Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)
Directed by Sidney Lumet
When two brothers organize the robbery of their parents' jewelry store, the job goes horribly wrong, triggering a series of events that send them and their family hurtling towards a shattering climax.
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Sidney Lumet has been making movies for 50 years, and though his track record is spotty, the man who directed Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon and Network generally deserves the benefit of the doubt.
Sidney Lumet is certainly an expert in train-wreck crime dramas, having served up such classics as Dog Day Afternoon , Serpico and Prince of the City , as well as other stellar efforts such as 12 Angry Men , Network and The Verdict .
Now 83, the legendary director had lost his way in recent years; the epic moral street scenes of "Dog Day Afternoon," "Serpico," and "Prince of the City" seemed to have given way to a long run of mediocrity, from 1993's "Guilty as Sin" to 2006's "Find Me Guilty."
Rather, his movie harkens back to the days of his greatest successes -- Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon and Network -- and reminds one of the days when clever and smart were not mutually exclusive from one another.
Sidney Lumet has made some of the greatest films of the modern era, stellar works with titles like Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, Network, and The Verdict.
Despite an accumulated 83 years and 45 movies under his belt, including Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon and Network, director Sidney Lumet would seem to be a late-blooming iconoclast.
Superficially, the film resembles Reservoir Dogs : a mosaic narrative about the tragic aftermath of a failed heist.
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead may borrow its botched-heist and fractured narrative from Reservoir Dogs, but it has an air of sustained domestic nastiness all its own.
The film bears narrative similarity to Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs while trying to mix in more natural settings.
Sidney Lumet is certainly an expert in train-wreck crime dramas, having served up such classics as Dog Day Afternoon , Serpico and Prince of the City , as well as other stellar efforts such as 12 Angry Men , Network and The Verdict .
Two years after receiving a Honorary Academy Award for his impressive body of work (which includes 12 Angry Men & Dog Day Afternoon ), 83 year old director and master storyteller Sidney Lumet has crafted a gripping and commanding film which adds to his late career resurgence - begun with 2006's Find Me Guilty - and leaves many of his younger cohorts lying in the dust.
November 1, 2007 - Some 50 years (and almost as many movies) after Sidney Lumet made his name directing the courtroom classic 12 Angry Men, he is still making interesting and important films.
In Lumet's new film, the legendary, five-time Oscar nominee ("12 Angry Men," "Network") shows no signs of slowing down.
Director Sidney Lumet's (12 Angry Men) film repertoire is filled with notable efforts, but he hasn't produced a good one since Running on Empty nearly two decades ago.
Director Sidney Lumet's (12 Angry Men) film repertoire is filled with notable efforts, but he hasn't produced a good one since Running on Empty nearly two decades ago.
A tense anti-caper written by Kelly Masterson that's part thriller and part Greek tragedy, "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" shares many traits with such Lumet classics as "Dog Day Afternoon," "Serpico," "Network" and "The Verdict," as well as family-centered stories "Long Day's Journey Into Night" and "Running on Empty."