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- BEST CRIME MOVIE OF ALL TIME. The Godfather (1972) The Godfather • Trailer. The Godfather is the best crime movie of all time as well as the front runner for the greatest overall film of all time.
- BEST CRIME MOVIES. Heat (1995) Heat • Trailer. While many great crime movies take place in America, this is the ultimate modern American crime movie. It’s one of the greatest action crime movies which includes the greatest heist scene of all time and one of Robert De Niro best performances.
- ORGANIZED CRIME DRAMAS. Goodfellas (1990) Goodfellas • Trailer. This may be the most important crime film ever to be made, because the criminals in this film are highly unlikeable.
- BEST CRIME DRAMAS. The Godfather: Part II (1974) The Godfather: Part II • Trailer. Many believe this crime film is actually better than its predecessor, but regardless of where you place this film it is undeniably one of the top crime films ever made.
- Eric Farwell
- 1 min
- "The French Connection" (1971) This William Friedkin neo-noir masterpiece all but swept the 44th Academy Awards. The adaptation of Robin Moore's non-fiction book sees two detectives try to bring down a drug kingpin with complications arising at every turn.
- "The Godfather" and "The Godfather Part II" (1972, 1974) Francis Ford Coppola's career high mark gave audiences the American crime saga of the Corleone mafia family toward the end of the '50s, with Part II looking back on the criminal clan after Vito Corleone (Robert De Niro) moves to the States from Sicily.
- "The Departed" (2006) After a long and illustrious career, no one expected any more surprises from Jack Nicholson, yet here he is, giving the complex Irish mafia boss Frank Costello the best he has to offer.
- "Pulp Fiction" (1994) While Hollywood was busy churning out thrillers (and mostly bad comedies) in the 1980s, Quentin Tarantino was busy figuring out how he would define the next era of cinema.
- 25 'Ocean's Eleven'
- 24 'The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover'
- 23 'Gangs of Wasseypur'
- 22 'Dog Day Afternoon'
- 21 'White Heat'
- 20 'The Untouchables'
- 19 'Rope'
- 18 'Once Upon A Time in America'
- 17 'uncut Gems'
- 16 'L.A. Confidential'
Directed by Steven Soderbergh
2001's Ocean's Eleven is the rare example of a remake surpassing the original. While the 1960 film of the same name was decent for its time, the updated version made noticeable improvements when it came to tone, pacing, and characters, and is an overall breezier, more enjoyable heist movie than the original. It also has one of the most impressive casts of all time, including big names like George Clooney, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, and Julia Roberts, too. The plot is technically about assembling...
Directed by Peter Greenaway
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover takes place inside a classy restaurant... though the titular thief (Michael Gambon in an amazing villainous performance) dining there every night is making it a far less desirable place. He bullies his entourage of gang members, makes the restaurant staff uncomfortable, and consistently torments his wife (Helen Mirren), who one day strikes back against his behavior by starting an affair with one of the restaurant's other frequent patrons. This kicks o...
Directed by Anurag Kashyap
An Indian crime epic that runs for over five hours and was released in two parts, Gangs of Wasseypur is everything you could want out of a large-scale gangster movie. It begins in the 1940s and ends seven decades later, telling the story of three generations worth of warfare between two crime families in the Indian city of Dhanbad. It's a film that overall wears its influences on its sleeve, but borrows from enough sources - and remixes them in interesting enough ways - to ensure it never fee...
Directed by Sidney Lumet
Al Pacino has always been able to pull off some fantastically "big" performances, and the classic Dog Day Afternoongives him plenty of chances to do just that. It's a consistently tense film, following the true story of a bank robbery that spirals out of control and becomes a huge sensation in the news. It's such an efficiently paced and always engaging movie, with the action kicking off almost immediately and things never really letting up until the end. Dog Day Afternoon is the kind of film...
Directed by Raoul Walsh
Old-school black-and-white gangster movies might feel like a product of their time to some fans of the crime genre, but those viewers might be surprised to learn how well some of the genre's early films hold up. White Heat was by no means the first film of its kind, but it arguably represents the "classic" (or at least pre-1960s) gangster movie at its best. White Heat stands out among these classic gangster films, considering it was released in the 1940s rather than the 1930s, but is definite...
