Top 100 films in Crime

between and
Sort by

The Godfather

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola | Rated R | 175 min | 1972

The aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son.


Taxi Driver

Directed by Martin Scorsese | Rated R | 113 min | 1976

A mentally unstable Vietnam War veteran works as a night-time taxi driver in New York City where the perceived decadence and sleaze feeds his urge for violent action, attempting to save a preadolescent prostitute in the process.


Pulp Fiction

Directed by Quentin Tarantino | Rated R | 154 min | 1994

The lives of two mob hit men, a boxer, a gangster's wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.


The Godfather: Part II

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola | Rated R | 202 min | 1974

The early life and career of Vito Corleone in 1920s New York is portrayed while his son, Michael, expands and tightens his grip on his crime syndicate stretching from Lake Tahoe, Nevada to pre-revolution 1958 Cuba.


Goodfellas

Directed by Martin Scorsese | Rated R | 146 min | 1990

Henry Hill and his friends work their way up through the mob hierarchy.


On the Waterfront

Directed by Elia Kazan | 108 min | 1954

An ex-prize fighter turned longshoreman struggles to stand up to his corrupt union bosses.


A Clockwork Orange

Directed by Stanley Kubrick | Rated X | 136 min | 1971

In future Britain, charismatic delinquent Alex DeLarge is jailed and volunteers for an experimental aversion therapy developed by the government in an effort to solve society's crime problem - but not all goes according to plan.


North by Northwest

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock | 136 min | 1959

A hapless New York advertising executive is mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies, and is pursued across the country while he looks for a way to survive.


The Silence of the Lambs

Directed by Jonathan Demme | Rated R | 118 min | 1991

A young F.B.I. cadet must confide in an incarcerated and manipulative killer to receive his help on catching another serial killer who skins his victims.


To Kill a Mockingbird

Directed by Robert Mulligan | 129 min | 1962

Atticus Finch, a lawyer in the Depression-era South, defends a black man against an undeserved rape charge, and his kids against prejudice.


Rashomon

Directed by Akira Kurosawa | 88 min | 1950

A heinous crime and its aftermath are recalled from differing points of view.


West Side Story

Directed by Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise | 152 min | 1961

Two youngsters from rival New York City gangs fall in love, but tensions between their respective friends build toward tragedy.


Fargo

Directed by Joel Coen, Ethan Coen | Rated R | 98 min | 1996

Jerry Lundegaard's inept crime falls apart due to his and his henchmen's bungling and the persistent police work of the quite pregnant Marge Gunderson.


L.A. Confidential

Directed by Curtis Hanson | Rated R | 138 min | 1997

As corruption grows in 1950s LA, three policemen - one strait-laced, one brutal, and one sleazy - investigate a series of murders with their own brand of justice.


Mean Streets

Directed by Martin Scorsese | Rated R | 112 min | 1973

Following the life of a small-time hood who struggles with a moral crisis regarding his friends, family, business, and his conflicting religious beliefs.


Double Indemnity

Directed by Billy Wilder | 107 min | 1944

An insurance representative lets himself be talked into a murder/insurance fraud scheme that arouses an insurance investigator's suspicions.


The Night of the Hunter

Directed by Charles Laughton, Robert Mitchum, Terry Sanders | 92 min | 1955

A religious fanatic marries a gullible widow whose young children are reluctant to tell him where their real daddy hid $10,000 he'd stolen in a robbery.


Touch of Evil

Directed by Orson Welles | Rated PG-13 | 95 min | 1958

A stark, perverse story of murder, kidnapping, and police corruption in a Mexican border town.


The 400 Blows

Directed by François Truffaut | 99 min | 1959

Moving story of a young boy who, left without attention, delves into a life of petty crime.


Bonnie and Clyde

Directed by Arthur Penn | 111 min | 1967

A somewhat romanticized account of the career of the notoriously violent bank robbing couple and their gang.


The Shawshank Redemption

Directed by Frank Darabont | Rated R | 142 min | 1994

Two imprisoned men bond over a number of years, finding solace and eventual redemption through acts of common decency.


