100 Best crime movies of all time – WRCB-TV

By: Emily Kubincanek

Crime movies create some of the most exciting, devastating, and enlightening stories to live within cinema. Through crime, filmmakers can question not just law and order, but what it means to be human, what constitutes a good life, and what’s been taught as good and evil. The best crime movies have always blurred those lines between good and evil in order to make a compelling story, but also to speak on assumptions made everyday. Since the genre is so vast, it can be intimidating when finding a place to start. Thankfully, this list will give you a look at all kinds of crime movies, from all ends of the world.

For this list of movies, Stacker compiled data on all crime movies to come up with a Stacker score—a weighted index split evenly between IMDb and Metacritic scores. To qualify, the film had to be listed as a crime movie on IMDb, have a Metascore, and have at least 5,000 votes. Ties were broken by Metascore and further ties were broken by IMDb user rating.

Every film on the list has been considered according to the cinematic history and development of crime. Many of the following movies changed film history. Some movements that were centered around depictions of crime include film noir and New Hollywood, but the crime movies’ effect on film history is definitely not limited to those eras in time.

Crime movies are also a place where differing perspectives on crime can be explored, sometimes within the same film. These movies include characters that indulge in crime, some who use it to survive, and some who prosecute people for crimes. Hopefully, the following films will make you rethink how you’ve perceived some crimes and those who may have committed them, all while watching an incredibly entertaining movie.

– Director: Neil Jordan
– Stacker score: 82
– Metascore: 85
– IMDb user rating: 7.3
– Runtime: 104 minutes

This neo-noir shows the underbelly of a society not always associated with gangsters on film, but Neil Jordan brings a British crime world to life on screen. Bob Hoskins plays a gangster just out of prison who takes a job chauffeuring a call girl, but ends up helping search for her lost lover. Although a dark thriller, there is a balanced amount of comedy that makes this film a refreshing watch.

– Director: Marielle Heller
– Stacker score: 82
– Metascore: 87
– IMDb user rating: 7.1
– Runtime: 106 minutes

Melissa McCarthy steps away from her usual comedy performance for this drama about a writer who forges letters from literary celebrities. The moral journey she goes on throughout the movie is one of the most moving stories in the past decade. Marielle Heller turns a true story of crime and loneliness into a fantastic character study.

– Director: Carl Franklin
– Stacker score: 82
– Metascore: 87
– IMDb user rating: 7.1
– Runtime: 105 minutes

Before he made “Devil in a Blue Dress,” one of the most popular neo-noirs of the 1990s, Carl Franklin debuted this crime thriller that also applies the same film noir tropes to a modern story. Billy Bob Thorton co-wrote the script and stars as a murderer on the run from Los Angeles police detectives. This low-budget movie was originally sent straight to home video, but overwhelming critical and audience response helped procure a theatrical release as well.

– Director: Fabián Bielinsky
– Stacker score: 83
– Metascore: 80
– IMDb user rating: 7.9
– Runtime: 114 minutes

A con man enlists two men to sell some forged rare stamps, but the task is no simple scheme. Fabián Bielinsky, Argentinian filmmaker, creates an alluring and visual spectacle worthy of the con artists that are subjects of the film. The Argentine Film Critics Association Awards gave the film five awards, including best film, in 2001.

– Director: James Foley
– Stacker score: 83
– Metascore: 82
– IMDb user rating: 7.7
– Runtime: 100 minutes

It’s impossible to mention this film without first talking about its all-star cast, including Jack Lemmon, Alec Baldwin, Al Pacino, Ed Harris, and Kevin Spacey. They star in an adaptation of the hit play by David Mamet about a group of crooked real estate agents who must con their way to the top of their agency or be fired. Sharp, profane dialogue highlighting a dark view of humanity translates well on screen thanks to great performances that shine even within the actors’ legendary careers.

– Director: Mike Leigh
– Stacker score: 83
– Metascore: 83
– IMDb user rating: 7.6
– Runtime: 125 minutes

Mike Leigh’s story of a working-class woman who performs abortions illegally in the 1950s in London won the Golden Lion award at the 2004 Venice Film Festival. Imelda Staunton stars as the caring Vera, and much of her performance, as well as the other actors’, were full of improvisation. Despite outrage against the abortion methods in the movie, critics praise the humane way the film approaches such a controversial subject.

– Director: Götz Spielmann
– Stacker score: 83
– Metascore: 84
– IMDb user rating: 7.5
– Runtime: 121 minutes

Love and crime exist hand-in-hand in “Revanche,” an Austrian crime drama about a bank robber and his sex worker girlfriend as they evade the law. However, their friendships and acquaintances keep them close to the police. Their relationships, romantic and otherwise, come to a thrilling end that you’ll want to see.

– Director: Lukas Moodysson
– Stacker score: 83
– Metascore: 82
– IMDb user rating: 7.8
– Runtime: 109 minutes

Oksana Akinshina plays the young girl Lilya abandoned by her mother after she moves from the former Soviet Union to the United States. Lilya goes through various horrible experiences that lead her to move away with a man who forces her into sex trafficking. The film offers two endings to Lilya’s tragic story, leaving the audience to choose what happens to her in the end.

– Director: John Woo
– Stacker score: 83
– Metascore: 82
– IMDb user rating: 7.8
– Runtime: 111 minutes

John Woo’s crime thriller “The Killer” is said to be one of Quentin Tarantino’s inspirations for his own violent movies involving crime. An assassin decides to perform one last hit in order to pay for the surgery of a woman he injured. Instead of getting paid, he is double-crossed and his plan rushes toward a bloody standoff. Woo creates an atmospheric action movie that ranks among the quintessential crime movies by which it was inspired.