Directed by Brian De Palma
Crime movies set during the Prohibition era don't get much more iconic than The Untouchables. Make no mistake; it's a far from historically accurate movie, but is instead a highly fictionalized (and very Hollywood) depiction of how law enforcement agent Eliot Ness put together a team to try and take down Al Caponeand his criminal empire. As long as you accept that it breaks from reality a bunch of times, The Untouchables is a blast. It's got a great cast that includes Robert De Niro, Kevin Co...
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
There are obviously plenty of great Alfred Hitchcock movies that cross over into the crime genre, though many are more clearly identifiable as thrillers. Still, it would be unjust to completely pass over all Hitchcock movies when going over some of the best crime movies of all time, and one of his best (and most underrated) crime-related movies would have to be Rope. It follows two young men who attempt to pull off the perfect crime and get away with it, hiding the body of their newly murdere...
Directed by Sergio Leone
It's fitting that Sergio Leone's final film ends up feeling like a farewell to a certain point in history, as well as something of a eulogy for the gangster genre as a whole, given its deconstructive nature. That film is the nearly four-hour epic Once Upon a Time in America, and it stands to this day as a massive achievement that's seldom been topped; indeed, one of Leone's very best movies, which is really saying something. It spans decades and follows several young boys who grow up to becom...
Directed by The Safdie Brothers
While Uncut Gems has a little comedic relief, those expecting it to be a light-hearted and/or silly comedy like mostAdam Sandler movies are going to be in for a shock. It's an anxiety-inducing movie about a compulsive jeweler who never knows when to quit, and is continually borrowing money (and angering loan sharks) in his never-ending quest to earn the ultimate score. This makes Uncut Gems a dark comedy, an intense thriller, and a grim exploration of the nature of addiction, too. Much of the...
Directed by Curtis Hanson
The original era of film noir movies may have only lasted throughout the 1940s and 1950s, but movies like L.A. Confidentialhave been instrumental in keeping the spirit of film noir alive. It's one of the best neo-noir movies of all time, and follows three detectives in the 1950s who are trying to solve a series of brutal murders. L.A. Confidential is an exciting and unpredictable film, and has more than enough plot twists and narrative left-turns to keep even hardened film noir connoisseurs o...
- Jeremy Urquhart
- Feature Writer/Senior List Writer
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- Updates Editor
- 'The Godfather' (1972) IMDb Rating: 9.2/10. The Godfather is a crime film that needs no introduction. Based on Mario Puzo’s eponymous 1969 novel, the iconic movie is centered on the Sicilian clan headed by Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando).
- 'The Dark Knight' (2008) IMDb Rating: 9.0/10. Still considered by most fans and critics as the best live-action Batman movie, The Dark Night is a dark and gritty superhero film that’s difficult to compare to anything in the oversaturated genre.
- 'The Godfather Part II' (1974) IMDb Rating: 9.0/10. The Godfather Part II continues director Francis Ford Coppola’s epic crime trilogy by serving as both a sequel and prequel to the 1972 film.
- '12 Angry Men' (1957) IMDb Rating: 9.0/10. Director Sidney Lumet’s 12 Angry Men is a legendary courtroom drama that revolves around the titular jurors, who struggle to come to an agreement in a hot and stuffy jury room of the New York County Courthouse.
100 titles. Sort by List order. 1. Once Upon a Time in America. 1984 3h 49m R. 8.3 (379K) Rate. 75 Metascore. A former Prohibition-era Jewish gangster returns to the Lower East Side of Manhattan 35 years later, where he must once again confront the ghosts and regrets of his old life. Director Stars. 2. L.A. Confidential. 1997 2h 18m R. 8.2 (619K)
Apr 24, 2024 · 1. The Maltese Falcon. Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre. 74 votes. The Maltese Falcon (1941), directed by John Huston, is a cornerstone of the film noir genre, delivering a spellbinding mix of intrigue, betrayal, and mystery.
Martin Scorsese: 6 films (Taxi Driver; Goodfellas; The King of Comedy; After Hours; Killers of the Flower Moon; The Departed) The Coen brothers: 4 films (No Country for Old Men; The Big Lebowski; Fargo; Raising Arizona) Michael Mann: 3 films (Heat; Miami Vice; Thief) Quentin Tarantino: 3 films (Pulp Fiction; Reservoir Dogs; Kill Bill: Vol. 1)
