Best Crime Movies: Dark, Clever, Atmospheric

The best crime movies are more than whodunits – they have atmosphere, sharp writing and characters you can't look away from. This page collects the highlights of the genre: from classic noir to modern crime drama. Filter by streaming service for a direct start.





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The Death and Life of Bobby Z

2007
97 Min
MOVIE
DramaActionThrillerCrime
A DEA agent provides former Marine Tim Kearney with a way out of his prison sentence: impersonate Bobby Z, a recently deceased drug dealer, in a hostage switch with a crime lord. When the negotiations go awry, Kearney flees, with Z's son i…

Reno 911!: Miami

2007
83 Min
MOVIE
ActionComedyCrime
A rag-tag team of Reno cops are called in to save the day after a terrorist attack disrupts a national police convention in Miami Beach during spring break. Based on the Comedy Central series.

Smokin' Aces

2006
109 Min
MOVIE
ActionComedyCrimeThriller
When a Las Vegas performer-turned-snitch named Buddy Israel decides to turn state's evidence and testify against the mob, it seems that a whole lot of people would like to make sure he's no longer breathing.

The Departed

2006
151 Min
MOVIE
DramaThrillerCrime
To take down South Boston's Irish Mafia, the police send in one of their own to infiltrate the underworld, not realizing the syndicate has done likewise. While an undercover cop curries favor with the mob kingpin, a career criminal rises t…

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

2006
147 Min
MOVIE
CrimeFantasyDrama
Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, born in the stench of 18th century Paris, develops a superior olfactory sense, which he uses to create the world's finest perfumes. However, his work takes a dark turn as he tries to preserve scents in the search …
Netflix

Crank

2006
88 Min
MOVIE
ActionThrillerCrime
Chev Chelios, a hit man wanting to go straight, lets his latest target slip away. Then he awakes the next morning to a phone call that informs him he has been poisoned and has only an hour to live unless he keeps adrenaline coursing throug…

Lucky Number Slevin

2006
110 Min
MOVIE
DramaThrillerCrimeMystery
Slevin is mistakenly put in the middle of a personal war between the city’s biggest criminal bosses. Under constant watch, Slevin must try not to get killed by an infamous assassin and come up with an idea of how to get out of his current …

Lord of War

2005
122 Min
MOVIE
CrimeDramaThriller
Yuri Orlov is a globetrotting arms dealer and, through some of the deadliest war zones, he struggles to stay one step ahead of a relentless Interpol agent, his business rivals and even some of his customers who include many of the world's …

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

2005
102 Min
MOVIE
ComedyCrimeMysteryThriller
A petty thief posing as an actor is brought to Los Angeles for an unlikely audition and finds himself in the middle of a murder investigation along with his high school dream girl and a detective who's been training him for his upcoming ro…

Revolver

2005
115 Min
MOVIE
DramaThrillerCrimeMystery
Hotshot gambler Jake Green is long on bravado and seriously short of common sense. Rarely is he allowed in any casino because he's a bona fide winner and, in fact, has taken so much money over the years that he's the sole client of his acc…

Green Street Hooligans

2005
109 Min
MOVIE
CrimeDrama
After being wrongfully expelled from Harvard University, American Matt Buckner flees to his sister's home in England. Once there, he is befriended by her charming and dangerous brother-in-law, Pete Dunham, and introduced to the underworld …

Sin City

2005
124 Min
MOVIE
CrimeAction
Welcome to Sin City. This town beckons to the tough, the corrupt, the brokenhearted. Some call it dark… Hard-boiled. Then there are those who call it home — Crooked cops, sexy dames, desperate vigilantes. Some are seeking revenge, othe…

After the Sunset

2004
97 Min
MOVIE
ActionComedyCrimeDrama
An FBI agent is suspicious of two master thieves, quietly enjoying their retirement near what may - or may not - be the biggest score of their careers.

Collateral

2004
120 Min
MOVIE
DramaCrimeThriller
Cab driver Max picks up a man who offers him $600 to drive him around. But the promise of easy money sours when Max realizes his fare is an assassin.