– Director: Paul Greengrass
– Stacker score: 83
– Metascore: 82
– IMDb user rating: 7.8
– Runtime: 134 minutes

Based on the real-life story about Somali pirates overtaking a container ship, “Captain Phillips” reveals the heroic captain who survived the horrific attack. Tom Hanks plays Captain Richard Phillips in one of his most moving and emotional performances to date. Although, the performance many people praised most was the breakout performance from Barkhad Abdi as the Somali pirate who took over the ship.

– Director: Robert Clouse
– Stacker score: 83
– Metascore: 83
– IMDb user rating: 7.7
– Runtime: 102 minutes

In what would be Bruce Lee’s final completed film before his death, he plays a martial arts instructor on the hunt for the men who killed his sister. With multiple unbelievable fight scenes and superb performances from Lee and supporting actors like John Saxon, this remains one of the most remembered kung fu movies of all time.

– Directors: Robert Zemeckis, Richard Williams
– Stacker score: 83
– Metascore: 83
– IMDb user rating: 7.7
– Runtime: 104 minutes

In an imagined version of Hollywood in 1947, cartoons and people coexist in a world of crime. Roger Rabbit, a cartoon, has been framed for the murder of a businessman and private detective Eddie Valiant is tasked with proving his innocence and finding the real killer. While blending comedy and mystery, “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” Is also a technical and cinematic treasure. The film was given a special achievement Academy Award for its animation in 1988.

– Directors: Cristina Gallego, Ciro Guerra
– Stacker score: 83
– Metascore: 85
– IMDb user rating: 7.5
– Runtime: 125 minutes

A Wayuu family enters the drug trade and begins to prosper. However, their life of abundance doesn’t last long and things turn deadly. The film is a forceful look at the drug trade in a different culture. It was Columbia’s submission to the Academy Awards. Despite not winning the award, many critics loved the film and so did former President Barack Obama.

– Director: Ryan Coogler
– Stacker score: 83
– Metascore: 85
– IMDb user rating: 7.5
– Runtime: 85 minutes

In one of the most tragic movies about police brutality, Michael B. Jordan portrays a man’s last moments before being shot by police in a Bay Area Rapid Transit station in Oakland, California. The movie is based on the real death of Oscar Grant and was director Ryan Coogler’s debut. He would go on to direct “Black Panther.”

– Director: Todd Field
– Stacker score: 83
– Metascore: 86
– IMDb user rating: 7.4
– Runtime: 131 minutes

A love affair leads to a tragic death in this adaptation of the 1979 short story “Killings” by Andre Dubus. The death tears one family apart, and director Todd Field shows their grief and frustration elegantly. Performances by Sissy Spacek and Marisa Tomei show everlasting talent and take this film to the next level.

– Director: Ken Loach
– Stacker score: 83
– Metascore: 86
– IMDb user rating: 7.4
– Runtime: 106 minutes

Ken Loach was committed to having his characters speak in true Glaswegian dialect, so subtitles may be needed to understand the dialogue. However, once you understand what the characters are saying, you’ll be enveloped with a sad, human story. Liam desperately wants a better life once his mother is released from prison, but he turns to dealing drugs to raise the money to do so.

– Director: Andrey Zvyagintsev
– Stacker score: 83
– Metascore: 87
– IMDb user rating: 7.3
– Runtime: 109 minutes

“Elena” is about a woman who has married a wealthy man in the polarized city of Moscow. Her life is made much easier, but her relationship with her husband and her poor son soon turn her desperate. She commits a fatal crime, but her punishment doesn’t come as would be expected. This is a gloomy look at life and about the tough decisions some people make to survive.

– Director: Paul Verhoeven
– Stacker score: 83
– Metascore: 89
– IMDb user rating: 7.1
– Runtime: 130 minutes

Like the kind of crime that it depicts, “Elle” is hard to sum up and fully understand in one paragraph. Renowned French actress Isabelle Hupert gives a once-in-a-career performance as a woman who is raped by an assailant she thinks she knows. How she deals with the assault is unlike any other character in a movie about rape, which is precisely why this movie works so well.

– Director: Anurag Kashyap
– Stacker score: 84
– Metascore: 76
– IMDb user rating: 8.5
– Runtime: 143 minutes

Bombings rip through Mumbai and a police officer has to find out who is responsible for tearing the city apart. However, he finds that powerful businessmen are funding the bombings and stopping further destruction becomes much more complicated than he thought. If you think Indian cinema is limited to Bollywood musicals, this proves you dead wrong.

– Director: Rian Johnson
– Stacker score: 84
– Metascore: 82
– IMDb user rating: 7.9
– Runtime: 130 minutes

After directing the “Star Wars” sequel “The Last Jedi,” Rian Johnson pivoted to an entirely different genre. His 2019 murder mystery “Knives Out” has an Agatha Christie level of humor and twists on top of a stacked cast. Despite being about murder, this movie is a whole lot of fun.

– Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
– Stacker score: 84
– Metascore: 82
– IMDb user rating: 7.9
– Runtime: 157 minutes

Based on one of the screenwriter’s real-life experiences, two murder suspects take authorities on a search for the victim’s buried body. The men discuss philosophy and how the murder unfolded, but as they find the body, more questions arise. Cannes Film Festival awarded this incredible thriller with the Grand Prix in 2011.

– Director: Robert Altman
– Stacker score: 84
– Metascore: 86
– IMDb user rating: 7.5
– Runtime: 124 minutes

This black comedy is about a Hollywood executive who suspects a screenwriter is sending him death threats. Even within director Robert Altman’s fantastic filmography, this crime comedy stands out as one of the best. Like most Altman movies, “The Player” contains countless wonderful actors, including Tim Robbins, Peter Gallagher, and Whoopi Goldberg.

– Director: Kimberly Peirce
– Stacker score: 84
– Metascore: 86
– IMDb user rating: 7.5
– Runtime: 118 minutes

Based on a true story, the life of a transgender man and the crimes committed against him are retold on screen. Hilary Swank portrays Brandon Teena as he tries to grapple with his identity in a world that does not accept him. Swank’s performance was highly acclaimed when the film came out and she won a best actress Oscar in 2000 for her role in the film.

