My Favorite Gangsters, Criminals and Killers.
by fredschaefer-406-623204 | created - 15 May 2014 | updated - 19 May 2014 | PublicThe best of the bad from movies and TV.
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1. The Godfather (1972)
R | 175 min | Crime, Drama
The aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son.
Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Stars: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Diane Keaton
Votes: 2,009,607 | Gross: $134.97M
The Corleone's are the kings, no one before or since has done it better. Every scene and line of dialogue is classic, a damn near perfect American epic.
2. Breaking Bad (2008–2013)
TV-MA | 45 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A chemistry teacher diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer turns to manufacturing and selling methamphetamine with a former student in order to secure his family's future.
Stars: Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, Anna Gunn, Betsy Brandt
Votes: 2,131,951
Walter White and Jessie Pinkman proved that necessity and desperation can drive men to greatness...or something much worse. TV as good as great literature
3. The Godfather Part II (1974)
R | 202 min | Crime, Drama
The early life and career of Vito Corleone in 1920s New York City is portrayed, while his son, Michael, expands and tightens his grip on the family crime syndicate.
Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Stars: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton
Votes: 1,362,713 | Gross: $57.30M
The great exception to the rule about sequels not being as good or better than the original.
4. The Sopranos (1999–2007)
TV-MA | 60 min | Crime, Drama
New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano deals with personal and professional issues in his home and business life that affect his mental state, leading him to seek professional psychiatric counseling.
Stars: James Gandolfini, Lorraine Bracco, Edie Falco, Michael Imperioli
Votes: 469,867
Tony Soprano was the ultimate anti-hero, but we were always rooting for him.
5. Goodfellas (1990)
R | 145 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
The story of Henry Hill and his life in the mafia, covering his relationship with his wife Karen and his mob partners Jimmy Conway and Tommy DeVito.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco
Votes: 1,255,893 | Gross: $46.84M
Martin Scorsese's masterpiece and a far more realistic look at the Mob than the Coppola's epic's.
6. Casino (1995)
R | 178 min | Crime, Drama
In Las Vegas, two best friends - a casino executive and a mafia enforcer - compete for a gambling empire and a fast-living, fast-loving socialite.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, Joe Pesci, James Woods
Votes: 563,308 | Gross: $42.44M
It's as good as Goodfellas in my book and even more enjoyable. A great inside view of how the Mob works.
7. Reservoir Dogs (1992)
R | 99 min | Crime, Thriller
When a simple jewelry heist goes horribly wrong, the surviving criminals begin to suspect that one of them is a police informant.
Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn
Votes: 1,087,230 | Gross: $2.83M
Still think this might be Tarantino's best film to date.
8. Dexter (2006–2013)
TV-MA | 60 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
He's smart. He's lovable. He's Dexter Morgan, America's favorite serial killer, who spends his days solving crimes and nights committing them.
Stars: Michael C. Hall, Jennifer Carpenter, David Zayas, James Remar
Votes: 764,398
A show about a serial killer; Dexter Morgan did what many wish they could do and got away with it.
9. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
R | 111 min | Action, Biography, Crime
Bored waitress Bonnie Parker falls in love with an ex-con named Clyde Barrow and together they start a violent crime spree through the country, stealing cars and robbing banks.
Director: Arthur Penn | Stars: Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Michael J. Pollard, Gene Hackman
Votes: 120,534
The best movie ever made on the theme of outlaws as rebels.
10. Touch of Evil (1958)
PG-13 | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A stark, perverse story of murder, kidnapping and police corruption in a Mexican border town.
Director: Orson Welles | Stars: Charlton Heston, Orson Welles, Janet Leigh, Joseph Calleia
Votes: 109,733 | Gross: $2.24M
Orson Welles's Hank Quinlan is the greatest crooked cop of all time.
11. Boardwalk Empire (2010–2014)
TV-MA | 60 min | Crime, Drama
An Atlantic City politician plays both sides of the law by conspiring with gangsters during the Prohibition era.
Stars: Steve Buscemi, Kelly Macdonald, Michael Shannon, Shea Whigham
Votes: 202,978
A great history lesson on how organized crime came to have so much power in 20th Century America.
12. The Getaway (1972)
PG | 123 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A recently-released ex-con and his loyal wife go on the run after a heist goes awry.
