To celebrate the release of Guy Ritchie gangster series The Gentleman, we’re counting down the 11 best gangster films on Netflix.
From biographies of historical hitmen to more modern mob tales, these are the ones to stream now. If fantasy is more your thing, check out the Game of Thrones 10 best episodes ranked.
Not many people saw this immaculately styled tale of Mark Rylance’s gentleman tailor to the mob, and that’s a shame because there’s real tension to his ever-increasing entanglement into a violent world. It also answers the burning question: where do gangsters go to get their suits?
It’s far from glamorous, but the UK’s soccer hooliganism scene makes the perfect setting to explore the gangster genre’s inherent tribalism. Elijah Wood plays an expelled Harvard undergrad introduced to an unforgiving underworld by Pete (Charlie Hunnam), the die-hard supporter of a thuggish London team,
Al Pacino teams with Johnny Depp in this involving ‘70s crime thriller. Based on a 1988 nonfiction book, it tells the true story of an FBI undercover agent (Depp) who infiltrates the Bonanno crime family in New York City under the alias Donnie Brasco, and gets in with Pacino’s aging Mafia hitman.
When you think gangster movies, John Singleton’s Detroit-set tale of revenge doesn’t immediately spring to mind, but a core cast featuring Mark Wahlberg and Outkast’s André Benjamin bring the chemistry as four brothers hitting back at their adoptive mother’s murderers.
The film that introduced the world to Bond actor Daniel Craig. Here Craig plays a cocaine dealer who wants out of the drug business. His associates, however, aren’t about to make his exit easy. Layer Cake also boats a starry cast, including Tom Hardy, Michael Gambon, Colm Meaney, and Sienna Miller.
Scorsese’s decades-in-the-making gangster opus is long in a lot of respects. With the director first conceptualizing a film about a De Niro-portrayed aging gangster in the ‘80s, it was a long time coming. And, at 3h 29m, it’s a long watch too. But devote your time and you’ll find a richly layered epic you’ll remember for a long time.
A rare dip into the gangster genre from sci-fi maestro Ridley Scott. The film follows the true story of Frank Lucas, a North Carolina criminal who smuggles heroin into the United States on American service planes returning from the Vietnam War. The action is anchored by the twin powerhouses of Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe.
Tom Hardy gives arguably his best leading performance as a pair of notorious gangster twins who charmed and terrorized London during the 1960s. Ronald and Reggie Kray may look identical, but they have exceedingly different personalities - as well as trajectories through life.
No one suspected this surprise Breaking Bad would be as good as it is. Serving as an epilogue, it follows meth-dealer Jesse Pinkman attempting to make a clean break immediately following the events of the show's final season. Releasing on Netflix in 2019, six years after Breaking Bad ended, writer/director Vince Gilligan ensured the high quality of his smash hit TV series remained intact.
Guy Ritchie’s crowning glory is only is second gangster film. Released in 2000, he’s never bettered this intertwined urban odyssey of crooked boxing promoters, Russian heavies, and criminal Travelers. Worth watching for Brad Pitt’s indecipherable Irish accent alone.
Simply the best gangster film of all time. Michael Mann’s 1995 crime drama pits Al Pacino’s overbearing cop against Robert De Niro’s brooding thief, culminating in a street-reverberating shootout following bank heist gone wrong. Heat 2 is rumored to begin filming this year.
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