– Directors: Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise
– Stacker score: 84
– Metascore: 86
– IMDb user rating: 7.5
– Runtime: 153 minutes

Adapting the hit broadway musical of the same name, Hollywood brought the updated Shakespearan love story of two competing gangs in Manhattan to the big screen in glorious color. The movie won 10 Oscars, including one for its phenomenal soundtrack by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim. You’ll want to watch the original before Steven Spielberg’s remake comes out soon.

– Director: Joshua Marston
– Stacker score: 84
– Metascore: 87
– IMDb user rating: 7.4
– Runtime: 101 minutes

After she finds out she’s pregnant and quits her horrible job, Maria accepts an offer to traffic drugs into New York from Columbia. Her experience is a rough ride from start to finish and her life is never the same. Drug trafficking is just a mule for the story about the tough lives people live and what they are willing to do to find a better life somewhere else.

– Director: Bennett Miller
– Stacker score: 84
– Metascore: 88
– IMDb user rating: 7.3
– Runtime: 114 minutes

Philip Seymour Hoffman brings author Truman Capote to life in this recounting of how Capote wrote his historical nonfiction book “In Cold Blood.” The murder of an entire family in their farmhouse completely rocked a Kansas town in 1959. Capote engrossed himself in the case, the victims, and the two suspects. His motives are questionable and the story unravels the sensation and tragedy of true crime.

– Director: Bryan Singer
– Stacker score: 84
– Metascore: 77
– IMDb user rating: 8.5
– Runtime: 106 minutes

Through a series of flashbacks and narration, a man tells the cops how he ended up in a massacre on a ship in Los Angeles and survived. Nothing in this investigation is what it seems, creating one of the best neo-noirs ever. For arguably Kevin Spacey’s best performance ever as Roger Kint, he won the best supporting actor Oscar in 1996.

– Director: Quentin Tarantino
– Stacker score: 84
– Metascore: 79
– IMDb user rating: 8.3
– Runtime: 99 minutes

In Quentin Tarantino’s feature debut, he hones in on the style he has immortalized in his career. A group of thieves plan a heist that goes terribly wrong. All the violence, profanity, and references to older action films are at play in Tarantino’s first movie with a cast that few first-time filmmakers would ever get lucky enough to have. Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, and Steve Buscemi bring to life the characters that Tarantino created in a script he wrote while working at a video store in California.

– Director: Wes Anderson
– Stacker score: 84
– Metascore: 83
– IMDb user rating: 7.9
– Runtime: 87 minutes

Wes Anderson creates a stop-motion animated dream world for his adaptation of Roald Dahl’s children’s book “Fantastic Mr. Fox.” Mr. Fox, voiced by George Clooney in the film, steals food from a wealthy farmer, but not without getting caught. He and his family begin to live underground to evade the farmer, but then they decide to fight back. Anderson brings a whimsical and fun tale to the crime genre.

– Director: Steven Soderbergh
– Stacker score: 84
– Metascore: 86
– IMDb user rating: 7.6
– Runtime: 147 minutes

There are no clear good guys in this multilayered, multinarrative movie about an illegal drug trade. Everyone, from drug dealers to politicians, has stories that intertwine somehow, creating a dynamic look at the illegal drug industry that spans countries. If you’re a fan of director Steven Soderbergh’s other movies like “Ocean’s Eleven” or “Sex, Lies, and Videotape,” you’ll want to check this one out.

– Director: Edgar Wright
– Stacker score: 84
– Metascore: 86
– IMDb user rating: 7.6
– Runtime: 113 minutes

There has never been a choreographed heist movie quite like this one directed by the man also behind “Shaun of the Dead” and “The World’s End.” Baby, a heist driver who always has to be listening to the best music possible, sees his life change after he meets his dream girl Debora, but his fast-paced life as a driver gets in the way. With some of the coolest car stunts ever, Wright creates an exciting story that lives up to the awesome music in the background.

– Directors: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
– Stacker score: 84
– Metascore: 87
– IMDb user rating: 7.5
– Runtime: 95 minutes

A young, poor couple are forever changed once Sonia discovers she’s pregnant with a child they cannot afford. Bruno promises to quit his petty theft in order to provide for their family, but he learns of a black market adoption scheme that could make them a lot of money. His decisions wreck their lives forever, and like the Belgian Dardenne brothers do so well, the story unfolds from an objective, unrelenting point of view.

– Director: Abraham Polonsky
– Stacker score: 84
– Metascore: 89
– IMDb user rating: 7.3
– Runtime: 79 minutes

This melodramatic film noir features John Garfield as a lawyer who works for a crooked businessman involved in a corrupt numbers racket. There’s plenty of double-crossing, gun-shooting, and Biblical references. Director Abraham Polonsky did not get to make any movies as big as this one after he was blacklisted from Hollywood for suspected communist views.

– Director: Neil Jordan
– Stacker score: 84
– Metascore: 90
– IMDb user rating: 7.2
– Runtime: 112 minutes

A Northern Ireland IRS soldier becomes friends with the man he kidnaps to bargain with British forces. He promises his prisoner that he will check on his girlfriend if anything happens to him. The story’s shocking twist is what draws many people to this movie, but few thrillers are able to balance excitement and intimacy as well as “The Crying Game” does.

– Director: David O. Russell
– Stacker score: 84
– Metascore: 90
– IMDb user rating: 7.2
– Runtime: 138 minutes

Top tier Hollywood actors came together to give fantastic performances in David O. Russell’s black comedy “American Hustle.” Two con artists, played by Christian Bale and Amy Adams, are forced into a sting operation by an FBI agent, played by Bradley Cooper. The film was acclaimed by critics when it was released and had 10 nominations at the 2014 Academy Awards, but sadly didn’t win a single Oscar.

