Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

Monday, May 5, 2008

You know what movie I really didn't like? Serpico. What's so special about this guy? I mean, great, he wasn't a corrupt cop. That's wonderful. But it should also be a given. You know, I don't praise somebody every time they don't rape and murder a child, I don't see why I should praise Serpico for not being corrupt. And he spends so much of the damn movie focused on being not-corrupt that he doesn't, you know, seem to do any other police work. Doesn't save a lot of lives or bust any criminals. Not exactly my definition of a hero. American Gangster told a much better variation on the same story with Russell Crowe's character, and that part of the movie wasn't even 1/3rd of the plot, and he ends up bringing down a drug kingpin. Seriously, fuck Serpico.

So I've seen a few Sidney Lumet movies now, and my favorites are Network and Dog Day Afternoon, the ones about bad guys and morally complex people. I'm not so hot on Serpico, like I said. And I like 12 Angry Men, but not the parts where Henry Fonda comes off like a perfect angel blessed by God himself and sent down to Earth to teach us heathens about resonable doubt.

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, luckily, is about bad guys and morally complex people. So it's Lumet on the turf I prefer him on. I was pretty curious to see it after some of the raves I had read last year, especially Roger Ebert's review. I liked it, especially Ethan Hawke's performance (he usually plays laid back intellectual types, but this movie suggests he should play more idiots who get in over their head), but it's nothing special. It's a solid crime flick/character study, but I think it went a little too "big" for me in the later scenes. I remember some reviews comparing it to Greek tragedy, which I should have realized at the time is often code for "it goes over the top, and people start doing really dramatic things that don't make sense in order to make a big finale."

Oh well, it's still better than Serpico.