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| Before the Devil Knows You're Dead [Blu-ray] | ![Before the Devil Knows You're Dead [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51%2BII5fewBL._SL160_.jpg)
 enlarge | Director: Sidney Lumet
Actors: Rosemary Harris, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei, Albert Finney
Studio: Image Entertainment
Category: DVD
List Price: $35.98
Buy New: $14.28
You Save: $21.70 (60%)
New (32) Used (13) from $9.94
Avg. Customer Rating:  99 reviews
Sales Rank: 9742
Format: Ac-3, Color, Dolby, Ntsc, Widescreen
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: Blu-ray
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 117
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 6.7 x 5.3 x 0.5
MPN: CAP4912BD
UPC: 014381491258
EAN: 0014381491258
ASIN: B00112S8S2
Theatrical Release Date: 2007
Release Date: April 15, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW AND FACTORY SEALED!
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| Customer Reviews:
 Oh What A Tangled Web We Weave, When First We Practice To Deceive May 17, 2008
13 out of 18 found this review helpful
"Sidney Lumet's "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" is such a superb crime melodrama that I almost want to leave it at that. To just stop writing right now and advise you to go out and see it as soon as you can. I so much want to avoid revealing plot points that I don't even want to risk my usual strategy of oblique hints. You deserve to walk into this one cold." Roger Ebert
Sidney Lumet at the age of 83 has again directed a film for the ages. A film of a family falling down, round and apart. Philip Seymour Hoffman is amazing as the older brother in the family. He works for a successful real estate office in NYC. His younger bro, Ethan Hawke shows us how very great an actor he can be, and works for the same agency. The Greek Tragedy begins when a plan to rob a suburban jewelry store goes all wrong. The mom and pop of this store are in reality Andy and Hank's parents. Would you, could you rob your own family? You could if you needed money badly enough it seems. Andy and Hank are in great need of money. Hoffman as Andy, has a habit that leads him to illegal drugs. Hank Hanson, Ethan Hawke, has a snarly ex-wife who wants her child support and cares naught how Hank gets the money. As Sir Francis Scott has said 'Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive'.
Albert Finney plays Andy and Hank's dad. His fine acting lends this film the reality of the quintessential dysfunctional family. His actions, so akin to a Greek Tragedy seal the fate of this film. The two sons who have always pandered for best loved son, can now give it up. The family relationships are not explained and it is up to us to get to know them. Mom, Rosemary Harris, has a small part but is the agent of change in this film. Marisa Tomei the wife of Andy and lover of Hank, ah, we are beginning to see the light here, plays the tragically ignored wife.
"My grandfather, whose background was not so different from Mr. Lumet's, was dismissive of movies that seemed overly dark or despairing. "There wasn't a single decent human being in the whole movie," he used to complain. He might not have found any in "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead," but he would also have recognized the humanism that saves this harsh tale from nihilism. The screen may be full of losers, liars, killers and thieves, but behind the camera is a mensch." A O Scott
Messy, emotional, melodramatic, film noir is my beat. This film has it all.
Highly Recommended prisrob 05-17-08
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 Twists that are too predictable. Not as good as I had hoped... April 21, 2008
12 out of 18 found this review helpful
I went into watching this film having remembered that it was talked about as a possible award winner for some of the persons involved, but was left disappointed in a film that was too predictable and relied too much on a story-telling device that just didn't work that well for me.
Don't misunderstand, I enjoy non-linear story-telling when it makes sense, and I've thoroughly enjoyed some films that others felt went on far too long (see Taratino's Jackie Brown as an example in that area), telling the tale too many times and from too many different angles (perhaps), but this film, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, just isn't as good despite decent performance from the actors and actresses involved. Where I should have been surprised by twists, I was left nodding my head at how things were just as I expected and predicted. Seeing parts of the story told again and again, just from different perspectives, just seemed to be a waste of screen time for this film and that is disappointing to me. I didn't necessarily expect more, but still felt disappointed by not finding it in the film.
