Crime families, codes of loyalty, and the long fall that follows the rise. Gangster film reviews from the Warner classics to the modern epics.
CrimeGodfather of Harlem (2019-2025) rates 8 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. A mafia series where you can state the protagonist's motivation in one sentence, which almost none of them manage. Bumpy Johnson wants his neighborhood back, and the…
CrimeCarlito's Way (1993) rates 9 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. De Palma tells you Carlito dies in the first ninety seconds and then makes you hope for two and a half hours that he will not. Sean Penn…
CrimeRoad to Perdition (2002) rates 8 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. A gangster film shot like a painting, about a man teaching his son a trade while trying to keep him out of it. Conrad Hall's last work…
CrimeBoardwalk Empire (2010-2014) rates 9 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. The first three seasons are in my top ten of anything ever put on a screen. Then it degrades, badly. Watch to the end of season three and…
CrimeEastern Promises (2007) rates 8 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Cronenberg on the Russian mafia in London, where the body is the filing system and the tattoos are the documents. The bathhouse fight works because nobody in it…
DramaRobert De Niro's 1993 directorial debut. Father versus neighborhood gangster for boy's loyalty.
CrimeBrian De Palma's 1987 Eliot Ness biopic. Costner, Connery, De Niro as Capone.
CrimeScorsese's 1973 breakthrough. Harvey Keitel and De Niro as Little Italy hustlers.
CrimeMike Newell's 1997 undercover FBI drama. Donnie Brasco is Mike Newell's 1997 American crime drama.
CrimeRaoul Walsh's 1949 noir gangster. Cagney as psychopathic mama's boy Cody Jarrett.
CrimeWilliam Wellman's 1931 pre-code gangster classic. Wellman's 1931 American gangster film.
CrimeSergio Leone's 1984 final film. New York Jewish gangsters across five decades.
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