The Dark Knight

Directed by Christopher Nolan | Rated PG-13 | 152 min | 2008

When the menace known as the Joker wreaks havoc and chaos on the people of Gotham, the caped crusader must come to terms with one of the greatest psychological tests of his ability to fight injustice.


The Sting

Directed by George Roy Hill | Rated PG | 129 min | 1973

In Chicago in September 1936, a young con man seeking revenge for his murdered partner teams up with a master of the big con to win a fortune from a criminal banker.


The French Connection

Directed by William Friedkin | Rated R | 104 min | 1971

A pair of NYC cops in the Narcotics Bureau stumble onto a drug smuggling job with a French connection.


12 Angry Men

Directed by Sidney Lumet | 96 min | 1957

A jury holdout attempts to prevent a miscarriage of justice by forcing his colleagues to reconsider the evidence.


Dog Day Afternoon

Directed by Sidney Lumet | Rated R | 125 min | 1975

A man robs a bank to pay for his lover's operation; it turns into a hostage situation and a media circus.


Breathless

Directed by Jean-Luc Godard | 90 min | 1960

A small-time thief steals a car and impulsively murders a motorcycle policeman. Wanted by the authorities, he reunites with a hip American journalism student and attempts to persuade her to run away with him to Italy.


No Country for Old Men

Directed by Ethan Coen, Joel Coen | Rated R | 122 min | 2007

Violence and mayhem ensue after a hunter stumbles upon a drug deal gone wrong and more than two million dollars in cash near the Rio Grande.


M

Directed by Fritz Lang | 99 min | 1931

When the police in a German city are unable to catch a child-murderer, other criminals join in the manhunt.


The Usual Suspects

Directed by Bryan Singer | Rated R | 106 min | 1995

A sole survivor tells of the twisty events leading up to a horrific gun battle on a boat, which begin when five criminals meet at a seemingly random police lineup.


Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Directed by George Roy Hill | Rated M | 110 min | 1969

Two Western bank/train robbers flee to Bolivia when the law gets too close.


Spotlight

Directed by Tom McCarthy | Rated R | 128 min | 2015

The true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese, shaking the entire Catholic Church to its core.


Kind Hearts and Coronets

Directed by Robert Hamer | 106 min | 1949

A distant poor relative of the Duke of D'Ascoyne plots to inherit the title by murdering the eight other heirs who stand ahead of him in the line of succession.


Laura

Directed by Otto Preminger | 88 min | 1944

A police detective falls in love with the woman whose murder he is investigating.


Léon: The Professional

Directed by Luc Besson | Rated R | 110 min | 1994

Mathilda, a 12-year-old girl, is reluctantly taken in by Léon, a professional assassin, after her family is murdered. Léon and Mathilda form an unusual relationship, as she becomes his protégée and learns the assassin's trade.


The Irishman

Directed by Martin Scorsese | Rated R | 209 min | 2019

A mob hitman recalls his friend Jimmy Hoffa.


Thelma & Louise

Directed by Ridley Scott | Rated R | 130 min | 1991

An Arkansas waitress and a housewife shoot a rapist and take off in a '66 Thunderbird.


Parasite

Directed by Bong Joon Ho | Rated R | 132 min | 2019

All unemployed, Ki-taek and his family take peculiar interest in the wealthy and glamorous Parks, as they ingratiate themselves into their lives and get entangled in an unexpected incident.


Se7en

Directed by David Fincher | Rated R | 127 min | 1995

Two detectives, a rookie and a veteran, hunt a serial killer who uses the seven deadly sins as his modus operandi.


The Departed

Directed by Martin Scorsese | Rated R | 151 min | 2006

An undercover cop and a mole in the police attempt to identify each other while infiltrating an Irish gang in South Boston.


In the Heat of the Night

Directed by Norman Jewison | 109 min | 1967

An African American police detective is asked to investigate a murder in a racially hostile southern town.


The Informer

Directed by John Ford | 91 min | 1935

In 1922, an Irish rebel informs on his friend, then feels doom closing in.


Z

Directed by Costa-Gavras | Rated M | 127 min | 1969

Following the murder of a prominent leftist, an investigator tries to uncover the truth while government officials attempt to cover up their roles.


