Rabid Dogs + Before the Devil Knows You're Dead - TNL Movie Club Season 2

[D_N_G]

Almost 2 years since my last movie club escapade and I have been really torn between these two films for my pick. One TNL has probably never heard of, and the other is a recent overlooked gem.

Thanks to the Rumpmeister, I proudly present both in a Crime Drama Almost Grindhouse Double Feature if only to rival Berringer's thread title length

Rabid Dogs (Kidnapped) - Main Bill


Before the Devil Knows You're Dead - Bonus Feature





Although made decades apart, these tense, bleak, harsh, and gritty crime thrillers have an essence of raw brutality that I believe make them go hand in hand. When you take away hope, and capture the result on film, these movies are the void left behind.

They are unsettling and uncomfortable.

They are upsetting and unpredictable.

Their negative raw emotion is encapsulated perfectly, not for anything more than the fact that you realize how cruel the real world can be.

They may not leave a good taste in your mouth, but are (IMHO) the pinnacles of the respective director's careers and are definitely excellent examples of why I love cinema as an artform





First up is a film with several names Cani arrabbiati aka Rabid Dogs/Kidnapped.








DVDs (TNL STORE!!!):
Anchor Bay Release 2007
http://astore.amazon.com/thenextleve...765511-4087122
Anchor Bay Box Set 2 Kidnapped + 7 other Bava films
http://astore.amazon.com/thenextleve...754028-0617603
Original DVD Release (OOP)
http://astore.amazon.com/thenextleve...754028-0617603

Netflix:
http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Kidnapp...2142601141_3_0
http://www.netflix.com/Search?v1=kidnapped


Reviews:
http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/27447/kidnapped/
http://www.dvddrive-in.com/reviews/i...abiddogs75.htm
http://www.dvdactive.com/reviews/dvd/kidnapped.html

IMDB:
Movie
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071275/
Mario Bava
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000878/

Wiki:
Mario Bava
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Bava




The film's director, Mario Bava, is an acclaimed Italian horror master. He pioneered the slasher genre, he delved into taboo territories, he brought controversy and ingenuity into cinema. I've seen quite a few of his films, each of which bring an aura of unease to the viewer. He truly was a master of evoking fear and distress. Both emotions have translated perfectly in this genre breaching crime story.

This was Bava's final film made in 1974 and then due to legal issues was shelved and thought lost forever. It did not get a full theatrical release in 1997 and then on to DVD in 1998. It is based on a short story caled Man and Boy from a 1971 issue of Ellery Queen magazine.

There are 2 versions to this film at only a minute apart. Ive seen both and for the movie club Rabid Dogs is the edit to watch.

The Kidnapped version was rescored and re-edited for release. Due to this, it detracts from the atmosphere and the films intended grittiness. Both versions are on the DVD entitled Kidnapped from Anchor Bay, which is released on its own and in a box set with other Bava films. This film is in Italian with English subtitles.

Oh and did I mention, this movie contains probably the most astounding twist ending ever put to film. The ending is so mindblowing, it will have you remembering this film for years.

Synopsis:

Kidnapped (aka Rabid Dogs), unreleased for over twenty years except in limited quantities during the '90s, clearly inspired Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs among other American gangster films. Three thugs hijack a car following their robbery, as the viewer discovers that the car's original drivers, Riccardo (Riccardo Cucciolla) and Maria (Lea Leander), have also just kidnapped a baby, held hostage in the backseat. While the nervous couple fights for the child's life, the thugs feud violently about how to handle upcoming run-ins with the law. Set entirely in the car, the film exudes claustrophobic anxiety. On the tail of the renowned Italian director's major boxset re-release, The Mario Bava Collection: Volume 1, Kidnapped) offers a filmic digression into reality from the Bava's beloved forays into fantasy and horror. Though not as cinematically imaginative, the suspense-building close-ups in Kidnapped) rival chiaroscuro moments in Black Sunday for amped up tension. As an experiment, Kidnapped feels like what has come to be known as classic Bava, though his vintage horror and fantasy films are more visually engaging. —Trinie Dalton

Up Next is Before the Devil Knows You're Dead directed by Sidney Lumet. This is an almost Grindhouse double feature only because the date of release. If this was made in the 70s, that would be another story.









