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63
11th Hour, The
47
27 Dresses
29
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem
39
Alvin and the Chipmunks
81
Bamako
84
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
47
Bella
68
Business of Being Born, The
69
Charlie Wilson's War
64
Cloverfield
30
Cover
68
Delirious
92
Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The
43
Final Season, The
41
First Sunday
51
Golden Compass, The
49
Good Night, The
65
Great Debaters, The
63
Hannah Takes the Stairs
52
Hollywood Dreams
7
Hottie and the Nottie, The
60
I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With
15
In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale
81
Juno
70
Lars and the Real Girl
47
Lions for Lambs
41
Mad Money
71
Manda Bala (Send a Bullet)
xx
Moondance Alexander
53
Music Within
77
Nanking
44
Nina's Heavenly Delights
24
One Missed Call
74
Orphanage, The
30
Over Her Dead Body
39
P.S. I Love You
37
P2
46
Reservation Road
55
Resurrecting the Champ
57
Romulus, My Father
85
Savages, The
78
Starting Out in the Evening
83
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
57
Teeth
92
There Will Be Blood
38
Trailer Park Boys: The Movie
32
Untraceable
63
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
68
War Dance
71
Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, The
43
Youth Without Youth
92
Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The
92
There Will Be Blood
85
Savages, The
84
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
83
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
81
Juno
81
Bamako
78
Starting Out in the Evening
77
Nanking
74
Orphanage, The
71
Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, The
71
Manda Bala (Send a Bullet)
70
Lars and the Real Girl
69
Charlie Wilson's War
68
Business of Being Born, The
68
Delirious
68
War Dance
65
Great Debaters, The
64
Cloverfield
63
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
63
11th Hour, The
63
Hannah Takes the Stairs
60
I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With
57
Romulus, My Father
57
Teeth
55
Resurrecting the Champ
53
Music Within
52
Hollywood Dreams
51
Golden Compass, The
49
Good Night, The
47
Bella
47
Lions for Lambs
47
27 Dresses
46
Reservation Road
44
Nina's Heavenly Delights
43
Youth Without Youth
43
Final Season, The
41
Mad Money
41
First Sunday
39
Alvin and the Chipmunks
39
P.S. I Love You
38
Trailer Park Boys: The Movie
37
P2
32
Untraceable
30
Over Her Dead Body
30
Cover
29
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem
24
One Missed Call
15
In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale
7
Hottie and the Nottie, The
xx
Moondance Alexander
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
THINKFilm
FILM:
MPAA RATING: R for a scene of strong graphic sexuality, nudity, violence, drug use and language
Starring
Philip Seymour Hoffman,
Ethan Hawke,
Albert Finney,
and
Marisa Tomei
Andy, an overextended broker, lures his younger brother--Hank--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. (THINKFilm)
| GENRE(S): |
Crime
|
Drama
|
Suspense/Thriller
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Kelly Masterson
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Sidney Lumet
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: April 15, 2008
Theatrical: October 26, 2007
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
117 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
100
Village Voice
J. Hoberman
The movie grabs hold and runs you through the wringer.

100
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
Mesmerizing.

100
Christian Science Monitor
Robert Koehler
One of the great American films of the past decade, and the crowning masterpiece of Lumet's long career.

100
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
This flick is fast and ferocious, his (Sidney Lumet) sharpest and best since "Prince of the City" (1980) - and surely one of the year's finest.

100
Slate
Dana Stevens
Offers the rare pleasure of watching a major director return to his own material and rework it 30 years later. This story of a pitiful jewel heist gone so profoundly wrong that it approaches the scope of Greek tragedy isn't quite a remake of "Dog Day Afternoon."

100
Washington Post
Ann Hornaday
In addition to being a study in great acting, this is a study in great directing.

100
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
A superb crime melodrama.

100
Philadelphia Inquirer
Steven Rea
A wicked deconstruction of a dysfunctional clan: brothers at each other's throats; a father whose legacy is anger and betrayal; an unfaithful wife; a history of deceit. It's a horror show of hatred and festering psychic wounds.

100
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
Its virtues are velocity, energy, innovative storytelling - and something that seems even more the province of young directors: a certain heartlessness and ironic distance in the tone.

100
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
Compact, nasty, and altogether wonderful, a tale of brotherly greed and New York comeuppance that shows an old dog dusting off old tricks using new technology.

91
Portland Oregonian
Shawn Levy
Emotionally brutal, ferociously acted, crafted with unflagging expertise and relentlessly locked in its vision of human darkness, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead is as grim and despairing as any tragedy by Sophocles or Shakespeare.

