The Top 50 British Crime Movies Ranked - Part Two

The Top 50 Best British Crime Movies – Part 2:

Counting down 40 to 31

40 – Ill Manors (2012)

We are all products of our environment …some environments are just harder to survive in

Drama | Crime

IMDb: 7.1

RT Audience: 7.1

Letterboxd: 6.60

6.93 /10

DIRECTED BY: Ben Drew

TOP BILLED CAST:

SYNOPSIS:

Small-time drug dealer Aaron is dragged deeper into the criminal underbelly of a London estate. The desperate lives of several locals intersect over a missing mobile phone, a stolen gun and an abandoned baby, with murderous results.

39 – The Business (2005)

This firm will blow you away.

Drama | Action | Thriller | Crime

IMDb: 6.6

RT Audience: 8.4

Letterboxd: 5.88

6.96 /10

DIRECTED BY: Nick Love

TOP BILLED CAST:

SYNOPSIS:

During the ’80s, a young man named Frankie dreams of escaping London’s South East region, and his mother’s thug of a boyfriend gives him just the opportunity. After beating up the abusive beau, Frankie runs off to Spain, where he lands a job delivering a package to the dapper Playboy Charlie, a gangster who takes him under his wing. Working as Charlie’s driver, Frankie is immersed in a world of fast cars and pretty women — but all the excess could be his undoing.

38 – Rise of the Footsoldier (2007)

Based on the Shocking True Story

Action | Adventure | Crime | Drama | Thriller

IMDb: 6.8

RT Audience: 8.3

Letterboxd: 5.78

6.96 /10

DIRECTED BY: Julian Gilbey

TOP BILLED CAST:

SYNOPSIS:

Rise of the Footsoldier follows the rise of Carlton Leach from a football hooligan to becoming a member of a notorious gang of criminals who rampaged their way through Essex in the late eighties and early nineties. It is three decades of his life following him from football hooliganism, to bouncer, his involvement in the criminal aspects of the early ‘rave’ scene and subsequently becoming a violent criminal.

37 – RocknRolla (2008)

A story of sex, thugs and rock ‘n roll.

Action | Crime | Thriller

IMDb: 7.2

RT Audience: 7.1

Letterboxd: 6.60

6.97 /10

DIRECTED BY: Guy Ritchie

TOP BILLED CAST:

SYNOPSIS:

Small-time crooks One Two and Mumbles decide to legitimately invest in some prime real estate and find themselves out of their depth and in debt to old-school London gangster Lenny Cole. Cole himself is in the middle of a business deal with a Russian gangster, but when his accountant tips off One Two and Mumbles to the details of an upcoming big-money business transaction, the two scallywags swoop in and steal the cash.

36 – The Bank Job (2008)

The true story of a heist gone wrong… in all the right ways.

Crime | Thriller | Drama

IMDb: 7.2

RT Audience: 7.4

Letterboxd: 6.32

6.97 /10

DIRECTED BY: Roger Donaldson

TOP BILLED CAST:

Jason Statham

Saffron Burrows

Stephen Campbell Moore

Daniel Mays

James Faulkner

Michael Jibson

SYNOPSIS:

Self-reformed petty criminal Terry Leather (Jason Statham) has become a financially struggling car dealer and settled into a pedestrian London life with his wife and kids, but takes the plunge into big crime when his ex-girlfriend, Martine (Saffron Burrows), turns up with an offer to pull off a lucrative bank heist. After Terry assembles his crew of misfits and begins the operation, he finds that there are other agendas at play, and powerful players who have designs on the vault’s contents.

35 – Gangster No. 1 (2000)

There can only be ONE!

Action | Drama | Thriller

IMDb: 6.7

RT Audience: 7.7

Letterboxd: 6.62

7.01 /10

DIRECTED BY: Paul McGuigan

TOP BILLED CAST:

SYNOPSIS:

The time is now. The scene is a ringside table at a boxing match, held at a deluxe London hotel. At the head of the table sits Gangster (Malcolm McDowell), the undisputed king of London’s gangland. Life couldn’t be sweeter, until Gangster learns that Freddie Mays is being released from prison. Freddie Mays, his old boss and mentor, is coming out after doing 30 years for murder. Hearing Freddie Mays’ name, even after all these years, stirs up a frightening well of emotions in Gangster.

34 – The Football Factory (2004)

What Else You Gonna Do On A Saturday?

Drama

IMDb: 6.8

RT Audience: 8.3

Letterboxd: 5.92

7.01 /10

DIRECTED BY: Nick Love

TOP BILLED CAST:

SYNOPSIS:

The Football Factory is more than just a study of the English obsession with football violence, it’s about men looking for armies to join, wars to fight and places to belong. A forgotten culture of Anglo Saxon males fed up with being told they’re not good enough and using their fists as a drug they describe as being more potent than sex and drugs put together.

33 – London to Brighton (2006)

Innocence has nowhere to hide

Crime | Drama | Thriller

IMDb: 6.9

RT Audience: 7.4

Letterboxd: 6.70

7.01 /10

DIRECTED BY: Paul Andrew Williams

TOP BILLED CAST:

SYNOPSIS:

It’s 3:07am and two girls burst into a run down London toilet. Joanne is crying her eyes out and her clothing is ripped. Kelly’s face is bruised and starting to swell. Duncan Allen lies in his bathroom bleeding to death. Duncan’s son finds his father and wants answers. Derek – Kelly’s pimp – needs to find Kelly or it will be him who pays.

32 – Love, Honour and Obey (2000)

Till Death Do Us Part

Action | Comedy | Thriller | Crime

IMDb: 6.4

RT Audience: 8.7

Letterboxd: 5.94

7.01 /10

DIRECTED BY: Ray Burdis

TOP BILLED CAST:

SYNOPSIS:

Jonny (Jonny Lee Miller) is working as a courier and becoming increasingly dissatisfied with his life. He asks long-running school friend Jude (Jude Law) to help him into the North London criminal gang run by his uncle Ray (Ray Winstone). As Jonny gets more involved in the image of the criminal world, he starts making mistakes and through a mutual dislike for rival gangster Matthew (Rhys Ifans) inadvertently starts a war with the South London mob, headed up by Sean (Sean Pertwee).

31 – A Sense of Freedom (1979)

They broke his body but not his spirit.

Crime | Drama

IMDb: 6.9

RT Audience: 8.7

Letterboxd: 6.88

7.09 /10

DIRECTED BY: John Mackenzie

TOP BILLED CAST:

SYNOPSIS:

A Sense of Freedom is a 1981 Scottish crime film directed by John Mackenzie for Scottish Television. The film stars David Hayman and featured Jake D’Arcy, Sean Scanlan, Hector Nicol, Alex Norton and Fulton Mackay. It is based on the autobiography of Glasgow gangster Jimmy Boyle, who was reputed to be Scotland’s most violent man. Due to non-co-operation by the Scottish Prison Service in allowing a film crew access to their property, Hayman’s scenes in prison were filmed in Dublin’s Kilmainham Jail.

A harrowing tale of a habitual and brutal criminal. Boyle repeatedly resisted attempts by the Prison Service to dampen his temper. He was brutally assaulted many times by Prison Officers. He also assaulted many staff including a brutal attack causing an officer to lose his eye.

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