White Chicks

2004
109 Min
MOVIE
ComedyCrime
Two FBI agent brothers, Marcus and Kevin Copeland, accidentally foil a drug bust. To avoid being fired they accept a mission escorting a pair of socialites to the Hamptons--but when the girls are disfigured in a car accident, they refuse t…
Netflix

Kill Bill: Vol. 1

2003
111 Min
MOVIE
ActionCrime
An assassin is shot by her ruthless employer, Bill, and other members of their assassination circle – but she lives to plot her vengeance.
Netflix

Out of Time

2003
105 Min
MOVIE
ThrillerCrimeDrama
Matt Lee Whitlock, respected chief of police in small Banyan Key, Florida, must solve a vicious double homicide before he himself falls under suspicion. Matt Lee has to stay a few steps ahead of his own police force and everyone he's trust…

Once Upon a Time in Mexico

2003
102 Min
MOVIE
ActionCrimeThriller
A corrupt CIA agent Sands hires hitman El Mariachi to assassinate a Mexican general hired by a drug kingpin attempting a coup d'état of the President of Mexico.

Phone Booth

2003
81 Min
MOVIE
ThrillerCrime
A slick New York publicist who picks up a ringing receiver in a phone booth is told that if he hangs up, he'll be killed... and the little red light from a laser rifle sight is proof that the caller isn't kidding.
Disney+

Catch Me If You Can

2002
141 Min
MOVIE
DramaCrime
A true story about Frank Abagnale Jr. who, before his 19th birthday, successfully conned millions of dollars worth of checks as a Pan Am pilot, doctor, and legal prosecutor. An FBI agent makes it his mission to put him behind bars. But Fra…

Gangs of New York

2002
168 Min
MOVIE
DramaCrime
In 1863, Amsterdam Vallon returns to the Five Points of America to seek vengeance against the psychotic gangland kingpin, Bill the Butcher, who murdered his father years earlier. With an eager pickpocket by his side and a whole new army, V…

Adaptation.

2002
115 Min
MOVIE
ComedyCrimeDrama
Charlie Kaufman is a confused L.A. screenwriter overwhelmed by feelings of inadequacy, sexual frustration, self-loathing, and by the screenwriting ambitions of his freeloading twin brother Donald. While struggling to adapt "The Orchid Thie…

Cidade de Deus

2002
129 Min
MOVIE
DramaCrime
In the poverty-stricken favelas of Rio de Janeiro in the 1970s, two young men choose different paths. Rocket is a budding photographer who documents the increasing drug-related violence of his neighborhood, while José “Zé” Pequeno is an am…

Ocean's Eleven

2001
116 Min
MOVIE
ThrillerCrime
Less than 24 hours into his parole, charismatic thief Danny Ocean is already rolling out his next plan: In one night, Danny's hand-picked crew of specialists will attempt to steal more than $150 million from three Las Vegas casinos. But to…

The Fast and the Furious

2001
106 Min
MOVIE
ActionCrimeThriller
Dominic Toretto is a Los Angeles street racer suspected of masterminding a series of big-rig hijackings. When undercover cop Brian O'Conner infiltrates Toretto's iconoclastic crew, he falls for Toretto's sister and must choose a side: the …
Netflix Prime Video

One Night at McCool's

2001
93 Min
MOVIE
ComedyCrime
On an ordinary night, in an ordinary part of town, a beautiful young woman walks into a bar. Her name is Jewel, and before long she is chatting to bartender Randy. The pair leave together, but he ends up getting into a tussle with her crim…

Blow

2001
124 Min
MOVIE
CrimeDrama
A boy named George Jung grows up in a struggling family in the 1950's. His mother nags at her husband as he is trying to make a living for the family. It is finally revealed that George's father cannot make a living and the family goes ban…

Hannibal

2001
131 Min
MOVIE
CrimeDramaThriller
After having successfully eluded the authorities for years, Hannibal peacefully lives in Italy in disguise as an art scholar. Trouble strikes again when he's discovered leaving a deserving few dead in the process. He returns to America to …

Snatch

2000
103 Min
MOVIE
CrimeComedy
Unscrupulous boxing promoters, violent bookmakers, a Russian gangster, incompetent amateur robbers and supposedly Jewish jewelers fight to track down a priceless stolen diamond.

