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Best Crime Movies When You Cant Sleep From The 80S And 90S That Will Keep You On The Edge Of Your Seat

The best crime movies when you cant sleep from the 80s and 90s that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Includes The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile...

The film you watch at 2am when sleep has given up on you should earn your full attention without demanding you pay for it the next morning.

The 80s and 90s are where a lot of cinema's DNA was written. Films that set the templates still running today.

Crime cinema at its best is a mirror — not a celebration of lawbreaking, but an examination of what drives people to it.

The Shawshank Redemption movie poster
1
1994 · ★★★★½ 8.7/10

Imprisoned in the 1940s for the double murder of his wife and her lover, upstanding banker Andy Dufresne begins a new life at the Shawshank prison, where he puts his accounting skills to work for an amoral warden. During his long stretch in prison, Dufresne comes to be admired by the other inmates -- including an older prisoner named Red -- for his integrity and unquenchable sense of hope.

The Green Mile movie poster
2
1999 · ★★★★½ 8.5/10

A supernatural tale set on death row in a Southern prison, where gentle giant John Coffey possesses the mysterious power to heal people's ailments. When the cell block's head guard, Paul Edgecomb, recognizes Coffey's miraculous gift, he tries desperately to help stave off the condemned man's execution.

Pulp Fiction movie poster
3
1994 · ★★★★½ 8.5/10

A burger-loving hit man, his philosophical partner, a drug-addled gangster's moll and a washed-up boxer converge in this sprawling, comedic crime caper. Their adventures unfurl in three stories that ingeniously trip back and forth in time.

GoodFellas movie poster
4
1990 · ★★★★½ 8.5/10

The true story of Henry Hill, a half-Irish, half-Sicilian Brooklyn kid who is adopted by neighbourhood gangsters at an early age and climbs the ranks of a Mafia family under the guidance of Jimmy Conway.

Once Upon a Time in America movie poster
5
1984 · ★★★★☆ 8.4/10

A former Prohibition-era Jewish gangster returns to the Lower East Side of Manhattan over thirty years later, where he once again must confront the ghosts and regrets of his old life.

What sets great crime cinema apart is consequence. Every action has a cost. These films make you feel that cost.

Se7en movie poster
6
1995 · ★★★★☆ 8.4/10

Two homicide detectives are on a desperate hunt for a serial killer whose crimes are based on the "seven deadly sins" in this dark and haunting film that takes viewers from the tortured remains of one victim to the next. The seasoned Det. Somerset researches each sin in an effort to get inside the killer's mind, while his novice partner, Mills, scoffs at his efforts to unravel the case.

The Silence of the Lambs movie poster
7
1991 · ★★★★☆ 8.3/10

Clarice Starling is a top student at the FBI's training academy. Jack Crawford wants Clarice to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist who is also a violent psychopath, serving life behind bars for various acts of murder and cannibalism. Crawford believes that Lecter may have insight into a case and that Starling, as an attractive young woman, may be just the bait to draw him out.

Léon: The Professional movie poster
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1994 · ★★★★☆ 8.3/10

Léon, the top hit man in New York, has earned a rep as an effective "cleaner". But when his next-door neighbors are wiped out by a loose-cannon DEA agent, he becomes the unwilling custodian of 12-year-old Mathilda. Before long, Mathilda's thoughts turn to revenge, and she considers following in Léon's footsteps.

The Usual Suspects movie poster
9
1995 · ★★★★☆ 8.2/10

Held in an L.A. interrogation room, Verbal Kint attempts to convince the feds that a mythic crime lord, Keyser Soze, not only exists, but was also responsible for drawing him and his four partners into a multi-million dollar heist that ended with an explosion in San Pedro harbor – leaving few survivors. Verbal lures his interrogators with an incredible story of the crime lord's almost supernatural prowess.

Scarface movie poster
10
1983 · ★★★★☆ 8.2/10

After getting a green card in exchange for assassinating a Cuban government official, Tony Montana stakes a claim on the drug trade in Miami. Viciously murdering anyone who stands in his way, Tony eventually becomes the biggest drug lord in the state, controlling nearly all the cocaine that comes through Miami. But increased pressure from the police, wars with Colombian drug cartels and his own drug-fueled paranoia serve to fuel the flames of his eventual downfall.

Tension is a byproduct of investment. You're only on the edge of your seat if the film has made you care first. These do.

Great crime cinema lingers because it doesn't offer easy resolution. The moral weight sits with you.