– Director: Stanley Kubrick
– Stacker score: 85
– Metascore: 80
– IMDb user rating: 8.3
– Runtime: 136 minutes

The most vile human behavior is on display in Stanley Kubrick’s remarkable adaptation of Anthony Burgess’ novel. Alex is an apathetic delinquent who goes on crime sprees with his friends at night without ever getting caught. Until one night he rapes and robs a couple and is forced onto the path of rehabilitation. Like Burgess’ novel, the movie asks the audience to question everything they’ve been conditioned to think about free will.

– Director: Bong Joon Ho
– Stacker score: 85
– Metascore: 82
– IMDb user rating: 8.1
– Runtime: 132 minutes

Before he made the 2019 hit movie “Parasite,” Bong Joon Ho made this crime drama inspired by the first known serial killer in Korea’s history. Two detectives try to solve the murders of two women who were also raped, but they employ two opposing strategies. Even though the serial murders are brutal, the violence shown in the movie happens at the hands of the detectives. The frustration in the absence of justice is shown expertly as always by the director, despite only being his second feature film.

– Director: Yuriy Bykov
– Stacker score: 85
– Metascore: 83
– IMDb user rating: 8
– Runtime: 116 minutes

One simple Russian plumber tries to convince officials that a poorly constructed apartment building is about to collapse and kill hundreds of people living inside. The corrupt local government refuses to take responsibility and evacuate the building like the plumber wants. This dark drama offers a bleak reality of Russian life and what happens to good people who try to do the right thing against powerful leaders.

– Director: Quentin Tarantino
– Stacker score: 85
– Metascore: 83
– IMDb user rating: 8
– Runtime: 137 minutes

In this sequel to “Kill Bill: Vol. 1,” audiences get to see the violent origin for the Bride’s revenge rampage and understand her pain. Her quest to find Bill comes to a bloody and emotional end that is worth waiting for. All of Tarantino’s best elements are at play in this finale—great visuals, powerful stunts, and violent spectacle.

– Director: Clint Eastwood
– Stacker score: 85
– Metascore: 84
– IMDb user rating: 7.9
– Runtime: 138 minutes

A group of three childhood friends are still haunted by the kidnapping and sexual assault of one of their friends years later. They each have drifted into different lives, but a brutal murder brings them back together. Now they are forced to reconcile with their past trauma in order to conquer the present. Clint Eastwood directs terrific performances by Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, and Kevin Bacon in a moving story of friendship and tragedy.

– Director: Jacques Becker
– Stacker score: 85
– Metascore: 85
– IMDb user rating: 7.8
– Runtime: 83 minutes

In crime movies, retirement never comes easy and this is no exception. Max the Liar plans to do one more job before retiring as a racketeer, as his friend is kidnapped and held for ransom. Soon-to-be huge French star Jeanne Moreau gives a fantastic performance as this film noir’s femme fatale. The French gangster film is at its finest in “Hands Off the Loot.”

– Director: Shane Meadows
– Stacker score: 85
– Metascore: 86
– IMDb user rating: 7.7
– Runtime: 101 minutes

A group of young British skinheads come of age in the 1980s while trying to find the right outlet for their frustration and anger. Ska and punk music of the decade is the soundtrack to this emotional and realistic tale that examines how a subculture in England was adopted by far-right nationalists.

– Director: Robert Altman
– Stacker score: 85
– Metascore: 87
– IMDb user rating: 7.6
– Runtime: 112 minutes

This mystery is set in a more realistic and colorful 1970s Los Angeles, where the noir genre is turned into an unromantic portrait of crime. Raymond Chandler’s famous private eye character Phillip Marlowe is thrown into a different decade to smart-talk police and get involved in a complicated investigation. Robert Altman’s mystery is as cool as it gets and the ending is unbelievably stylish.

– Director: Ridley Scott
– Stacker score: 85
– Metascore: 88
– IMDb user rating: 7.5
– Runtime: 130 minutes

Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon star in a superbly written adventure between two women on the run. While on a road trip away from their disappointing partners, Thelma and Louise encounter and kill a rapist, setting their trip into high gear. Their friendship is unwavering as their lives get out of control and come to one of the coolest endings in movie history.

– Director: John Carpenter
– Stacker score: 85
– Metascore: 89
– IMDb user rating: 7.4
– Runtime: 91 minutes

John Carpenter was inspired by movies like “Rio Bravo” and “Night of the Living Dead” for his neo-noir thriller about a police precinct under fire from a murderous gang. Like his other films, this story has grit, action, and genius buildup to an insane showdown. All of this is effortlessly achieved in under two hours.

– Director: Arthur Penn
– Stacker score: 85
– Metascore: 86
– IMDb user rating: 7.8
– Runtime: 111 minutes

Hollywood was forever changed after this movie, which sympathized with famous thieves Bonnie and Clyde, came out and shook America to its core. Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty bring the couple to life and depict their rise and fall as national celebrities. Before this film, the Hays Code prevented such a bleak ending as this movie presents, but it remains one of the most memorable moments of film history.

– Director: Sidney Lumet
– Stacker score: 85
– Metascore: 87
– IMDb user rating: 7.7
– Runtime: 130 minutes

Al Pacino’s aggressive and ravaging acting ability is at its best in this thriller about an NYPD officer who goes undercover to uncover the corruption of the police department. All based on the real life of police officer Frank Serpico, the movie examines what lies underneath one of the most respected agencies in America and how hard it is to break the facade of perfection.

– Director: David Mackenzie
– Stacker score: 85
– Metascore: 88
– IMDb user rating: 7.6
– Runtime: 102 minutes

This modern western shows two brothers as they rob several banks in order to save their family farm in Texas. As rangers quickly tail them, their relationship and original goal are complicated on the run. Critics hailed this as a revitalization of the Western genre, which isn’t as common now as it was in the first decade of Hollywood. Fans of old Westerns and those unfamiliar with the genre will find something to love in this harrowing story.

