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MOVIEPIQ · CRIME · CURATED LIST

Best Crime Movies When You’re Bored From The 80S And 90S You Have Probably Never Heard Of

These crime films were selected by the Moviepiq editorial team for when you need something actually worth watching. Popularity and critic scores don't factor in here. Emotional fit does.

The best crime movies when youre bored from the 80s and 90s you have probably never heard of. Includes Police Story, Sonatine, Menace II Society and more - c...

When nothing sounds good and you've scrolled through everything twice, the answer is usually a film you wouldn't normally reach for. Try something from this list.

The 80s and 90s remain a goldmine. Films that were commercially dismissed on release and now considered essential.

Crime as a genre works because it forces moral clarity in situations designed to resist it.

Police Story movie poster
1
1985 · ★★★½☆ 7.5/10

Officer Chan Ka Kui manages to put a major Hong Kong drug dealer behind the bars practically alone, after a shooting and an impressive chase inside a slum. Now, he must protect the boss' secretary, Selina, who will testify against the gangster in court.

Sonatine movie poster
2
1993 · ★★★½☆ 7.5/10

Murakawa, an aging Tokyo yakuza tiring of gangster life, is sent by his boss to Okinawa along with a few of his henchmen to help end a gang war, supposedly as mediators between two warring clans. He finds that the dispute between the clans is insignificant and whilst wondering why he was sent to Okinawa at all, his group is attacked in an ambush. The survivors flee and make a decision to lay low at the beach while they await further instructions.

Menace II Society movie poster
3
1993 · ★★★½☆ 7.5/10

A young street hustler attempts to escape the rigors and temptations of the ghetto in a quest for a better life.

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm movie poster
4
1993 · ★★★½☆ 7.5/10

Andrea Beaumont leaves her father to return to Gotham, rekindling an old romance with Bruce Wayne. At the same time, a mysterious figure begins to hunt down Gotham's criminals, wrongly implicating Batman in the murders. Now on the run from the law, Batman must find and stop the culprit, while also navigating his relationship with Andrea.

A Perfect World movie poster
5
1993 · ★★★½☆ 7.5/10

A kidnapped boy strikes up a friendship with his captor: an escaped convict on the run from the law, headed by an honorable U.S. Marshal.

These films don't romanticise crime - they examine it. The best of them leave you uncertain about who you were rooting for.

Miller's Crossing movie poster
6
1990 · ★★★½☆ 7.5/10

Set in 1929, a political boss and his advisor have a parting of the ways when they both fall for the same woman.

Scream movie poster
7
1996 · ★★★½☆ 7.4/10

A year after the murder of her mother, a teenage girl is terrorized by a masked killer who targets her and her friends by using scary movies as part of a deadly game.

Crimes and Misdemeanors movie poster
8
1989 · ★★★½☆ 7.4/10

A renowned ophthalmologist is desperate to cut off an adulterous relationship...which ends up in murder; and a frustrated documentary filmmaker woos an attractive television producer while making a film about her insufferably self-centered boss.

The Godfather Part III movie poster
9
1990 · ★★★½☆ 7.4/10

In the midst of trying to legitimize his business dealings in 1979 New York and Italy, aging mafia don, Michael Corleone seeks forgiveness for his sins while taking a young protege under his wing.

Boys Don't Cry movie poster
10
1999 · ★★★½☆ 7.4/10

A young transgender man explores his gender identity and searches for love in rural Nebraska.

The best-kept secrets in cinema aren't obscure for lack of quality. They're obscure because distribution is cruel and algorithms are indifferent.

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

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