Universal
Last Updated: September 12th
Netflix has no shortage of great options for movie fans who enjoy a good crime story. It’s a genre that covers cops trying to solve a mystery, criminals looking to make a buck, and George Clooney looking pensively at legal documents. They can be thrilling, hilarious, and/or action-packed. So enjoy a legally appropriate brush with danger and catch the best crime movies on Netflix right now.
Related: The Best Mystery Shows On Netflix Right Now
Universal Pictures
Out of Sight (1998)
Run Time: 123 min | IMDb: 7/10
George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez star in this steamy thriller about a career bank robber who makes the mistake of kidnapping a U.S. Marshall after escaping prison. Clooney plays Jack Foley, a smooth-talking, unapologetic criminal with plans to score big on his next diamond heist while Lopez plays the straight-shooting Karen Sisco, an agent hot on his tail. The two share some electric chemistry, in the trunk of a car and in a dingy hotel room, and it’s never really clear whether Sisco wants to catch Foley because he’s a criminal or because she’s in love with him.
Warner Bros.
The Departed (2006)
Run Time: 151 min, IMDb: 8.5/10
A cop working for the mob (Matt Damon) and a gangster working for the cops (Leonardo DiCaprio) work opposing sides of a brutal battle between crime and law in Boston. With over three decades of filmmaking under his belt, director Martin Scorsese is at the top of his game with The Departed, packing the film with an all-star cast, score, and four Oscars including Best Picture (his only film to score that honor). Surprisingly, Scorsese was actually shocked at the movie’s Academy Awards, saying that the nasty, violent nature of the picture didn’t strike him as being for the awards while he was making it. Nevertheless, The Departed stands up as one of his best, thanks in part to stellar performances from Jack Nicholson and Mark Wahlberg.
Miramax
Gone Baby Gone (2007)
Run Time: 114 min | IMDb: 7.7/10
Casey Affleck and Michelle Monaghan star in this neo-noir crime drama about a pair of detectives sent on a wild goose chase when a little girl is abducted by drug lords. Police corruption, coverups, abusive parents, this thing is littered with dark, sometimes confusing subplots but Affleck does some of his best work here playing a man tortured with issues of morality. And because this is an Affleck film — Ben Affleck directs — things end ambiguously.
Universal Pictures
Inside Man (2006)
Run Time: 129 min | IMDb: 7.6/10
Spike Lee’s 2006 heist thriller is one of the director’s most straightforward films, but it’s still a film that could only be made by Lee. It’s filled with New York flavor and moves to an offbeat rhythm as it slowly reveals the motivations of a bank robber (Clive Owen), a powerful woman (Jodie Foster), and a hostage negotiator (Denzel Washington) as a bank becomes the site of a tense stand-off.
Universal Pictures
Hot Fuzz (2007)
Run Time: 121 min | IMDb: 7.9/10
The second of Edgar Wright’s “Cornetto Trilogy,” Hot Fuzz acts as a send-up of all the over-the-top action films that came before it, from Bad Boys II to Point Break. When loner supercop Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg) gets reassigned to a much safer town, all he can do is eat ice cream and chase a dastardly swan with his new partner (Nick Frost) until the bodies start piling up. Pegg proves that he can be a master of comedic characters, contrasting the slackers of Shaun Of The Dead and The World’s End with this by-the-book policeman-officer. While parodying the clichés, Fuzz doesn’t rely solely on bits or callbacks to tell a layered story, with the charming chemistry between Pegg and Frost at the center of it. Plus, it gives us a contender for one of the funniest scenes in all British comedy.
Focus Features
In Bruges (2008)
Run Time: 107 min | IMDb: 7.9/10
No one hates Bruges more than Colin Farrell. The actor plays a rookie hitman named Ray who’s stuck in the charming city after a hit gone wrong with his more experienced associate, Ken (Brendan Gleeson). The two pal around for a bit, hanging out with a cocaine-snorting dwarf on movie sets and a production-assistant-turned-drug-dealer before their pissed off boss catches up to them and things get bloody. Farrell does some of his best comedic work here and while the ending is a bit of a downer, getting there is wicked fun.
Focus Features
The Place Beyond The Pines (2012)
Run Time: 140 min | IMDb: 7.3/10
Ryan Gosling reteams with his Blue Valentine director Derek Cianfrance for an episodic, multi-generational story of crime and consequences in upstate New York. Some sections work better than others, but the cast is terrific throughout and Cianfrance directs with a deep feel for the setting.
Paramount
The Godfather (1972)
Run Time: 175 min | IMDb: 9.2/10
The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974): Francis Ford Coppola has made many remarkable movies, but there’s no doubt his obituary will lead with The Godfather films. In Mario Puzo’s bestselling story of a mafia family, Coppola found the perfect outlet for his filmmaking skills and thematic obsessions: family, morality the nature of America, and the Italian-American immigrant experience. Shot with a command of darkness and shadows that would make Rembrandt proud, they marry a propulsive narrative to memorable characters whose pursuit of the American dream leads them to do things they once couldn’t imagine doing. Released just two years apart, they’re extraordinary accomplishments, with Part II enriching and improving on the first installment. (There’s a third movie, released years later, that’s worth a look but falls well short of these originals.)
IFC
Cold In July (2014)
Run Time: 109 min | IMDb: 6.8/10
Cold In July didn’t get a wide release when it came out two years ago, which is a shame because it’s tense thriller with sharp performances that do the story justice. Set in a small Texas town in the late 1980s, Michael C. Hall plays a family man who goes to investigate a bump in the night and kills a home intruder. The action of self-defense puts him on the radar of the burglar’s father who’s recently been released from prison and aiming for revenge. While novelist Joe R. Lansdale could have rested on that premise alone and still likely turned in a decent crime thriller, he takes his characters in unexpected directions to create a slick and well-paced tale of three men wrapped up in a criminal underworld of murder and corruption. Don Johnson and Sam Shepard round out the trio.
Universal
Scarface (1983)
Run Time: 170 min | IMDb: 8.3/10
Al Pacino stars in this over-the-top crime thriller that’s spawned plenty of memes on Twitter over the years. The gist of the story: Pacino plays Tony, a Cuban refugee who works his way up the ranks of a Miami cartel, eventually murdering his way to the top, stealing his boss’ wife (Michelle Pfeiffer) and becoming a drug kingpin with a worrisome cocaine addiction. The real draw is knowing Pacino will be swimming in nose candy for a good part of the film, shooting down his own henchmen, and uttering some ridiculously macho lines in the process.
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