– Directors: Fernando Meirelles, Kátia Lund
– Stacker score: 86
– Metascore: 79
– IMDb user rating: 8.6
– Runtime: 130 minutes

In the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro, organized crime takes hold on everyone who lives there between the 1960s and 1980s. Drug lord Li’l Ze and vigilante Knockout Ned come head-to-head in all out war. The movie was nominated for four Academy Awards, but didn’t win in any category. This doesn’t outshine the widespread acclaim from critics and its spot in Time’s “All- Time 100 Movies” list.

– Directors: Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar, Benjamin Renner
– Stacker score: 86
– Metascore: 86
– IMDb user rating: 7.9
– Runtime: 80 minutes

A sweet mouse and bear form an unlikely friendship as they run from police and try to live the lives they want, but ones that are not approved of by their societies. This tale is one of a few kind, sweet children’s movies about much more than just crime.

– Director: Andrew Davis
– Stacker score: 86
– Metascore: 87
– IMDb user rating: 7.8
– Runtime: 130 minutes

First came the hit 1960s show, then came this 1993 crime drama based on the same story about a man accused of killing his wife and his escape from authorities. Harrison Ford stars as the man on the run, and Tommy Lee Jones plays the U.S. marshall who is determined to find him no matter what. This movie is a high-energy chase from start to finish.

– Directors: Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie
– Stacker score: 86
– Metascore: 90
– IMDb user rating: 7.5
– Runtime: 135 minutes

In one of the most stressful and unrelenting movies of 2019, Adam Sandler plays a reckless jewelry seller in the Diamond District of New York City on the brink of destruction as he gambles away his money. The Safdie brothers perfectly capture the chaos of the city in “Uncut Gems” and have outdone themselves with this tour de force in excitement and character.

– Director: George Roy Hill
– Stacker score: 86
– Metascore: 83
– IMDb user rating: 8.3
– Runtime: 129 minutes

Dynamic duo Robert Redford and Paul Newman only came together for two movies, this being the second following “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” They play two grifters during the Great Depression planning to con a mob boss. The two actors have chemistry unlike any other pair in history, and they make this complicated heist film an absolute joy to watch.

– Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
– Stacker score: 86
– Metascore: 85
– IMDb user rating: 8.1
– Runtime: 98 minutes

In one of the greatest black comedies ever made, a pregnant police officer investigates a murder linked to a scheme gone wrong. Brutally violent, yet unequivocally funny, it’s no wonder that FX created a spinoff limited series in the same fictional universe after the success of this movie. However, nothing compares to the original.

– Director: Sidney Lumet
– Stacker score: 86
– Metascore: 86
– IMDb user rating: 8
– Runtime: 125 minutes

There is nothing normal about the insane bank robbery that happened in 1972, including the fact that the bank had no money to give to the robbers. Al Pacino once again delivers a bombastic performance as Sonny, who never robbed a bank before that day. The movie, although differentiating from the true story, is remembered for its anti-establishment tone that is rare in this genre.

– Director: Jean-Luc Godard
– Stacker score: 86
– Metascore: 88
– IMDb user rating: 7.8
– Runtime: 95 minutes

A French trio of 20-somethings plan a burglary, but it does not go as planned. In typical Jean-Luc Godard fashion, he tells this story in a radical way, breaking all filmmaking rules probably used in every other movie on this list. Frequent collaborator Anna Karina is electric as the charming Odile. The dance sequence featured in the movie has been referenced in popular culture several times since the movie’s release, including in Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction.”

– Director: Luchino Visconti
– Stacker score: 87
– Metascore: 84
– IMDb user rating: 8.3
– Runtime: 177 minutes

The life of a poor and misfortuned Italian family is chronologized in a series of chapters for each brother. After their father dies, the family moves to the city and their life continues to get harder. Rocco, played by famous Italian actor Alain Delon, and his brother Simone get mixed up with a sex worker and they commit a crime that will affect the family forever. On top of humane storytelling, the boxing in this film is riveting.

– Director: Martin Scorsese
– Stacker score: 87
– Metascore: 90
– IMDb user rating: 7.7
– Runtime: 97 minutes

Paul is a typical white-collar worker in New York City. After a long day at work, he tries to get home from SoHo, but this night is unlike any other he’s experienced. Martin Scorcese deviates from his more serious films for this farcical crime comedy and we’re glad for it.

– Director: Don Siegel
– Stacker score: 87
– Metascore: 90
– IMDb user rating: 7.7
– Runtime: 102 minutes

Clint Eastwood plays a violent and deviant cop who pursues a serial killer inspired by the real life Zodiac Killer that was never found. This movie sparked a whole new genre of “loose cannon” cop movies, which includes four sequels to this movie.

– Director: Alfred Hitchcock
– Stacker score: 88
– Metascore: 88
– IMDb user rating: 8
– Runtime: 101 minutes

Legendary thriller director Alfred Hitchcock adapts legendary thriller author Patricia Highsmith’s novel about two men on a train as one of them suggests they “exchange” murders. One man follows through with his end of the bargain, but getting his new accomplice to do the same will not be as easy. Even within Hitchcock’s historical filmography, critic Roger Ebert considered this movie in the top five movies Hitchcock ever made.

– Director: Richard Brooks
– Stacker score: 88
– Metascore: 89
– IMDb user rating: 7.9
– Runtime: 134 minutes

After watching the behind-the-scenes look at how Truman Capote wrote the story of the massacre of this Kansas family in “Capote,” watch this adaptation of his book. Just as Capote gave consideration for the murderers in his book, this movie shows the relationship between the two men before and after they slay an entire family. It’s a terrifying thriller that lives up to the legendary source material.

– Director: Alexander Mackendrick
– Stacker score: 88
– Metascore: 91
– IMDb user rating: 7.7
– Runtime: 91 minutes

A group of organized criminals meets in the rented room of a duped older landlady. The cast of criminals are as silly and quirky as expected from Peter Sellers, Alec Guinness and more. Their escapades are as exciting as they are funny, which is something every genre needs.