90
Film Threat
Rick Kisonak
Bleak, weirdly witty at times and unrelentingly suspenseful, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead is the cinematic equivalent of a perfect storm.

90
Los Angeles Times
Carina Chocano
This is no nostalgia trip taken by an 83-year-old director. It's a fierce, hot slap of a movie, a shameless melodrama with bite.

90
Time
Richard Schickel
It is, like quite a few Lumet pictures, rather small in scale, easy to overlook. But I think it is time to gather around a director who has embraced his octogenarian bleakness and sing his praises. Ultimately, I think you'll laugh a lot at what he has wrought here -- but only well after the movie is over and the full scale of its perversity settles into your bones.

90
New York Magazine
David Edelstein
His (Sidney Lumet) touch in Before the Devil is so sure, so perfectly weighted, that it’s hard to imagine him capable of making a bad movie. The thing is just enthralling.

90
The Hollywood Reporter
Frank Scheck
Pungently atmospheric, brilliantly textured and featuring superb performances from every performer in parts big and small.

90
Variety
Lisa Nesselson
The wrenching tale has something for anyone who likes their melodrama spiked with palpable tension and genuine suspense.

89
Austin Chronicle
Marc Savlov
While the evil that men do to one another in this film may well be rooted in the Cain-like enabling of original sin from one doomed brother to another, the final familial tragedy feels exactly like classic Lumet.

88
USA Today
Claudia Puig
One bad idea can unravel and ruin lives in unimaginably horrific ways.That's the concept underlying the riveting Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, a sharply acted and highly entertaining morality play.

88
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
A dynamite film that ranks with the year's best.

88
TV Guide
Ken Fox
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, which carefully develops each fatally flawed character and tells their stories in achronological flashbacks that seamlessly fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.

88
New York Daily News
Jack Mathews
Arguably Lumet's best film in 20 years.

88
Premiere
Glenn Kenny
The action is violent, messy, and threaded through with dark humor. This is a movie for grownups, for sure, but it has a mulish kick that most such pictures consider themselves to tasteful to aspire to.

83
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Noel Murray
Ultimately, the film is just a smart caper picture with some good performances, but at times it's VERY smart, and Hoffman's performance in particular is one of the most natural and unexpectedly affecting that he's given in years.

80
The New York Times
A.O. Scott
Curiously exhilarating. Some of this comes from the simple thrill of witnessing something, or rather everything, done well.

80
The New Yorker
David Denby
Furious and entertaining little morality play.

80
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
This is not a drama of shadings, but of ever-increasing intensity.

80
Empire
Helen O'Hara
Bleak, brutal and quite possibly brilliant, this is a triumphant return to form for Lumet and further proof that Hoffman is on an incredible winning streak.

75
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
Atmosphere is the main virtue with which this "Devil" can tempt us.

75
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Arnold
This is an adrenaline-pumping, devilishly well-made thriller set against the downfall of an American family.

75
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
Philip Seymour Hoffman is in fine form as a man teetering on the edge.

75
Chicago Tribune
Michael Phillips
What you’re left with, finally, is the pleasure of a wily director’s company. In much the same way John Huston defied convention and predictability in the third act of his directorial career, with films as odd and fresh as “Wise Blood” and “Prizzi’s Honor,” Lumet is doing the same, right now.

70
LA Weekly
Ella Taylor
The only player in this tawdry round-robin game who moved or seduced me in any way was Andy’s poor, hapless Gina. Tomei’s an ordinary beauty... But she has real screen presence and range, and her neglected wife is an artful inversion of her Oscar-winning role as Danny DeVito’s pert squeeze in "My Cousin Vinny."

67
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
The result is not a first-class film noir but a top-grade acting class. You admire it without enjoying it.

50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Rick Groen
The problem is not that the director is working but that his latest film is working too hard. Way too hard – this thing is melodrama running a marathon.

50
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Even though it's scripted by a woman (Kelly Masterson), this tale of buried family resentments rising to the surface as the brothers plot to rob their parents' jewelry store is concerned only with the guys, and it's marred by an uncharacteristically mannered performance by Albert Finney as the father.

50
Salon.com
Andrew O'Hehir
The evident strengths and laudable intentions of Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (and even the appeal of Marisa Tomei in her undies) are overwhelmed by an implausible plot verging on unintentional comedy and a panoply of Noo Yawk dirt-bag supporting characters who might've seemed awkward on a 1993 episode of "NYPD Blue."


The average user rating for this movie is 6.8 (out of 10) based on 109 User Votes
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