American Psycho

2000
102 Min
MOVIE
ThrillerDramaCrime
A wealthy New York investment banking executive hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and friends as he escalates deeper into his illogical, gratuitous fantasies.
Netflix

Romeo Must Die

2000
115 Min
MOVIE
ActionCrimeThriller
Two warring gang families (one African-American, the other Chinese) maneuver for bragging rights to the Oakland, California, docks. Hang Sing and Trish O'Day uncover a trail of deceit that leaves most of the warring factions dead … or wo…

The Whole Nine Yards

2000
98 Min
MOVIE
ComedyCrime
After a mobster agrees to cooperate with an FBI investigation in order to stay out of prison, he's relocated by the authorities to a life of suburban anonymity as part of a witness protection program. It's not long before a couple of his n…

The Talented Mr. Ripley

1999
140 Min
MOVIE
ThrillerCrimeDrama
Tom Ripley is a calculating young man who believes it's better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody. Opportunity knocks in the form of a wealthy U.S. shipbuilder who hires Tom to travel to Italy to bring back his playboy son, Dickie. R…
Paramount+

The Green Mile

1999
189 Min
MOVIE
FantasyDramaCrime
A supernatural tale set on death row in a Southern prison, where gentle giant John Coffey possesses the mysterious power to heal people's ailments. When the cell block's head guard, Paul Edgecomb, recognizes Coffey's miraculous gift, he tr…
Magenta TV

Blue Streak

1999
93 Min
MOVIE
ActionComedyCrime
Miles Logan is a jewel thief who just hit the big time by stealing a huge diamond. However, after two years in jail, he comes to find out that he hid the diamond in a police building that was being built at the time of the robbery. In an a…

I Kina spiser de hunde

1999
91 Min
MOVIE
ActionComedyCrime
Arvid is an ordinary bank clerk who lives a rather unassuming life with his dear girlfriend. But his life is turned completely upside down when he bravely manages to avert a robbery against the bank where he works.

Analyze This

1999
103 Min
MOVIE
ComedyCrime
Countless wiseguy films are spoofed in this film that centers on the neuroses and angst of a powerful Mafia racketeer who suffers from panic attacks. When Paul Vitti needs help dealing with his role in the "family," unlucky shrink Dr. Ben …

Payback

1999
100 Min
MOVIE
ActionDramaCrimeThriller
With friends like these, who needs enemies? That's the question bad guy Porter is left asking after his wife and partner steal his heist money and leave him for dead -- or so they think. Five months and an endless reservoir of bitterness l…

The Boondock Saints

1999
108 Min
MOVIE
ActionThrillerCrime
Tired of the crime overrunning the streets of Boston, Irish Catholic twin brothers Conner and Murphy are inspired by their faith to cleanse their hometown of evil with their own brand of zealous vigilante justice. As they hunt down and kil…

Rush Hour

1998
97 Min
MOVIE
ActionComedyCrime
When Hong Kong Inspector Lee is summoned to Los Angeles to investigate a kidnapping, the FBI doesn't want any outside help and assigns cocky LAPD Detective James Carter to distract Lee from the case. Not content to watch the action from th…

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

1998
105 Min
MOVIE
ComedyCrime
A card shark and his unwillingly-enlisted friends need to make a lot of cash quick after losing a sketchy poker match. To do this they decide to pull a heist on a small-time gang who happen to be operating out of the flat next door.

Taxi

1998
86 Min
MOVIE
ActionComedyCrimeAdventure
In Marseilles a skilled pizza delivery boy Daniel who drives a scooter finally has his dreams come true. He gets a taxi license. Caught by the police for a huge speed infraction, he will help Emilien, a loser inspector who can't drive, on …

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