Director: Sam Peckinpah | Stars: Steve McQueen, Ali MacGraw, Ben Johnson, Sally Struthers
Votes: 35,656 | Gross: $36.73M
Sam Peckinpah directs a heist movie and creates a classic with Steve McQueen at his coolest.
13. L.A. Confidential (1997)
R | 138 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
As corruption grows in 1950s Los Angeles, three policemen - one strait-laced, one brutal, and one sleazy - investigate a series of murders with their own brand of justice.
Director: Curtis Hanson | Stars: Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kim Basinger
Votes: 617,236 | Gross: $64.62M
Great cast in a great story of police corruption in post war Los Angeles; it should have won the Oscar for Best Picture.
14. Natural Born Killers (1994)
R | 119 min | Action, Crime, Romance
Two victims of traumatized childhoods become lovers and psychopathic serial murderers irresponsibly glorified by the mass media.
Director: Oliver Stone | Stars: Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, Tom Sizemore, Rodney Dangerfield
Votes: 251,594 | Gross: $50.28M
One of the most rancid and evil movies ever made by Hollywood.
15. Point Break (1991)
R | 122 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
An F.B.I. Agent goes undercover to catch a gang of surfers who may be bank robbers.
Director: Kathryn Bigelow | Stars: Patrick Swayze, Keanu Reeves, Gary Busey, Lori Petty
Votes: 201,979 | Gross: $43.22M
The Ex-Presidents, Keanu and Swayze, a great chase scene, throw in Gary Busy and it's an instant classic.
16. Pulp Fiction (1994)
R | 154 min | Crime, Drama
The lives of two mob hitmen, a boxer, a gangster and his wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.
Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis
Votes: 2,217,097 | Gross: $107.93M
The movie that brought back John Travolta and made Samuel L. Jackson a star.
17. Thelma & Louise (1991)
R | 130 min | Adventure, Crime, Drama
Two best friends set out on an adventure, but it soon turns around to a terrifying escape from being hunted by the police, as these two women escape for the crimes they committed.
Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis, Harvey Keitel, Michael Madsen
Votes: 172,784 | Gross: $45.36M
Proved that women on the run can make bad choices and foolish mistakes just like men.
18. There Was a Crooked Man... (1970)
R | 126 min | Comedy, Western
A charming but totally ruthless criminal is sent to a remote Arizona prison. He enlists the help of his cellmates in an escape attempt with the promise of sharing his hidden loot.
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz | Stars: Kirk Douglas, Henry Fonda, Hume Cronyn, Warren Oates
Votes: 5,227 | Gross: $0.64M
Kirk Douglas at his most charming and deadly as he plots a prison break in the Old West with the help of Warren Oates, Burgess Meredith and Hume Cronyn. But it's Henry Fonda's honest Warden who puts the final twist on the tale.
19. True Romance (1993)
R | 119 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
In Detroit, a pop-culture nerd steals cocaine from his new wife's pimp and tries to sell it in Hollywood, prompting the mobsters who own the drugs to pursue the couple.
Director: Tony Scott | Stars: Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Dennis Hopper, Val Kilmer
Votes: 242,298 | Gross: $12.28M
An all star cast of mobsters and lowlifes chase after fugitive loves Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette with particularly nasty performances by Gary Oldman and James Gandolfini. Kevin McCarthy's favorite movie and he's onto something.
20. The Untouchables (1987)
R | 119 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
During Prohibition, Treasury agent Eliot Ness sets out to stop ruthless Chicago gangster Al Capone, and assembles a small, incorruptible team to help him.
Director: Brian De Palma | Stars: Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Robert De Niro, Charles Martin Smith
Votes: 330,532 | Gross: $76.27M
Robert DeNiro's Al Capone is his best gangster.
21. Snatch (2000)
R | 102 min | Comedy, Crime
Unscrupulous boxing promoters, violent bookmakers, a Russian gangster, incompetent amateur robbers and supposedly Jewish jewelers fight to track down a priceless stolen diamond.
Director: Guy Ritchie | Stars: Jason Statham, Brad Pitt, Stephen Graham, Vinnie Jones
Votes: 909,963 | Gross: $30.33M
Bad boys in London, and not just Statham and Pitt.
22. The Departed (2006)
R | 151 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
An undercover cop and a mole in the police attempt to identify each other while infiltrating an Irish gang in South Boston.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg
Votes: 1,420,806 | Gross: $132.38M
Scorsese proves the Irish Mob in Boston is just as ruthless as their Italian cousins in NYC.