– Director: Andrey Zvyagintsev
– Stacker score: 88
– Metascore: 92
– IMDb user rating: 7.6
– Runtime: 140 minutes

In a fictional Russian town, a corrupt mayor tries to take the land out from under a family. The plot is as sad and insightful as you’d expect from a Russian drama. Andrey Zvyagintsev’s direction of this originally American drama is what takes the story of fate and love to the next level.

– Director: Wes Anderson
– Stacker score: 88
– Metascore: 88
– IMDb user rating: 8.1
– Runtime: 99 minutes

Wes Anderson’s touching, funny, and visually stunning crime adventure won four Oscars when it was released. An older author tells the story of how he worked in a hotel with a fascinating concierge Gustave. Their adventure begins to go off the rails once Gustave is arrested for the murder of an older woman he befriended. In typical Anderson fashion, their antics are constructed in beautiful frame after beautiful frame, each scene more colorful than the last.

– Director: Jacques Audiard
– Stacker score: 88
– Metascore: 90
– IMDb user rating: 7.9
– Runtime: 155 minutes

An Algerian prisoner falls in line with a Corsican mob while in prison for attacking police officers. He hardens and rises through prison ranks through the mob’s help and protection, but he has his own plans as well. This French prison thriller comments on much more than just prisons, but culture and systemic issues as well.

– Director: Martin Scorsese
– Stacker score: 88
– Metascore: 96
– IMDb user rating: 7.3
– Runtime: 112 minutes

Martin Scorsese’s reputation for gritty, unrelenting mob movies began with this prototype for crime movies to come. Robert De Niro plays a loose cannon named Johnny Boy who makes life a living hell for Charlie, played by Harvey Keitel, who works for a powerful Italian American mafioso in New York City. Crime and culture are put on display unlike ever before in this movie that comes to a violent end.

– Director: Martin Scorsese
– Stacker score: 89
– Metascore: 85
– IMDb user rating: 8.5
– Runtime: 151 minutes

This remake of a Chinese thriller proved that Martin Scorsese still had the talent to create a fantastic crime movie decades after his first hit. An Irish mobster plants a mole in the Massachusetts State Police while the police place a mole in the mob. Their mutual quest to find out information is thwarted by one another in a frustrating series of events. Scorsese took inspiration for the story not only from the Chinese movie, but real-life mobster Whitey Bulger and crooked FBI agent John Connolly as well. The film was nominated for five Academy Awards in 2007, winning four, including one for best picture and another for best director.

– Director: Robert Mulligan
– Stacker score: 89
– Metascore: 88
– IMDb user rating: 8.2
– Runtime: 129 minutes

Harper Lee’s historical novel that examined racism in the South is adapted for the screen in this drama that came out during the country’s civil rights movement. It was hard to imagine how anyone could personify the enigmatic character Atticus Finch, but in his 1963 Academy Award-winning best actor role, Gregory Peck embodied his peaceful, yet assertive compassion perfectly. When a black man is accused of raping a white woman, a Southern town tries to ruin his life while Finch is determined to prove his innocence and teach his daughter Scout right from wrong.

– Director: Martin McDonagh
– Stacker score: 89
– Metascore: 88
– IMDb user rating: 8.2
– Runtime: 115 minutes

After the police give up on a woman’s rape and murder case, her mother buys three billboards to raise awareness and make the police accountable. The billboards shake up the town and upset the police, including a racist officer and the dying chief. Martin McDonagh creates a deadly serious, yet sometimes funny story that divided audiences when it came out in 2017. To understand its intent, you’ll have to watch it for yourself.

– Director: Elio Petri
– Stacker score: 89
– Metascore: 89
– IMDb user rating: 8.1
– Runtime: 115 minutes

A police officer kills his mistress in an attempt to see if he will be caught and tried in this Italian satire starring Gian Maria Volonté of spaghetti Western fame. Elio Petri criticizes Italian police tactics through this story of a powerful loner. He builds a murder case against himself and what comes after, you’ll never be able to predict.

– Director: Robert Bresson
– Stacker score: 89
– Metascore: 95
– IMDb user rating: 7.5
– Runtime: 85 minutes

A boy strapped for cash acquires a phony franc, but then passes it on to an unsuspecting delivery man. After the delivery man uses it, he’s arrested and loses all respect in the community, then is forced to work for criminals as a getaway driver. His crimes get worse as the film goes on in this Italian drama drowning in disparity.

– Director: Jonathan Demme
– Stacker score: 89
– Metascore: 85
– IMDb user rating: 8.6
– Runtime: 118 minutes

One of the most fascinating psychological thrillers of all time has to have a spot on this list. Jonathan Demme’s suspenseful story about a young female FBI agent trying to catch a serial killer remains a chilling look at pure evil. This is not only thanks to the serial killer on the run, but to Hannibal Lecter, the killer they look to for advice. Anthony Hopkins gives a remarkable Academy Award-winning performance as best actor and this movie will keep you guessing what will happen next until the credits roll.

– Director: Anurag Kashyap
– Stacker score: 89
– Metascore: 89
– IMDb user rating: 8.2
– Runtime: 321 minutes

At a whopping 321 minutes, or more than five hours, this Indian thriller must make a case for its longevity and it certainly does. A son tries to get his father’s honor back after he spent his younger years looting British trains and now works in a coal mine. Their saga spans from the 1940s to the 1990s in an epic tale of family, crime, and oppression.

– Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
– Stacker score: 89
– Metascore: 91
– IMDb user rating: 8
– Runtime: 140 minutes

Many consider director Jean-Pierre Melville as one of the best to ever touch the French crime genre. Alain Delon is the perfect charming, yet deceitful criminal who has just been released from jail, but is again ready to rob a jewelry store. There’s a heist, murder, and action in this alluring and exciting French thriller.

