It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Jessie (Sean Connery) is an old timer criminal. His son Vito (Dustin Hoffman) is trying to stay straight after a shady past with his father. The grandson Adam (Matthew Broderick) is the golden boy and has the hope for a respectable future. So it's shocking when Adam approaches Jessie with a burglary plan.While I see Dustin Hoffman as Matthew Broderick's father, Sean Connery just doesn't look related to them. It's distracting. Directed by Sidney Lumet, it makes little sense that they drag Vito into this knowing how much he hates the family business for his son. It seems easier to do this behind his back. Once Vito got all the details of the caper, he could easily end this right there and then. Call up the company and tell them their ex-partner's plans. Then tell Jessie and Adam the jig is up. The company doubles and triples security. So it was really stupid for Jessie and Adam to get Vito involved. Vito has to want to do the job, and not just to keep Adam safe. He could do that easily without doing the job. The simplest solution is to have Vito need the money. The caper is really boring. The only interesting thing is Jessie's story when they were buying the supplies. The sad thing is that it showed it show the potential of these actors together. What we have here is great talents being wasted.

Looking back now, we can say that this is the kind of films Hollywood should be doing now. Put together three big stars from different generations and make a good film about a good subject; in the case of "Family Business" about a family united in criminal activities. A material like this could rescue the career of many veterans actors.In 1989, having Sean Connery (after Oscar for "The Untouchables"), Dustin Hoffman (right away for his Oscar in "Rain Man") and Matthew Broderick (still on the wave from hits like "Biloxi Blues" and "Ferris Bueller Day Off") as the cast from this film directed by Sidney Lumet was solid gold, a real bait to attract audiences, and even know when you hear that those talents were together in a picture you rush away to see it. Those are the expectations but expectations always differ from reality. Given a better script these could be a better picture than it is, more memorable."Family Business" tells the story of three generations of a problematic Jewish family involved with robberies. It starts when the bright college student Broderick (Hoffman's son and Connery's grandson here) decides to get involved in a sure thing business related to robbing a laboratory and he calls for his family to help with. But all of this triggers a crisis among father and son and grandfather, when Hoffman's characters wants at all costs protect his son for doing this, he doesn't want his son to get caught and arrested while Connery thinks they must do it, because nothing can go wrong. From here, the movie is more about family issues than dangerous and illegal activities. It lacks substance to this being a great film, it lacks something to make us involved with their problems. The main problem was the that there were times when the film required of its viewers a certain seriousness but when we knew this was also a comedy. It gets stranded in never being really funny and never being awfully dramatic as some situations tend do be. The good news about this project is that Sean Connery has an incredible timing for comedy, his punchlines were amazingly funny, not to mention that his character is very problematic yet very amusing. His best scenes are when he defends himself on court for beating a policeman and when he beats another prisoner during their transfer, to what the guard asks what happened and the other prisoners reply "He felt!" A path should be decided by the writers in what type of film they were looking for, a goofy comedy or a powerful drama about family relations, and that was a deficiency that almost ruined the film for me. Regarding the most awaited moment of this, the robbery was pretty good, funny and tense at the same time but the whole situation involving Broderick's arrest was poorly made, unconvincing that he couldn't run away and cross the street to his family car or run to any other direction when it was clearly enough that the police wasn't so close to him, that scene is bizarre. One final complaint: the soundtrack was totally wrong for this film, hauntingly dramatic.What makes me like of this film, except the reunion of stars involved even though they're not at their best and they are somewhat mediocre, is its way of showing us the importance of family and caring about them whether through good times or bad times. When it comes down to present how Hoffman suffers for his son, wants the best for him, is when the movie really hits the target, family is family and business are business and sometimes they should not be mixed, otherwise is problems to both sides. And that's the ruin for everyone involved.A good film from the 1980's, deeply flawed but completely watchable. I'm positive that Lumet has better than this. 6/10