23. American Gangster (2007)
R | 157 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
An outcast New York City cop is charged with bringing down Harlem drug lord Frank Lucas, whose real life inspired this partly biographical film.
Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Josh Brolin
Votes: 452,180 | Gross: $130.16M
Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe go to war in 1970's New York.
24. Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)
Passed | 97 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A priest tries to stop a gangster from corrupting a group of street kids.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan
Votes: 23,189
Cagney and Bogart, with Pat O'Brien as a priest, not to mention the Bowery Boys. The best of the Old School.
25. Fargo (1996)
R | 98 min | Crime, Thriller
Minnesota car salesman 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.
Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen | Stars: William H. Macy, Frances McDormand, Steve Buscemi, Peter Stormare
Votes: 725,886 | Gross: $24.61M
The Coen brothers look at crime in Minnesota; William H. Macy is the complete weasel.
26. The Grifters (1990)
R | 110 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A small-time conman has torn loyalties between his estranged mother and new girlfriend, both of whom are high-stakes grifters with their own angles to play.
Director: Stephen Frears | Stars: Anjelica Huston, John Cusack, Annette Bening, Jan Munroe
Votes: 30,526 | Gross: $13.45M
Con men are bad enough, but their mothers and girlfriends are worse,
27. Heat (1995)
R | 170 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A group of high-end professional thieves start to feel the heat from the LAPD when they unknowingly leave a verbal clue at their latest heist.
Director: Michael Mann | Stars: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer, Jon Voight
Votes: 718,550 | Gross: $67.44M
There's much more going on here than DeNiro and Pacino's great confrontation; how did this not get a nomination for Best Picture.
28. Miller's Crossing (1990)
R | 115 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Tom Reagan, an advisor to a Prohibition-era crime boss, tries to keep the peace between warring mobs but gets caught in divided loyalties.
Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen | Stars: Gabriel Byrne, Albert Finney, John Turturro, Marcia Gay Harden
Votes: 142,047 | Gross: $5.08M
The Coen Brothers version of Prohibition.
29. The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
Passed | 113 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A married woman and a drifter fall in love and then plot to murder her husband.
Director: Tay Garnett | Stars: Lana Turner, John Garfield, Cecil Kellaway, Hume Cronyn
Votes: 22,852 | Gross: $8.33M
A great film noir with a great pair of almost sympathetic murderers.
30. The War Wagon (1967)
Unrated | 101 min | Drama, Western
The story of a man who was shot, robbed and imprisoned who returns to steal a large gold shipment from the man who wronged him. The gold is transported in an armored stage coach, the War Wagon.
Director: Burt Kennedy | Stars: John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Howard Keel, Robert Walker Jr.
Votes: 10,796
John Wayne is an un-redeemed outlaw for the only time in his career; a western-heist film where the Duke, with the help of Kirk Douglas and a motley band of criminals plots to steal the title wagon filled with gold.
31. Grand Slam (1967)
Not Rated | 121 min | Crime, Drama
To pull off a daring diamond heist in Rio during Carnival, a retired schoolteacher hires four professionals who must contend with a revolutionary alarm system and a taciturn secretary.
Director: Giuliano Montaldo | Stars: Janet Leigh, Robert Hoffmann, Klaus Kinski, Riccardo Cucciolla
Votes: 1,382
Edward G. Robinson was still getting it done this late in his career, as he plots a diamond robbery during carnival in Rio by using Janet Leigh. There is a great double twist at the end.
32. American Hustle (2013)
R | 138 min | Crime, Drama
A con man, Irving Rosenfeld, along with his seductive partner Sydney Prosser, is forced to work for a wild F.B.I. Agent, Richie DiMaso, who pushes them into a world of Jersey powerbrokers and the Mafia.
Director: David O. Russell | Stars: Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence
Votes: 500,120 | Gross: $150.12M
A long forgotten scandal of the 1970's reminds us that things haven't changed very much in the years since then.
33. Coldblooded (1995)
R | 92 min | Action, Comedy, Thriller
A bookie is promoted to Hitman and seemingly excels at his new found job.
Director: Wallace Wolodarsky | Stars: Jason Priestley, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Peter Riegert, Robert Loggia
Votes: 4,084
Jason Priestley's hitman turns out to be quite the prodigy, much to the delight of Robert Loggia's Mob Boss. A neglected gem.
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