Crime backdrop

Crime movies

A deep dive into the underworld of gangsters, detectives, and heists where the line between right and wrong blurs.

Subgenres include: Organized Crime, Heist, Con Artist Crime.

Copycat

1541. Copycat

Thriller Crime Mystery
6.6

19952h 4min

United States

Director: Jon Amiel

San Francisco is shaken by a string of brutal crimes as a serial killer imitates infamous murders from the past. The police turn to a psychologist for help—someone who once survived an attack by a maniac herself.


Get Shorty

1542. Get Shorty

Comedy Thriller Crime
6.9

19951h 45min

United States

Director: Barry Sonnenfeld

Chili Palmer is a Miami mobster who gets sent to L.A. to collect a bad debt from Harry Zimm, a Hollywood producer who specializes in cheesy horror films. When Chili meets Harry's leading lady, the romantic sparks fly. After pitching his own life story as a movie idea, Chili learns that being a mobster and being a Hollywood producer really aren't all that different.


The Doom Generation

1543. The Doom Generation

Comedy Crime Drama
6.1

19951h 23min

United States, France

Director: Gregg Araki

Jordan White and Amy Blue, two troubled teens, pick up an adolescent drifter, Xavier Red. Together, the threesome embarks on a sex- and violence-filled journey through a United States of psychos and quickie marts.


Strange Days

1544. Strange Days

Crime Drama Science Fiction Thriller
7.2

19952h 25min

United States

Director: Kathryn Bigelow

In the last days of 1999, ex-cop turned street hustler Lenny Nero receives a disc which contains the memories of the murder of a prostitute. With the help of bodyguard Mace, he starts to investigate and is pulled deeper and deeper in a whirl of murder, blackmail and intrigue.


Assassins

1545. Assassins

Action Adventure Crime Thriller
6.3

19952h 12min

United States

Director: Richard Donner

Assassin Robert Rath arrives at a funeral to kill a prominent mobster, only to witness a rival hired gun complete the job for him -- with grisly results. Horrified by the murder of innocent bystanders, Rath decides to take one last job and then return to civilian life. But finding his way out of the world of contract killing grows ever more dangerous as Rath falls for his female target and becomes a marked man himself.


Dead Presidents

1546. Dead Presidents

Action Crime Drama Thriller War
6.9

19951h 59min

United States

Director: Albert Hughes

On the streets they call cash dead presidents. And that's just what a Vietnam veteran is after when he returns home from the war only to find himself drawn into a life of crime. With the aid of his fellow vets he plans the ultimate heist -- a daring robbery of an armored car filled with unmarked U.S. currency!


Devil in a Blue Dress

1547. Devil in a Blue Dress

Thriller Crime Mystery
6.8

19951h 42min

United States

Director: Carl Franklin

In late 1940s Los Angeles, Easy Rawlins is an unemployed black World War II veteran with few job prospects. At a bar, Easy meets DeWitt Albright, a mysterious white man looking for someone to investigate the disappearance of a missing white woman named Daphne Monet, who he suspects is hiding out in one of the city's black jazz clubs. Strapped for money and facing house payments, Easy takes the job, but soon finds himself in over his head.


Se7en

1548. Se7en

Crime Mystery Thriller Serial Killer Crime Investigation Mystery
8.6

19952h 7min

United States

Director: David Fincher

A weary detective just wants to finish his last week on the job, UNTIL a sadistic killer starts staging murders after the seven deadly sins and drags him and his hot-headed new partner into a citywide nightmare they cannot walk away from.

Themes

Deception and manipulation, Obsession with sin, Moral decay in urban setting, Police burnout under pressure, Cycle of victimization, Investigative ritual pattern

Available on

Amazon Video
Apple TV
Google Play Movies
Data provided by JustWatch.Availability may vary by region.

To Die For

1549. To Die For

Drama Comedy Crime
6.8

19951h 46min

United Kingdom, United States

Director: Gus Van Sant

Suzanne Stone wants to be a world-famous news anchor and she is willing to do anything to get what she wants. What she lacks in intelligence, she makes up for in cold determination and diabolical wiles. As she pursues her goal with relentless focus, she is forced to destroy anything and anyone that may stand in her way, regardless of the ultimate cost or means necessary.


Clockers

1550. Clockers

Crime Drama Mystery Narcotics Crime Psychological Drama
6.9

19952h 8min

United States

Director: Spike Lee

Strike is a young city drug pusher under the tutelage of drug lord Rodney Little. When a night manager at a fast-food restaurant is found with four bullets in his body, Strike’s older brother turns himself in as the killer. Detective Rocco Klein doesn’t buy the story, however, setting out to find the truth, and it seems that all the fingers point toward Strike & Rodney.

Themes

Class inequality, Loyalty under pressure, Betrayal and suspicion, Deception and violence, Informant risk, Authority and resistance

Available on

Amazon Video
Apple TV
Google Play Movies
Data provided by JustWatch.Availability may vary by region.