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Focus Features
Last Updated: March 30th
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 30 Best Movies On Netflix Right Now
Jackie Brown (1997)
After earning acclaim with Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs, Quentin Tarantino made his subtlest feature with Jackie Brown, an Elmore Leonard adaptation that the director still makes very much his own. After middle-aged stewardess Jackie Brown (Pam Grier) is picked up by the FBI, she’s pulled between her arms-dealing boss (Samuel L. Jackson), the feds that are after him, and saving her own skin. With an all-star ensemble that includes Robert De Niro and Robert Forster (who earned an Oscar nomination), Jackie Brown is a throwback to the blaxploitation genre that started in the ’70s, of which Grier was a big part of. It’s a tense, sexy, and desperate story, with a wonderful soundtrack to boot.
Michael Clayton (2007)
Tony Gilroy’s directorial debut focuses on the titular Michael Clayton (George Clooney), a down-and-out “fixer” trying to reign in a lawyer (Tom Wilkinson) who’s had a psychotic break while working a pharmaceutical case. As Clayton learns more about the drug company, he’s put in the crosshairs of the desperate, cutthroat general counsel (Tilda Swinton) looking to keep it all quiet. The characters are pushed to their respective edges and forced to decide what kind of people they want to be. It involves a lot of talking about legal documents and pensive looks at legal documents, but it’s powered by the Oscar-nominated performances of its three leads and a thrilling script, most of which were overshadowed by a particularly outstanding awards year (although Swinton went home with a win).
Lethal Weapon (1987)
A staple action movie of the ’80s, Lethal Weapon still stands up as a buddy cop movie that’s tough not to love. Mismatched partners — one suicidal, the other overly aged for various things — must learn to work together and stop a ring of drug smugglers. Its action hijinks are as indicative of the era as its jazzy music, and the film was even nominated for an Oscar for its sound. Lethal Weapon not only brought us Mel Gibson’s hair but the work of writer Shane Black, who has continued to pen noteworthy crime movies for over three decades.
Inside Man (2006)
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.
Hot Fuzz (2007)
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.
Training Day (2001)
In a performance that won him an overdue Oscar, Denzel Washing plays a bad cop who attempts to initiate a rookie (Ethan Hawke) into a life of enforcing the law living on the wrong side of it. Washington gives a large, uncompromising performance as someone who lost his way a long time ago and, honestly, doesn’t seem all that bothered by it. Working from a script by David Ayer, director Antoine Fuqua makes fantastic use of Los Angeles atmosphere as the film builds to a grim finale.
The Place Beyond The Pines (2012)
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.
The Godfather (1972)
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.)
Cold In July (2014)
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.
Deadfall (2012)
When a casino heist goes awry, a murderous brother and sister part ways in the snowy backcountry of Michigan in an effort to make it over the Canadian border. Their plan becomes plagued with complications when a boxer fresh out of prison and on his way home for the Thanksgiving holiday picks up the sister on the side of the road. From there the bloodshed begins as the two families come together in a violent wake. While the movie at times feels like a paint by numbers Coen brothers thriller, performances by Sissy Spacek, Eric Bana, Charlie Hunnam and Olivia Wilde help it rise above the cliches.
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