Sidney Lumet has done great work in the past and I don't think he did horribly here, but it's far from his best. Though the product description calls this as a suspense thriller and it tries to deliver, it seemed lacking in that area for me because it was too easy to anctipate what was coming next. Oh, there are a few twists, but those twists burn quickly and barely raise the interest that they should.
The film is worth seeing, but it isn't a film that would be interesting to watch multiple times, leaving the value as a potential purchase lacking. It is a dark film and is depressing. A crime gone wrong with horrible consequences and a look at the events leading up to and after the crime all played out several times just so we can be sure we didn't miss something along the way. When all is said and done, there are other films that do a better job for me (though I'm hard pressed to think of exactly which films those would be at the moment), and certainly other films that make good use of the actors that worked here.
 3+1/2 stars ==== Dark, depressing, ugly story April 17, 2008
9 out of 13 found this review helpful
This is a very dark, ugly tale about two brothers who plot a crime together that explodes in their face. It wouldn't be accurate to say that the disastrously botched job ruins their lives, though, for as the film unfolds we find that both brothers were already beyond hope or redemption. The failed heist only brings things to a head... I was engrossed for the first half of this film, repelled for the rest, as layer after layer of tawdry, icky back-story reveals itself. If you like dark material, boy, is this movie for you... If, on the other hand, you're already overwhelmed by the ugliness in life, well... maybe you should pick another rental. (Slipcue film reviews)
 Terrible, slow, tedious, bleak April 21, 2008
9 out of 28 found this review helpful
Warning! THIS IS NOT A "THRILLER"! It's an incredibly slow, depressing, tedious "acting showcase" with no point.
I write this in the hope that some will be saved. Take heed!
It's sad that, like the sermonette "Lions for Lambs", they felt they had to market it as a "thriller".
There are NO "twists" or "turns", unless you can't see three feet in front of you. Did I mention it's SLOOOOOOOW? Absolutely horrible. And "bleak" doesn't even begin to describe how thoroughly depressing this movie is.
As for all the comments about the acting, I really don't see what the big deal is. There's nothing done here that couldn't be done by, say, Tom Cruise.
Don't say you weren't warned.
UPDATE: A friend of mine took no heed and ... watched it. He lamented his folly afterward, to no consolation. I'm not kidding here, folks! It's absolutely slow, bleak, plodding, and otherwise horrible.
A thrilling and powerful film. November 25, 2007
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
"Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" is one of the most thrilling crime dramas of recent years, proving that the octogenarian Sidney Lumet is just as brilliant a director as he ever was. Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke, looking like Francis Bacon caricatures of themselves, play financially strapped brothers who decide to solve their cash flow problems by robbing their parents' jewelry store. Needless to say, the robbery goes very, very wrong. The tense, fragmentary screenplay fills us in bit by bit as to the robbery, the events leading up to it and its aftermath, showing us not only the brothers' growing desperation but the family rivalries and character weaknesses that made the final tragedy inevitable. The final scene, a grotesque mockery of the perfect crime the brothers envisioned, suggests that apples never fall far from the tree. Like a crazed, three-way cross between "Memento," "The Asphalt Jungle" and "Death of a Salesman," "Before the Devil Knows Your Dead" keeps viewers on the edge of their seats from beginning to end. Hawke gives an indelible portrait of a pathetic loser (even his young daughter pegs him as such) and Hoffman is even better as the domineering elder brother, whose masterful calm is only skin-deep. The supporting players match the leads; Albert Finney, as Hoffman and Hawke's father, plays the last half of the film in a whirlwind of disbelieving grief and anger, his face twisted into a gargoyle mask of pain. Rosemary Harris gives a poignant performance as the family matriarch, while Marisa Tomei and Amy Ryan are impeccable as Hoffman's wife and Hawke's ex. "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" can justifiably be considered as the best movie in Lumet's career. Considering that his other movies include "Twelve Angry Men," "Network" and "Dog Day Afternoon," that's saying something.
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