Man on Wire

Directed by James Marsh | Rated PG-13 | 94 min | 2008

A look at tightrope walker Philippe Petit's daring, but illegal, high-wire routine performed between New York City's World Trade Center's twin towers in 1974, what some consider, "the artistic crime of the century."


Once Upon a Time in America

Directed by Sergio Leone | Rated R | 229 min | 1984

A former Prohibition-era Jewish gangster returns to the Lower East Side of Manhattan over thirty years later, where he once again must confront the ghosts and regrets of his old life.


Reservoir Dogs

Directed by Quentin Tarantino | Rated R | 99 min | 1992

After a simple jewelry heist goes terribly wrong, the surviving criminals begin to suspect that one of them is a police informant.


Badlands

Directed by Terrence Malick | Rated PG | 94 min | 1973

An impressionable teenage girl from a dead-end town and her older greaser boyfriend embark on a killing spree in the South Dakota badlands.


Boyz n the Hood

Directed by John Singleton | Rated R | 112 min | 1991

Follows the lives of three young males living in the Crenshaw ghetto of Los Angeles, dissecting questions of race, relationships, violence and future prospects.


La Haine

Directed by Mathieu Kassovitz | 98 min | 1995

24 hours in the lives of three young men in the French suburbs the day after a violent riot.


Monsieur Verdoux

Directed by Charles Chaplin | 124 min | 1947

A suave but cynical man supports his family by marrying and murdering rich women for their money, but the job has some occupational hazards.


The Player

Directed by Robert Altman | Rated R | 124 min | 1992

A Hollywood studio executive is being sent death threats by a writer whose script he rejected - but which one?


Traffic

Directed by Steven Soderbergh | Rated R | 147 min | 2000

A conservative judge is appointed by the President to spearhead America's escalating war against drugs, only to discover that his teenage daughter is a crack addict. Two DEA agents protect an informant. A jailed drug baron's wife attempts to carry on the family business.


The Ladykillers

Directed by Alexander Mackendrick | Rated N/A | 91 min | 1955

Five diverse oddball criminal types planning a bank robbery rent rooms on a cul-de-sac from an octogenarian widow under the pretext that they are classical musicians.


Anatomy of a Murder

Directed by Otto Preminger | 160 min | 1959

In a murder trial, the defendant says he suffered temporary insanity after the victim raped his wife. What is the truth, and will he win his case?


Brighton Rock

Directed by John Boulting | Rated N/A | 92 min | 1947

Pinkie Brown is a small-town hoodlum whose gang runs a protection racket based at Brighton race course. When Pinkie orders the murder of a rival, Fred, the police believe it to be suicide. ...


City of God

Directed by Fernando Meirelles, Kátia Lund | Rated R | 130 min | 2002

Two boys growing up in a violent neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro take different paths: one becomes a photographer, the other a drug dealer.


Get Carter

Directed by Mike Hodges | Rated R | 112 min | 1971

When his brother dies under mysterious circumstances in a car accident, London gangster Jack Carter travels to Newcastle to investigate.


The Lavender Hill Mob

Directed by Charles Crichton | 78 min | 1951

A meek bank clerk who oversees the shipment of bullion joins with an eccentric neighbor to steal gold bars and smuggle them out of the country as miniature Eiffel Towers.


Dirty Harry

Directed by Don Siegel | Rated R | 102 min | 1971

When a mad man calling himself 'the Scorpio Killer' menaces the city, tough as nails San Francisco Police Inspector Harry Callahan is assigned to track down and ferret out the crazed psychopath.


Pierrot le Fou

Directed by Jean-Luc Godard | 110 min | 1965

Pierrot escapes his boring society and travels from Paris to the Mediterranean Sea with Marianne, a girl chased by hit-men from Algeria. They lead an unorthodox life, always on the run.


Close-Up

Directed by Abbas Kiarostami | 98 min | 1990

Pretending to be Mohsen Makhmalbaf making his next movie, Hossain Sabzian enters the home of a well-to-do family in Tehran, promising it a prominent part in his next movie. The actual ...