DVD (TNL STORE!!!):
http://astore.amazon.com/thenextleve...754028-0617603
Blu Ray:
http://astore.amazon.com/thenextleve...754028-0617603

Reviews:
http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/31162...ws-youre-dead/
http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/32858...ws-youre-dead/

Netflix:
http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Before_...=352982282_0_0
http://www.netflix.com/Search?v1=before+devil+knows

IMDB:
Movie
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0292963/
Sidney Lumet
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001486/

Wiki:
Sidney Lumet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Lumet



Sidney has old-school ties with the crime genre and cinema in general, you may know his works from the 70s masterpieces Serpico , Dog Day Afternoon, Network, and what's that 12 Angy Men I hear? He directed Devil at the age of 83, pretty damn astounding career I would say.

On top of the most amazing performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman to date, and a killer performance by Ethan Hawke, as a bonus you also get to see a smoking hot naked Marissa Tomei.

Not only is it chock full of stylish and slick fluent time manipulation (time as in the sense of editing, not in the sense of time travel), but it also maintains the same bleak outpouring as mentioned in the opening paragraphs above.

BTDKYD unfortunately did not get much love from TNL, it was released in 2007 in the theatres and in 2008 on DVD and Blu Ray (making it really easy to get ahold of a copy). One of my favorites of last year, with one of the most kickass movie posters in decades.

Synopsis:

Sidney Lumet’s Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead is an exceptionally dark story about a crime gone wrong and the complicated reasons behind it. Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke are outstanding as brothers whose mutual love-hate relationship subtly colors their agreement to rob their own parents’ jewelry store, and more explicitly affects the anxious aftermath of their villainy when their mother (Rosemary Harris) ends up shot. Hoffman’s steely, emotionally locked-up Andy, despite pulling down six figures as a corporate executive, is supporting an expensive drug habit while trying to leave the country with his depressed wife, Gina (Marisa Tomei). Hank (Hawke), a whipped dog of low intelligence, owes back alimony and child support to his ex-spouse. Both men need money and agree to rip off their parents' business, a decision that goes awry and puts both men in various kinds of jeopardy while their mother remains comatose and their father (Albert Finney) lurches along trying to make sense of anything. Writer Kelly Masterson's screenplay employs a perhaps now-overly-familiar time-shifting tactic, jumping around the chronology of the story's events and replaying scenes from different vantage points. The effect is a little tedious but successfully deconstructs the film's drama in a way that shows how such terrible events are directly linked to family dysfunction, old wounds between parent and child, between siblings, that fester into full-blown tragedy. Eighty-three-year-old director Lumet (Serpico) employs bleached colors and scenes of blunt sexuality and violence, adding to the moral rudderlessness and banality of this airless world. If Devil feels a little reductive and insistently grim, it is also a generally persuasive work by an old master. --Tom Keogh

If possible watch these back to back, if you've seen one, please see the other. If you've seen them both, please watch them again. Hope you enjoy, you can always take a Xanax after you're through! a lot of people hate the substance of films, if anything at least you can enjoy the acting and direction

BTW, If Dallas TNL'ers want to do a movie night, we can screen these

[YellerDog]

I wanted to die after watching Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. Not a bad film at all, just kind of soul-killing.

[Rumpy]

as a bonus you also get to see a smoking hot naked Marissa Tomei.

Just thought I'd make this important part stand out more.

Thanks for the great write ups and handy links too.

[arjue]

Bava is a Giallo legend, can't wait to check this one out. Great choices DNG. I'm gonna try and get these along with the rest of the movie club DVD's this week (I've had no luck finding alot of them so far).

[Razor Ramon]

The only good thing about Before the Devil knows You're Dead is seeing Marrisa Tomei get fucking railed.

[aren]

The only good thing about Before the Devil knows You're Dead is seeing Marrisa Tomei get fucking railed.

QFT.

I watched this movie in two sittings (yesterday and today; dvd was scratched and had to get it switched at Blockbuster the next day) and it wasn't worth the dvd case it came with.

[YellerDog]

I can't figure how you guys imagine it's a badly made film by any means.


Wait... it's you guys. Yes I can.

[bbobb]

Aren has proven time and time again he has no taste in movies.

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead is depressing as fuck all, but it's a great movie.

[cigsthecat]

Devil Knows You're Dead is awesome. Phillip Seymour Hoffman is amazing as usual. Haven't seen the other but I'll try to find it.

[arjue]

I just bought a big amazon haul with most of the movie club dvd's in it, and I'm gonna marathon my way through them the weekend after they arrive.