For many, the family business is a meat market, or a hardware store, or maybe even a homely little jewelry store. For the McMullen's, the family business is armed robbery. Jessie McMullen (Sean Connery) is an aging yet unabashed criminal who has been in the business for many years. When his grandson, Adam (Matthew Broderick), finds the opportunity to net a cool million dollars, Jessie organizes one last heist with himself, Adam, and Adam's father, Jessies son, Vito (Dustin Hoffman). Vito is reluctant at first, but eventually comes around to pull of the heist. The movie tells the story of some rocky family ties and how the relationship between these three generations waxes and wanes in a very unconventional method.The film is directed by the late and great Sydney Lumet. Lumet wasn't a consistent director and obviously put out some pretty terrible films, as well as some incredible films. Family Business falls right in between these two poles. It has its problems but it isn't a terrible film. Lumet directs the film very well with some great tracking shots of various New York locations we see in the film. The two funerals that take place in the film both include pans that lay out the characters very nicely in tightly constructed cinematography that isn't exactly flashy or incredible to look at, but adds a very subtle quality to the direction of the film. Lumet also directs his actors with a lot of precision and the performances from the three leads are excellent. All three characters are very different, not only in age but in personality and personal convictions. Each actor plays their character's nuances and attitudes very nicely, delivering dialogue that is at times cheesy and convoluted, yet also sharp when it isn't being silly.The nice thing about this film is that there aren't any glaring issues. There are a multitude of small problems along the way, but nothing that kills the film's momentum or ruins the story. The issues range from bad chunks of dialogue, to moments that just don't fit well with the story, like Sean Connery singing. There are some pretty ugly plot holes that stick out when present, but thankfully they aren't anything that carry over throughout the film, causing more and more unrealistic problems. Overall the story doesn't exactly tie up as nicely as it could have. It leaves some loose ends and it resolves a few points a little too easily. I can't buy into everything that happened in this film, but I can believe enough to say that this is a decent film.This is really just a film that sets out to entertain and tell an interesting story. It kept me interested from start to finish, and there were enough good things about this film to allow me to thoroughly enjoy it. The high points would be Lumet's direction and the great performances from the three leads. The low points would be the kinks in the story and some of the forced dialogue. Yet overall this is a fun little film that more or less accomplishes what little it sets out to do.

The first problem with this "movie" is the endless opening long shot that takes us over a NY street and buildings and traffic. We keep waiting for something to happen. While this shot is going on endlessly, we are forced to listen to a bizarre Cy Coleman score which sounds like it was salvaged from an off-Broadway show based on the "That Girl" TV series. It's ghastly. When the shot finally ends, it ends on the top of a building and it looks like it is focusing on either pigeon sh*t or cocaine -- it's hard to tell.The second problem with the movie is the casting. We are asked to believe that Dustin Hoffman shows up with his wife at a Seder--and yet, he's not the Jewish one! Oh, come on. So, they named him Vito so he'd be Sicilian? And then his father is supposed to be Sean Connery? And Dusty's son is supposed to be Matthew Broderick? What a joke! Maybe that was the joke.Matthew Broderick is a rude, obnoxious, ungrateful brat and there is one fabulous scene in where he keeps telling Dusty, after he's made his grand plan to rob someone, "There's nothing you can do about it." Dusty says, "There's nothing I can do?" And then he SLAPS him as hard as he can. It was gratifying, it really was.But then, later on in the movie, Dusty is seen brutalizing some poor Hispanic man who's been caught stealing meat while on the job at Dusty's meat factory. You have to see it to believe it. Is that Dusty's "Mafia" blood coming out? In the midst of this "film" there is this ENDLESS funeral scene with all these people we don't give two flying f's about because we don't know who they are. We watched this film and kept staring at each other: What's it about? When does it start? Has it started? Why is Sean Connery Dustin Hoffman's father when it's obvious that there's no way in hell that he could be? We nodded off half way through to the "delightful strains" of Mr. Coleman's "they should have used this score the first time I wrote it!" score -- which only made me think of a 60s TV show... oh, right, "That Girl." Except -- that isn't what this movie was supposed to be about - - unless it was. Don't waste your time--unless that's what you like doing.