Marisa Tomei
Added 2/13/2010
Yeah, ya gotta buy this film for the Marisa Tomei scenes.
The storyline, acting, etc. is just okay. Actually, the plot left me bored.
But the Marisa Tomei scenes...
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Into a nightmarish vortex...
Added 2/11/2010
"Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" is directed by Sidney Lumet (Serpico, The Verdict, Dog Day Afternoon). Lumet uses a structure of story telling whereby the events before and after a robbery are told like an eddy in time that swirls around the disastrous pivotal event of the robbery. Time is used like a net that entangles events together as we learn of the circumstances that lead the two brothers, played by Ethan Hawke and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, to plot the robbery. Through Lumet's mesmerizing directing we follow these brothers into the vortex of their greedy self created nightmare as it also drags those they love into this hole of despair.
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Corny and stupid
Added 1/19/2010
Martin Scorcese said that directing is a young man's game. Clint Eastwood seems to be the contradiction, and this seems to be the proof of that statement. Phil Hoffman is supposed to be a cokehead AND a junkie? He doesn't have one believable moment in this flabby and out of touch film. Everything happens in a Hollywood-universe of cliches and over-acting. Marisa Tomei has very nice breasts, though.
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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Genius film by 83-yr-old director
Added 11/27/2009
The pacing, cinema style, storyline, acting, cutting, directing and overall look of this are stunning. At age 83, Lumet ("Dog Day Afternoon" etc) makes a movie like a 30-year-old would. Hoffman and Hawke are perfectly dysfunctional brothers here. Finney, the old pro as the father, is stunning. The plot is just convoluted enough and the tactic of replaying scenes through the now-familiar concept of time-shifting works very well. There's an operatic quality to the film, and of course, a Shakespearean tragedy going on as the family implodes after the brothers' decision to rob their parents' bland suburban jewelry store. I'd overlooked this upon release. Don't make the same mistake now. Watch!
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Dark, Intelligent Melodrama
Added 10/26/2009
This movie hits hard, especially in today's miserable economy. Two brothers, desperate for money for different reasons, plot to rob their parents' suburban jewelry store. The brothers have grown up in the business so they know how to fence the jewels, they know their way around the store and its schedule, and the parents are insured, so the brothers will get what they need (or think they need) and no harm done. Of course it all goes horribly wrong. The story is old hat but the story-telling structure is thought-provoking, the visual style unobtrusively perfect, and the acting excellent all around, particularly Albert Finney. The audience is challenged to think about the choices we make, what really matters to us, what we might be driven to, and how we delude ourselves that if we can just surmount this or that obstacle, we'll be in clover. The bonus feature about the making of the film is interesting. However, this is uniformly dark, perhaps Lumet's bleakest work since "The Pawnbroker." Don't go looking for anything fun or life-affirming. It's easy to see why this was not a big financial success.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Marisa Tomei
Added 2/13/2010
Yeah, ya gotta buy this film for the Marisa Tomei scenes.
The storyline, acting, etc. is just okay. Actually, the plot left me bored.
But the Marisa Tomei scenes...
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Into a nightmarish vortex...
Added 2/11/2010
"Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" is directed by Sidney Lumet (Serpico, The Verdict, Dog Day Afternoon). Lumet uses a structure of story telling whereby the events before and after a robbery are told like an eddy in time that swirls around the disastrous pivotal event of the robbery. Time is used like a net that entangles events together as we learn of the circumstances that lead the two brothers, played by Ethan Hawke and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, to plot the robbery. Through Lumet's mesmerizing directing we follow these brothers into the vortex of their greedy self created nightmare as it also drags those they love into this hole of despair.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Corny and stupid
Added 1/19/2010
Martin Scorcese said that directing is a young man's game. Clint Eastwood seems to be the contradiction, and this seems to be the proof of that statement. Phil Hoffman is supposed to be a cokehead AND a junkie? He doesn't have one believable moment in this flabby and out of touch film. Everything happens in a Hollywood-universe of cliches and over-acting. Marisa Tomei has very nice breasts, though.
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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