– Director: Terrence Malick
– Stacker score: 89
– Metascore: 93
– IMDb user rating: 7.8
– Runtime: 94 minutes

Auteur director Terrence Malick began his career with this period drama that finds a young couple embarking on a crime spree. Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek play the couple loosely based on Charles Starkweather and Caril-Ann Fugate. Malick’s affinity for voice-over and vast landscapes is clear in his first movie, making for an artistic gem in this genre.

– Director: William Friedkin
– Stacker score: 89
– Metascore: 94
– IMDb user rating: 7.7
– Runtime: 104 minutes

There’s much more to this movie than just the insane chase scene. Gene Hackman and Roy Schieder play two racist and ruthless narcotics detectives looking for the source of drugs coming into New York City from Europe. This gritty New York crime drama comes to a surprising end that might leave you scratching your head—in a good way. The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards in 1972, winning five, including best picture, best actor in a leading role, and best director.

– Director: Curtis Hanson
– Stacker score: 90
– Metascore: 90
– IMDb user rating: 8.2
– Runtime: 138 minutes

Like the film noir movies that inspired it, this neo noir shows the darkside of Hollywood in the 1950s through crime, murder, and deception. A cast including Russell Crowe, Kevin Spacey, Guy Pierce, and James Cromwell will make the best out of any story, but this script gives them plenty to work with throughout the film. All four play those hard-boiled cops people love to see gripe about the racket, but they thrive while solving crimes and uncovering corruption. They do both amidst the glitz and glamour of Hollywood.

– Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
– Stacker score: 90
– Metascore: 91
– IMDb user rating: 8.1
– Runtime: 122 minutes

Ethan and Joel Coen are back on this list for yet another spectacular crime drama. This time they tell the story of a drug deal gone wrong and how $2 million creates a chain of violent events. Texas makes for the perfect backdrop for this inherently American crime story that remains one of the best ever made.

– Director: Elia Kazan
– Stacker score: 90
– Metascore: 91
– IMDb user rating: 8.1
– Runtime: 108 minutes

Marlon Brando gives his quintessential performance as a washed-up boxer mixed up with the mob. The story revolves around characters playing deaf-and-dumb to all the mob’s crimes when the police start poking around. The irony of it is that director Elia Kazan famously named names during the famous House Un-American Activities Committee’s hearings that blacklisted several of Hollywood’s most talented and ruined their careers in the early 1950s. The allegory of the film is impossible to ignore while watching, but it does not get in the way of this great crime melodrama.

– Director: Kar-Wai Wong
– Stacker score: 90
– Metascore: 96
– IMDb user rating: 7.6
– Runtime: 94 minutes

After a man learns the woman who raised him is not his real mother, he allows for two women to compete for his love. He searches for his mother, finding her in the Philippines with a lot more money than he ever had growing up. Every image on screen is luscious and the film is unlike any of the movies on this list.

– Director: Stuart Rosenberg
– Stacker score: 90
– Metascore: 92
– IMDb user rating: 8.1
– Runtime: 127 minutes

Yes, Paul Newman eats a ton of eggs in this movie, but he also causes an uprising on a chain gang and gives a hell of a performance that should be remembered. His character Luke is one of the coolest in cinema history and becomes a symbol of hope in this prison camp controlled by power-hungry guards. The movie also features great performances from Harry Dean Stanton and Dennis Hopper.

– Director: Hirokazu Koreeda
– Stacker score: 90
– Metascore: 93
– IMDb user rating: 8
– Runtime: 121 minutes

A couple takes in people experiencing misfortune and creates a nonbiological family that survives on shoplifting. Their moral code of only stealing things before they are sold is broken and the family is tested soon enough. This strikingly human and compassionate look at crime is unlike any other on this list.

– Director: Martin Scorsese
– Stacker score: 90
– Metascore: 94
– IMDb user rating: 7.9
– Runtime: 209 minutes

Martin Scorsese’s latest film is an epic in every sense of the word. He brought together several stars that are staples in this genre, including Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, Harvey Keitel, and Robert De Niro. Scorsese tells what he thinks happened to politician Jimmy Hoffa when he went missing in 1975. It’s a tale of growing old and coming to terms with what you did to survive, all with the comedy, violence, and ruthlessness that Scorsese does so well.

– Director: Christopher Nolan
– Stacker score: 91
– Metascore: 84
– IMDb user rating: 9
– Runtime: 152 minutes

Many believe this is the best iteration of the much-explored world of Batman and his enemies. This is because of terrific performances from Heath Ledger, Christian Bale, and more. Christopher Nolan knows how to make a simple comic book story into a bleak look at human life all while delivering exciting action sequences. This sequel to “Batman Begins” is often more talked about than the first movie, but best experienced after the first movie.

– Director: Edward Yang
– Stacker score: 91
– Metascore: 90
– IMDb user rating: 8.4
– Runtime: 237 minutes

The 1960s rise of Western culture in Taiwan means the traditional Taiwanese culture and way of life is in danger in this emotional drama. Civil unrest and violence affects young lovers as they navigate romance for the first time, making for a tragic end. It’s crime cinema at its finest: beautiful and detrimental all at the same time.

– Director: Tom McCarthy
– Stacker score: 91
– Metascore: 93
– IMDb user rating: 8.1
– Runtime: 129 minutes

A superstar cast comes together to tell the tragic yet inspiring story of how the Boston Globe investigation uncovers years of sexual abuse and cover-ups within the well-regarded Roman Catholic Church. Few investigative dramas compare to this exciting and frustrating script, which won best original screenplay and best picture at the Oscars following in 2016.

– Director: Louis Malle
– Stacker score: 91
– Metascore: 94
– IMDb user rating: 8
– Runtime: 91 minutes

One of French director Louis Malle’s best movies is this French film noir about a murder plot gone wrong. As a man murders his boss, also his girlfriend’s husband, he gets trapped in the elevator as he tries to escape the scene. The improvised score by Miles Davis adds to the agonizing suspense of this impeccable movie.

