Pretty Good

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

When I see this film reviewed, over and over, as a comedy, I don't know whether to laugh or to cry. This is one of the most brutally cynical, agonizingly tragic films I've ever seen - the story of a family caught up in the romance of crime, trying to help at least the youngest generation escape its inevitable fate.Perhaps it helps to know Sidney Lumet's other work, especially his previous bitterly brilliant collaborations with Sean Connery: The Hill, and The Offense. Family Business is a similarly scathing attack on preconceptions. Lumet takes what looks like a tame little 'heist comedy' scenario and shows just how poisonously evil it really is. He gives us the charming scoundrel (Connery), and shows how destructive his devil-may-care attitude can be.One might as well criticize Othello or Macbeth for having no laughs. This film is, in fact, Shakespearian in its tragic dimensions. Connery starts out with the classic Tragic Flaw, and must pay for it in the end. (There is a heroic dimension in his ultimate realization, at least.)I can easily understand that many people won't enjoy this film. It's a nasty, venomous, painful piece of work. But it's also quite brilliant. If you want easy answers, by all means, rent Ocean's Eleven. But if you're up for a challenge, don't overlook Family Business.

Since this movie has been commented upon dozens of times there is no need to repeat the plot. I am a fan of Connery and Hoffman and usually enjoy their acting. They did OK in this one.I did not like the attitude expressed by the Broderick character. It is really not the most wonderful thing in the world to be a petty criminal. Connery seems to think it is, and Hoffman thinks it is not. We, the audience are meant to believe that criminality=freedom in this case.What I hated about the ending was that Connery, a Scot is given a traditional Irish wake, complete with Danny Boy. Would a good Scot put up with that, even while dead?!

I watched this movie without reading the cover... however it is sure not funny. Sean Connery slowly dies in prison...what a big laugh.The movie has that feel of trying to turn Novel into Movie....it is very talky and has gaps in the plot. (Why would a kid with no offenses face 14 years with no parole for a nonviolent burglary? What happened with the payoff from the corrupt Chinese scientist?). In trying to cover the novel cover to cover it jumps from vignette to vignette in a choppy stiff manner. My impression is that it was trying to show that non violent "clean" burglary is better or at least no worse than legal tricks like buying condos that terminally ill cancer patients live in (something Broderick's girl friend does). OK, I can be twisted into this noir idea.However because of the choppiness the movie doesn't flow well. What exactly is the purpose of the Jewish household at Passover?? I realize it is the in-laws...but it seems like a sort of isolated island from the rest of story and this happens a lot. Who exactly was Connery's girlfriend? I guess they had to put that in because it is in Chapter 26 of the novel.This is the second bad movie I have seen Connery in. This one is light years better than Zardoz (the other terrible Connery movie)...but I am beginning to lose faith none the less.Rent something else.

Sean Connery, Dustin Hoffman, and Matthew Broderick have talent to spare and they manage to make an impossible story jell on the screen in Family Business.The three men play grandfather, father, and son of the McMullen clan. Connery is an unregenerate criminal who offers to apologies for the life he's led. Hoffman is someone who went into that life during his youth due to Dad's influence, but he leaves that life and now works in the wholesale meat business which he hates, but more than pays the rent.Matthew Broderick is his son who absolutely idolizes his grandfather. He's middle class and a Westinghouse scholar to boot, but lives for his time with his grandfather and the criminal tales he tells of his past.Broderick's life as a Westinghouse scholar is about to intersect with Connery's habitual criminal background when Broderick's professor, B.D. Wong offers him a scam. He's to break in to a laboratory in Nassau County and steal the results of his research for a million dollars. Hoffman also goes along for the ride, mainly he says to watch out for his son.These three have tremendous chemistry together and it is what makes this story float. Especially Connery because you have to believe in his character in order to enjoy the film.Family Business is one of those movies that after I come away from it I say this is completely ridiculous. Yet when you watch you feel guilty enjoying it so much.Sidney Lumet did a wonderful job showing the background of the Hell's Kitchen area where Connery resides. I recognize a whole lot of the neighborhood. Interesting that this area a decade later served as the background for the much more serious film Sleepers.Look also for a good performance by Rosanna DeSoto as wife and mother to Hoffman and Broderick. What she puts up with in that family.