Devil in a Blue Dress

Directed by Carl Franklin | Rated R | 102 min | 1995

An African-American man is hired to find a woman, and gets mixed up in a murderous political scandal.


Juice

Directed by Ernest R. Dickerson | Rated R | 95 min | 1992

Four inner-city teenagers get caught up in the pursuit of power and happiness, which they refer to as "the juice".


Mississippi Burning

Directed by Alan Parker | Rated R | 128 min | 1988

Two FBI agents with wildly different styles arrive in Mississippi to investigate the disappearance of some civil rights activists.


Mystic River

Directed by Clint Eastwood | Rated R | 138 min | 2003

With a childhood tragedy that overshadowed their lives, three men are reunited by circumstance when one has a family tragedy.


O.J.: Made in America

Directed by Ezra Edelman | Rated TV-MA | 467 min | 2016

A chronicle of the rise and fall of O.J. Simpson, whose high-profile murder trial exposed the extent of American racial tensions, revealing a fractured and divided nation.


Shaft

Directed by Gordon Parks | Rated R | 100 min | 1971

Cool black private eye John Shaft is hired by a crime lord to find and retrieve his kidnapped daughter.


Super Fly

Directed by Gordon Parks Jr. | Rated R | 93 min | 1972

The daily routine of cocaine dealer Priest who wants to score one more super deal and retire.


Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song

Directed by Melvin Van Peebles | Rated R | 97 min | 1971

After saving a Black Panther from some racist cops, a black male prostitute goes on the run from "the man" with the help of the ghetto community and some disillusioned Hells Angels.


The Spook Who Sat by the Door

Directed by Ivan Dixon | Rated PG | 102 min | 1973

A black man plays Uncle Tom in order to gain access to CIA training, then uses that knowledge to plot a new American Revolution.


The Long Good Friday

Directed by John Mackenzie | Rated R | 114 min | 1980

Harold, a prosperous English gangster, is about to close a lucrative new deal when bombs start showing up in very inconvenient places. A mysterious syndicate is trying to muscle in on his ...


The Crying Game

Directed by Neil Jordan | Rated R | 112 min | 1992

A British soldier is kidnapped by IRA terrorists. He befriends one of his captors, who is drawn into the soldier's world.


The Grand Budapest Hotel

Directed by Wes Anderson | Rated R | 99 min | 2014

The adventures of Gustave H, a legendary concierge at a famous hotel from the fictional Republic of Zubrowka between the first and second World Wars, and Zero Moustafa, the lobby boy who becomes his most trusted friend.


Whisky Galore

Directed by Alexander Mackendrick | 82 min | 1949

Scottish islanders try to plunder 50,000 cases of whisky from a stranded ship.


American Hustle

Directed by David O. Russell | Rated R | 138 min | 2013

A con man, Irving Rosenfeld, along with his seductive partner Sydney Prosser, is forced to work for a wild FBI agent, Richie DiMaso, who pushes them into a world of Jersey powerbrokers and mafia.


Atlantic City

Directed by Louis Malle | Rated R | 104 min | 1980

In a corrupt city, a small-time gangster and the estranged wife of a pot dealer finds themselves thrown together in an escapade of love, money, drugs, and danger.


Out of Sight

Directed by Steven Soderbergh | Rated R | 123 min | 1998

A career bank robber breaks out of jail and shares a moment of mutual attraction with a US Marshall he has kidnapped.


Prizzi's Honor

Directed by John Huston | Rated R | 130 min | 1985

A professional hit man and hit woman fall in love.


The Big Lebowski

Directed by Joel Coen, Ethan Coen | Rated R | 117 min | 1998

"The Dude" Lebowski, mistaken for a millionaire Lebowski, seeks restitution for his ruined rug and enlists his bowling buddies to help get it.


The Defiant Ones

Directed by Stanley Kramer | 96 min | 1958

Two escaped convicts chained together, white and black, must learn to get along in order to elude capture.


This Is England

Directed by Shane Meadows | 101 min | 2006

A young boy becomes friends with a gang of skinheads. Friends soon become like family, and relationships will be pushed to the very limit.


