DBF-New-Vintage-Headerv4
The Top 50 Best British Crime Movies – Part 3:
Counting down 30 to 21
30 – Harry Brown (2009)
Every man has a breaking point.
Thriller  |  Crime  |  Drama  |  Action
IMDb: 7.2
RT Audience: 8.7
Letterboxd: 6.58
Star icon
7.09 /10
DIRECTED BY: Daniel Barber
TOP BILLED CAST:
SYNOPSIS:
Harry Brown is a 2009 British vigilante action-thriller film directed by Daniel Barber and starring Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, Jack O’Connell, and Liam Cunningham. The story follows Harry Brown, a widowed Royal Marines veteran who had served in Northern Ireland during The Troubles, living on a London housing estate that is rapidly descending into youth crime. After a violent gang murders his friend, Harry decides to take justice into his own hands.
29 – McVicar (1980)
Sentenced to 23 years-and he won’t accept one day of it
Crime  |  Drama
IMDb: 6.7
RT Audience: 8.5
Letterboxd: 6.26
Star icon
7.15 /10
DIRECTED BY: Tom Clegg
TOP BILLED CAST:
SYNOPSIS:
John McVicar (Roger Daltrey) is an English career criminal locked up with all the other lifers in the dreaded E Wing of Durham Prison. Between riots and constant prison guard brutality, McVicar and fellow inmate Walter Probyn (Adam Faith) gradually dig a tunnel that enables their escape. Once on the outside, McVicar does his best to lie low and re-enter the lives of his wife (Cheryl Campbell) and infant son, despite the fact that police have labeled him “Public Enemy Number One.”
28 – Bronson (2008)
The Man. The Myth. The Celebrity.
Crime  |  Drama  |  Action
IMDb: 7.0
RT Audience: 7.4
Letterboxd: 7.20
Star icon
7.20 /10
DIRECTED BY: Nicolas Winding Refn
TOP BILLED CAST:
SYNOPSIS:
In this drama based on a true story, there’s no one tougher or more brutal in the English penal system than prisoner Michael Peterson, aka Charles Bronson (Tom Hardy). First incarcerated after robbing a jewelry store, the married Bronson is sentenced to seven years. But his incorrigible, savage behavior quickly gets him in trouble with guards, fellow inmates and even a dog. The only place where Bronson can’t do any harm is in solitary confinement, where he spends most of his time.
27 – Performance (1970)
See them all in a film about fantasy. And reality. Vice. And versa.
Crime  |  Drama  |  Music
IMDb: 6.8
RT Audience: 7.8
Letterboxd: 7.06
Star icon
7.22 /10
DIRECTED BY: Donald Cammell
TOP BILLED CAST:
SYNOPSIS:
After killing a rival in self-defense, hoodlum Chas (James Fox) must flee both from the law and from his boss, Harry Flowers. He eventually moves into a house owned by Turner (Mick Jagger), a former rock star who lives with female companions Pherber (Anita Pallenberg) and Lucy (Michele Breton). Chas and Turner initially clash, but Turner becomes fascinated with Chas’ life as a criminal. Through drugs and a series of psychological battles with Turner, Chas emerges a different man.
26 – The Hit (1984)
Even bad guys have bad days
Drama  |  Action  |  Thriller  |  Crime
IMDb: 7.0
RT Audience: 7.4
Letterboxd: 7.32
Star icon
7.24 /10
DIRECTED BY: Stephen Frears
TOP BILLED CAST:
SYNOPSIS:
London gangster Willie Parker gives evidence against his criminal compatriots in return for a very generous offer from the police. Ten years later, Parker is living in comfortable retirement in Spain. Four Spanish youths kidnap him and deliver him to British hit man Braddock and his sidekick Myron, hired by the kingpin that Parker helped put away. In the course of the kidnapping the youths run down a Spanish policeman who has been assigned to guard Parker. Three of the youths are then killed by a bomb in a briefcase, which they believe to contain their pay-off, handed to them by Braddock. Braddock is a world-weary professional killer while Myron is his perky but volatile young apprentice. Parker quickly adopts a carefree demeanour, later explaining that he’s had ten years to accept death as a simple part of life.
25 – Croupier (1998)
Life’s a gamble…
Crime  |  Drama  |  Thriller
IMDb: 7.0
RT Audience: 7.9
Letterboxd: 6.82
Star icon
7.24 /10
DIRECTED BY: Mike Hodges
TOP BILLED CAST:
SYNOPSIS:
Jack Manfred is a croupier who works by night and writes by day. His girlfriend Marion becomes increasingly frustrated by his seemingly aimless life, but he becomes focused when glamorous South African Jani de Villiers arrives in his casino, and then his bed, with a plan to defraud the house – but is she playing with a straight deck of cards?
24 – The Limey (1999)
Vengeance knows no boundaries.
Crime  |  Drama  |  Mystery
IMDb: 6.9
RT Audience: 7.8
Letterboxd: 7.20
Star icon
7.30 /10
DIRECTED BY: Steven Soderbergh
TOP BILLED CAST:
SYNOPSIS:
The Limey follows Wilson, a tough English ex-con who travels to Los Angeles to avenge his daughter’s death. Upon arrival, Wilson goes to task battling Valentine and an army of L.A.’s toughest criminals, hoping to find clues and piece together what happened. After surviving a near-death beating, getting thrown from a building and being chased down a dangerous mountain road, the Englishman decides to dole out some bodily harm of his own.
23 – I.D. (1995)
When you go undercover, remember one thing: who you are.
Crime  |  Drama
IMDb: 7.3
RT Audience: 8.1
Letterboxd: 6.68
Star icon
7.36 /10
DIRECTED BY: Phil Davis
TOP BILLED CAST:
SYNOPSIS:
Four young police officers are sent undercover to infiltrate a gang of hooligans who are on the fringes of the support for a London football club. Only total commitment will gain the undercover cops the acceptance they need to do their job – but how far should they go to live the life of the football thug? One of the officers suffers a personality crisis, his standards corroded by the effects of violent macho behaviour.
22 – TwentyFourSeven (1997)
Try Love. Try Hate. Try Anything. Just Try.
Drama
IMDb: 7.1
RT Audience: 8.1
Letterboxd: 7.08
Star icon
7.43 /10
DIRECTED BY: Shane Meadows
TOP BILLED CAST:
SYNOPSIS:
As a youth, Alan Darcy (Bob Hoskins) avoided getting sucked into violent gang life in Nottingham by taking out his aggression at a boxing club. Years later, the same grim temptations of crime and drugs from his upbringing threaten to lure a new generation of young public housing residents into a downward spiral. With financial help from gangster Ronnie Marsh (Frank Harper), Alan reopens the gym he went to in his youth and begins training his troubled recruits for a public boxing match.
21 – The General (1998)
The extraordinary true story of the rise and fall of the gangster, Martin Cahill.
Crime   |  History
IMDb: 7.2
RT Audience: 8.1
Letterboxd: 7.04
Star icon
7.45 /10
DIRECTED BY: John Boorman
TOP BILLED CAST:
SYNOPSIS:
This fact-based film begins with the murder of Martin Cahill (Brendan Gleeson), one of Ireland’s most infamous and violent criminals. Dying, Cahill reflects on his life — being raised on the hardscrabble streets of Dublin, his years in reform school, learning to steal at an early age and rising from petty thief to powerful crime boss known for his brazen armed robberies. And throughout, tenacious policeman Ned Kenny (Jon Voight) dedicatedly pursuing him.
More Great Articles;