– Director: Otto Preminger
– Stacker score: 91
– Metascore: 95
– IMDb user rating: 8
– Runtime: 161 minutes

James Stewart stars in this courtroom drama that examines the convoluted trial of a murder case. Most courtroom dramas have a hard time keeping the audience’s attention, but with the never-ending developments in the trial, this drama will keep you glued to the screen from start to finish.

– Director: Julien Duvivier
– Stacker score: 91
– Metascore: 98
– IMDb user rating: 7.7
– Runtime: 94 minutes

This French crime thriller inspired one of the best film noirs ever, “The Third Man,” with its plot to trap a gangster on the run in Algiers. As the movie tells this realistic story, it uses cinematic devices popular in French poetic realism cinema of the 1930s. It’s an underseen classic crime drama made for those who love film noir.

– Director: Martin Scorsese
– Stacker score: 92
– Metascore: 90
– IMDb user rating: 8.7
– Runtime: 146 minutes

It’s time to admit that Martin Scorsese basically owns this genre, which includes this gangster drama starring Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro, and Joe Pesci. The trio navigate the mobster families of New York, but some never quite make it into the inner circle of “made” men that run the game. With a killer soundtrack and atmospheric scenes in the heart of New York, Scorsese depicts the world he knows best.

– Director: Martin Scorsese
– Stacker score: 92
– Metascore: 94
– IMDb user rating: 8.3
– Runtime: 114 minutes

Robert De Niro stars as a radicalized Vietnam veteran Travis trying to survive in crime-ridden New York City during the 1970s. He befriends a young sex worker played by a very young Jodie Foster and falls in love with Betsy played by Cybill Shepard, who works for a politician Travis plans on assassinating. Scorsese’s look at this outcast character is one of the best examinations of a bad guy doing bad things.

– Director: Billy Wilder
– Stacker score: 93
– Metascore: 95
– IMDb user rating: 8.3
– Runtime: 107 minutes

This quintessential film noir lives up to its reputation as an American classic. Billy Wilder directs this story about an insurance salesman who gets seduced by a woman set on killing her husband. There’s double-crossing like no other film noir out there, making an exciting and surprising drama you won’t be able to predict.

– Director: Jules Dassin
– Stacker score: 93
– Metascore: 97
– IMDb user rating: 8.2
– Runtime: 118 minutes

Hollywood blacklisted director Jules Dassin, but that didn’t stop him from making this dynamic crime thriller in France. A group of criminals band together to rob a high end jewelry store, but this is not your typical heist movie. With very little dialogue and extended heist scenes, the silence rings louder than any bombastic crime drama in comparison.

– Director: Orson Welles
– Stacker score: 93
– Metascore: 99
– IMDb user rating: 8
– Runtime: 95 minutes

Charlton Heston plays a narcotics officer who must leave his wife on their honeymoon to investigate a murder on a border town between Mexico and the United States. He soon learns there is police corruption involved, but trying to find the truth puts him and his wife in danger. Orson Welles directs this movie and also stars in it as the crooked police captain.

– Director: Charles Laughton
– Stacker score: 93
– Metascore: 99
– IMDb user rating: 8
– Runtime: 92 minutes

You’ll never be able to look at actor Robert Mitchum the same after seeing his performance as a cold-blooded man hell-bent on using his warped Christianity to justify his crimes. In West Virginia, he targets a family he knows has money hidden, but doesn’t know where. Only the son of the family knows where, and he will do everything he can to keep his dad’s money safe.

– Director: Francis Ford Coppola
– Stacker score: 94
– Metascore: 90
– IMDb user rating: 9
– Runtime: 202 minutes

The aftermath of Francis Ford Coppola’s first film, “The Godfather,” gives this sequel a great foundation for an enticing story. In what many consider to be the best sequel of all time, Michael, played by Al Pacino, struggles to reconcile with the power he now has as Vito, played by Robert De Niro, struggles to survive. Coppola’s impeccable follow-up to an incredible original is a must-see for any fans of the crime genre.

– Director: Akira Kurosawa
– Stacker score: 94
– Metascore: 98
– IMDb user rating: 8.2
– Runtime: 88 minutes

Multiple and differing accounts of the same crime are the backbone of this Japanese psychological thriller. A woman is raped and her husband dies shortly after, but each story in court implicates a different person. The virality of truth is explored in this enticing drama unlike usual samurai films.

– Director: Quentin Tarantino
– Stacker score: 95
– Metascore: 94
– IMDb user rating: 8.9
– Runtime: 154 minutes

Tarantino tells the story of two hit men—a prize-fighting boxer and a heroin addict—but in a narrative that’s completely out of order. This tactic adds to the artistic touch Tarantino has for every scene. The dialogue is smart and the violence shocking. It’ll be hard to watch any movie that doesn’t challenge the way stories are told after seeing this.

– Director: Sidney Lumet
– Stacker score: 96
– Metascore: 96
– IMDb user rating: 8.9
– Runtime: 96 minutes

A young 18-year-old is on trial for murder and 12 men are in charge of deciding whether he lives a free man or dies on death row. One juror holds out on voting, keeping all the men in one room until they can vote unanimously. If you think men arguing in a single room will be boring, this movie is anything but that.

– Director: Francis Ford Coppola
– Stacker score: 100
– Metascore: 100
– IMDb user rating: 9.2
– Runtime: 175 minutes

In Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpiece, the Italian mafia Corleone family is shaken when warfare breaks out among the five mafia families in the story. Michael, played by Al Pacino, vehemently distances himself from his father Don Vito, played by Marlon Brando, and the rest of the family’s involvement in organized crime. However, his family needs him after several tragic deaths and Michael steps up in an unrelenting way.

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