Best movies — crime on Netflix : our Top 20

2008 · Christopher Nolan

Batman pushes his campaign against Gotham’s underworld to the next level, joining forces with Lt. Jim Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent to systematically break apart the last criminal networks. Their cooperation brings hope for a safer city, but a cunning new antagonist who calls himself the Joker sparks a spiral of violence and anarchy that threatens to overwhelm them all.

With Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Morgan Freeman

1994 · Quentin Tarantino

A burger-obsessed hitman, his introspective partner, a drug-addled gangster’s companion and a fallen prizefighter cross paths in a sprawling, darkly comic crime caper. Their tangled exploits unfold across three interwoven episodes that cleverly leap through time, peeling back secrets, rivalries and unlikely loyalties as past and present collide.

With John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis, Ving Rhames, Harvey Keitel and Eric Stoltz

1990 · Martin Scorsese

Based on the real-life rise of Henry Hill, a Brooklyn youth of Irish and Sicilian parentage who is taken under the wing of local mobsters and, mentored by Jimmy Conway, climbs the hierarchy of a Mafia crew.

With Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco, Paul Sorvino, Frank Sivero and Tony Darrow

1999 · Frank Darabont

On death row in a Southern penitentiary, a towering, soft-spoken inmate named John Coffey harbors a baffling ability to lift illness and suffering from others. When Paul Edgecomb, the cell block’s chief guard, witnesses Coffey’s restorative gift, he becomes obsessed with preventing the condemned man’s execution. Battling institutional forces and his own uncertainty, Edgecomb mounts a desperate attempt to save a man whose power challenges everything they thought they knew.

With Tom Hanks, David Morse, Bonnie Hunt, Michael Clarke Duncan, James Cromwell, Michael Jeter and Graham Greene

1998 · Tony Kaye

Released after a three-year prison term for the racially motivated murders of two Black men, Derek Vineyard returns determined to leave his violent past behind. Once a skinhead leader whose white supremacist gang spread terror across Los Angeles, his earlier actions profoundly shaped his younger brother Danny. Told through Danny’s narration, the film follows Derek’s struggle to break all ties with his former comrades and shield Danny from repeating the same destructive path as he seeks redemption and faces the consequences of his past.

With Edward Norton, Edward Furlong, Beverly D'Angelo, Jennifer Lien, Ethan Suplee, Fairuza Balk and Avery Brooks

2019 · Todd Phillips

In 1980s Gotham City, a struggling stand-up comedian crushed by rejection and isolation spirals into madness, shedding his former life to become a calculating, unhinged criminal whose theatrical violence and anarchic schemes plunge the city into fear.

With Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Frances Conroy, Brett Cullen, Shea Whigham and Bill Camp

1983 · Brian De Palma

Granted U.S. residency after carrying out an assassination for Cuban officials, Tony Montana rises through Miami’s underworld, seizing control of the cocaine trade by brutally eliminating rivals. As he becomes the city’s dominant drug kingpin, intensifying law enforcement scrutiny, violent clashes with Colombian cartels and his own addiction-fueled paranoia set in motion the catastrophic unraveling of his empire.

With Al Pacino, Steven Bauer, Michelle Pfeiffer, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Robert Loggia, Miriam Colon and F. Murray Abraham

2003 · Quentin Tarantino

Wounded by her merciless boss Bill and betrayed by their tight-knit circle of killers, a seasoned hitwoman survives and quietly begins to orchestrate a ruthless plan for revenge.

With Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, Vivica A. Fox, Daryl Hannah, David Carradine, Michael Madsen and Julie Dreyfus

2003 · Quentin Tarantino

Shot and left for dead by her merciless boss Bill and his circle of killers, a seasoned assassin survives and embarks on a patient, calculated campaign to settle the score.

With Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, Vivica A. Fox, Daryl Hannah, David Carradine, Michael Madsen and Julie Dreyfus

2014 · Wes Anderson

During the interwar years, a celebrated concierge at a storied European hotel forges a close bond with a young employee who becomes his trusted protégé. Their partnership is drawn into a daring plot when an invaluable Renaissance painting is stolen, setting off a fierce struggle to recover the work and to claim a vast family inheritance. As they navigate danger, loyalty, and social ritual, they witness the continent’s gradual decline and then rapid convulsions that reshape Europe in the first half of the 20th century.