Marnie

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock | 130 min | 1964

Mark marries Marnie although she is a habitual thief and has serious psychological problems, and tries to help her confront and resolve them.


Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Directed by Martin McDonagh | Rated R | 115 min | 2017

A mother personally challenges the local authorities to solve her daughter's murder when they fail to catch the culprit.


Monster

Directed by Patty Jenkins | Rated R | 109 min | 2003

Based on the life of Aileen Wuornos, a Daytona Beach prostitute who became a serial killer.


The Italian Job

Directed by Peter Collinson | Rated G | 99 min | 1969

Comic caper movie about a plan to steal a gold shipment from the streets of Turin by creating a traffic jam.


A Fish Called Wanda

Directed by Charles Crichton, John Cleese | Rated R | 108 min | 1988

In London, four very different people team up to commit armed robbery, then try to doublecross each other for the loot.


The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover

Directed by Peter Greenaway | Rated NC-17 | 124 min | 1989

The wife of an abusive criminal finds solace in the arms of a kind regular guest in her husbands restaurant.


The Shanghai Gesture

Directed by Josef von Sternberg | 95 min | 1941

A young woman, Poppy, out for excitement in Shanghai, enters a gambling house owned by "Mother" Gin Sling, a dragon-lady who worked herself up from poverty to buy the casino. Sir Guy ...


Oliver Twist

Directed by David Lean | 105 min | 1948

Based on the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist is about an orphan boy who runs away from a workhouse and meets a pickpocket on the streets of London. Oliver is taken in by the pickpocket ...


A Most Violent Year

Directed by J.C. Chandor | Rated R | 125 min | 2014

In New York City 1981, an ambitious immigrant fights to protect his business and family during the most dangerous year in the city's history.


Chicago

Directed by Rob Marshall | Rated PG-13 | 113 min | 2002

Murderesses Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart find themselves on death row together and fight for the fame that will keep them from the gallows in 1920s Chicago.


I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang

Directed by Mervyn LeRoy | 92 min | 1932

Wrongly convicted James Allen serves in the intolerable conditions of a southern chain gang, which later comes back to haunt him.


Performance

Directed by Donald Cammell, Nicolas Roeg | Rated X | 105 min | 1970

Chas, a violent and psychotic East London gangster needs a place to lie low after a hit that should never have been carried out. He finds the perfect cover in the form of guest house run by...


Crash

Directed by Paul Haggis | Rated R | 112 min | 2004

Los Angeles citizens with vastly separate lives collide in interweaving stories of race, loss and redemption.


Mona Lisa

Directed by Neil Jordan | Rated R | 104 min | 1986

George has just been released from prison, and manages to get a job driving a call girl from customer to customer. Initially they don't get on; he doesn't fit in with the high class customers Simone services. Will they ever get on?


The Day of the Jackal

Directed by Fred Zinnemann | Rated PG | 143 min | 1973

A professional assassin codenamed "Jackal" plots to kill Charles de Gaulle, the President of France.


American History X

Directed by Tony Kaye | Rated R | 119 min | 1998

A former neo-nazi skinhead tries to prevent his younger brother from going down the same wrong path that he did.


Capote

Directed by Bennett Miller | Rated R | 114 min | 2005

In 1959, Truman Capote learns of the murder of a Kansas family and decides to write a book about the case. While researching for his novel In Cold Blood, Capote forms a relationship with one of the killers, Perry Smith, who is on death row.


Drugstore Cowboy

Directed by Gus Van Sant | Rated R | 102 min | 1989

A pharmacy-robbing dope fiend and his crew pop pills and evade the law.


If Beale Street Could Talk

Directed by Barry Jenkins | Rated N/A | 119 min | 2018

A woman in Harlem embraces her pregnancy while she and her family struggle to prove her fiancé innocent of a crime.

Latest News

2021 Award Winners :) May 3, 2022

Per usual, we've added the award winners from last year (2021), and updated our rankings!

2020 Award Winners! May 9, 2021

As always, we've added the award winners from last year (2020), and updated our rankings!

All the 2019 Award Winners and Updated Rankings February 22, 2020

We've added all the award winners from 2019, and updated our rankings!


Film lists