Before the Devil Knows You're Dead is one of the great American films of the past decade, and the crowning masterpiece of Lumet's long career.

Full Review Source: Christian Science Monitor | comment Comment
10/25/07
Robert Koehler
Robert Koehler
Christian Science Monitor

Family, and the core ideals that hold them in place, are blown to smithereens by the robbery at the ravaged heart of Sidney Lumet's scalding new thriller.

Full Review Source: Newsday | comment Comment
10/25/07
Jan Stuart
Jan Stuart
Newsday
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

What you see in it says more about you than it says about Lumet and his straightforward, throwback-style entertainment, which is richly played and dazzlingly blinged up with sex and drugs, but virtually devoid of human insight or narrative ambition.

Full Review Source: Salon.com | comment Comment
10/25/07
Andrew O'Hehir
Andrew O'Hehir
Salon.com
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

It's tough for a movie that starts out with a doggy-style sex scene in Rio to maintain momentum, and Before the Devil isn't nearly as carefully sculpted as Tomei.

Full Review Source: Metromix.com | comment Comment
10/25/07
Matt Pais
Matt Pais
Metromix.com

The movie, however, belongs to Lumet: The fact that he’s produced such a vital work as an octogenarian is amazing enough, but the way this tragedy unfolds without a single false move puts the film among the best work of a very prestigious career.

Full Review Source: Time Out New York | comment Comment
10/25/07
David Fear
David Fear
Time Out New York

After a long series of artistic missteps, Sidney Lumet, 83, makes a smashing return to form with this bleak crime thriller that shows off the veteran director's many strengths.

Full Review Source: Hollywood Reporter | comment Comment
10/24/07
Frank Scheck
Frank Scheck
Hollywood Reporter
 
 
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