With Ralph Fiennes, F. Murray Abraham, Mathieu Amalric, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum and Harvey Keitel

2002 · Steven Spielberg

Before his nineteenth birthday, Frank Abagnale Jr. assumes a string of high-profile identities—posing as a Pan Am pilot, a doctor and a lawyer—to cash millions in fraudulent checks. A relentless FBI agent makes it his mission to catch him, but Frank stays several moves ahead, thriving on the thrill of the chase and his ability to slip away.

With Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen, Nathalie Baye, Amy Adams and James Brolin

1973 · George Roy Hill

A rookie grifter teams up with a famed con artist to avenge the murder of a shared friend by staging an audacious, high-stakes scam designed to bleed a powerful mob boss of his fortune.

With Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Robert Shaw, Charles Durning, Ray Walston, Eileen Brennan and Harold Gould

2004 · Quentin Tarantino

Determined and relentless, the Bride continues her brutal quest for vengeance against the squad of killers who tried to end her life and her unborn child. She hunts down each former ally in turn, striking the five names from her revenge list until only one target remains: Bill.

With Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Daryl Hannah, Michael Madsen, Gordon Liu Chia-hui, Michael Parks and Perla Haney-Jardine

2011 · John Michael McDonagh

In 1956 Pennsylvania, Irish-American war veteran Frank Sheeran ekes out a living as a truck driver until a chance encounter brings him into contact with mobster Russell Bufalino. Elevated to Bufalino’s most trusted enforcer, Frank is sent to Chicago to assist Jimmy Hoffa, a powerful union boss entangled with organized crime; what begins as a mission soon evolves into a deep, decades-long friendship that lasts almost twenty years.

With Brendan Gleeson, Don Cheadle, Liam Cunningham, Mark Strong, Katarina Čas, David Wilmot and Rory Keenan

1993 · Andrew Davis

Falsely convicted of his wife's murder and condemned to die, Richard Kimble escapes custody and goes on the run, determined to unmask the true killer and clear his name.

With Harrison Ford, Tommy Lee Jones, Joe Pantoliano, Jeroen Krabbé, Daniel Roebuck, L. Scott Caldwell and Tom Wood

1954 · Elia Kazan

A former boxing champion turned dockworker refuses to look the other way when he uncovers a tangle of graft, extortion and murder within the union, forcing him to confront powerful labor bosses to bring the truth to light.

With Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Eva Marie Saint, Rod Steiger, Pat Henning and Leif Erickson

2004 · Tony Scott

A world-weary former CIA operative, John Creasy, begrudgingly takes a protection job for a ten-year-old girl in Mexico City. Their uneasy rapport slowly deepens into a heartfelt bond, and when she is abducted his smoldering fury erupts into a relentless, no-holds-barred quest to rescue her at any cost.

With Denzel Washington, Dakota Fanning, Christopher Walken, Radha Mitchell, Marc Anthony, Giancarlo Giannini and Mickey Rourke

2000 · Mary Harron

A successful, well-heeled investment banker in New York projects a flawless public image while secretly harboring a psychopathic alternate personality; as his detached, increasingly irrational impulses grow bolder and more gratuitous, he conceals the mounting danger from colleagues and friends.

With Christian Bale, Willem Dafoe, Jared Leto, Josh Lucas, Samantha Mathis, Matt Ross and Bill Sage

1996 · Barry Levinson

Two former gang members set out to confront the state corrections officer who sexually assaulted them while they were incarcerated. Their quest for justice sparks a media firestorm and culminates in a sensational courtroom hearing that forces the system to confront long-hidden abuses.

With Kevin Bacon, Billy Crudup, Robert De Niro, Ron Eldard, Minnie Driver, Vittorio Gassman and Dustin Hoffman

1979 · Don Siegel

January 18, 1960 — Frank Lee Morris is sent to Alcatraz, the infamous maximum-security prison perched on a rocky island in San Francisco Bay. Regarded as inescapable, the fortress has never seen a successful breakout. Refusing to accept that verdict, Morris joins forces with other inmates and begins to methodically prepare a daring escape.

With Clint Eastwood, Patrick McGoohan, Roberts Blossom, Jack Thibeau, Fred Ward, Paul Benjamin and Larry Hankin