Family Business

R

1989

1h 55m

Comedy

Drama

List

35%

17 Reviews

Tomatometer

28%

5,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Vito (Dustin Hoffman) is the son of Jessie (Sean Connery), a professional criminal who has trained his son in the craft. With the birth of his own son, Adam (Matthew Broderick), Vito decides to reform his life. When he's in college, Adam's family's shady lifestyle seduces him, and with the help of his grandfather, he plans an elaborate burglary for the family to pull off together. When Adam is arrested during the heist, Jessie and Vito must make sacrifices in order to ensure the boy's future.

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Mike P

Great cast; great director; but terrible movie.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

12/10/23

Full Review

Bryan B

Perplexed by the low score of this movie. The acting is awesome, the stars are awesome, the plot is... good enough. It's not exactly a chase or action movie there are a lot of talking scenes which is ok considering the 3 stars involved. Watching the 3 of them clash(mostly Connery & Hoffman) is well worth sitting through. Great movie if you are a fan of any of these actors.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

08/31/23

Full Review

Jack F

I don't understand the low ratings at all. Perhaps if they didn't bill it as a comedy, which it certainly isn't, people wouldn't be whining about the lack of jokes. It's a drama, and was meant to be a drama. There's a few light hearted moments here and there just to underscore the underlying connection Vito still has with his dad despite his best efforts to deny it. 2 philosophies of life with the youngest generation, Broderick, trying to find the balance. It's a really good movie.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

05/29/22

Full Review

Audience Member

"Stealing DNA." Hard to believe Sean Connery could be Hoffman's father, so let's take it more metaphorically between two different generations of actors confronting another (Matthew Broderick being the other). I found in the second part something more interesting, it's about family, crime, independence, guilt,…the youngest gets arrested, he sacrificed himself, the father wants to save him, he's more protective while the grand-father thinks he's gonna be fine. That situation should have gone deeper. Still a good movie tho.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/25/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I was shocked to see the 38% approval rating. Lumet is a fantastic director, the plot is clever, and the acting is super. The movie satisfies on so many levels. A solid 4 out of 5 stars. It's available for free with ads on Crackle!

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/15/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I only seen this movie once, and I don't know if I would watch this movie again. I went into this movie thinking that it would be a comedy. It is put down as a comedy/drama, it had some funny one liners and sass from Sean Connery, but it took a turn for the darker side. I never heard of this movie before just watching it tonight. I went with 2 stars for this movie, and I found the end to be really sad. This movie was kind of all over the place, and it was kinda hard to follow though. Known actors but a story that was all over the place. I wish that this movie was more easy to follow. It was not the best movie/nor the worst movie I have ever seen. Not one of Sean Connery's best movies imho.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/16/23

Full Review

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Sidney Lumet

Director

Sean Connery

Jessie

Dustin Hoffman

Vito

Matthew Broderick

Adam

Rosanna DeSoto

Elaine

Janet Carroll

Margie

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Leonard Maltin

Video Review

The opportunity to watch [Dustin Hoffman and Sean Connery] together automatically constitutes An Event. Adding Matthew Broderick to the mix is icing on the cake. Unfortunately, Family Business lets them down.

Rated: 2/4

Aug 5, 2022

Full Review

Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

All of the scenes establishing the characters and setting up the caper are joyful to watch, mostly because of the rich comic exaggerations of the Connery character.

Rated: 3/4

Jan 1, 2000

Full Review

Dennis Schwartz

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

The pleasure is watching Connery shine as a roguish criminal in a story line that never gels.

Rated: C

May 4, 2011

Full Review

Chuck O'Leary

Fantastica Daily

A terrific seriocomic crime caper that nobody knew how to sell. Often feels like a 1970s movie that somehow ended up in 1989.

Rated: 4/5

Oct 10, 2005

Full Review

Christian Toto

Washington Times

Rated: 4/5

Aug 26, 2005

Full Review

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

Rated: 2/5

Jun 19, 2005

Full Review

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Synopsis

Vito (Dustin Hoffman) is the son of Jessie (Sean Connery), a professional criminal who has trained his son in the craft. With the birth of his own son, Adam (Matthew Broderick), Vito decides to reform his life. When he's in college, Adam's family's shady lifestyle seduces him, and with the help of his grandfather, he plans an elaborate burglary for the family to pull off together. When Adam is arrested during the heist, Jessie and Vito must make sacrifices in order to ensure the boy's future.

Director: Sidney Lumet
Screenwriter: Vincent Patrick
Rating: R
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Jul 27, 2010
Box Office (Gross USA): $11.1M
Runtime: 1h 55m
Sound Mix: Surround

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