The Basketball Diaries (1995)

The Basketball Diaries (1995)

[5] Leonardo DiCaprio gives a strong early-career performance in this film based on the life of Jim Carroll, a promising young basketball player and writer whose life was derailed by drug addition in the late '60s and early '70s. The film transplants…
Raw Deal (1986)

Raw Deal (1986)

[6] The star power of Arnold Schwarzenegger elevates this standard, direct-to-video-style 80s action flick from the low end of mediocrity. Arnold plays a small town sheriff enticed by an FBI agent (Darren McGavin) to infiltrate a powerful Chicago mafia. Once he earns…
The Sting (1973)

The Sting (1973)

[7] Robert Redford and Paul Newman play Chicago con artists who team up to bankrupt a crime boss (Robert Shaw) who authorized the killing of Redford's grifting partner. Several other con artists join in on the elaborate betting scheme, which is threatened…
Frisco Kid (1935)

Frisco Kid (1935)

[4] James Cagney (The Public Enemy, The Mayor of Hell) stars as an aimless sailor who makes a name for himself in 1850s San Francisco, running bars and casinos on the notoriously violent Barbary Coast. He falls in love with an upper-crust…
Striptease (1996)

Striptease (1996)

[4] Demi Moore received a whopping $12.5 million to appear topless in this film about a woman who starts strip-dancing to make ends meet after a judge grants full custody of her young daughter (played well by Moore's real life daughter, Rumer…
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)

[7] Michael Rooker (Slither, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2) gives a chilling performance in this gritty, 16mm film based loosely on the confessions of convicted murderer Henry Lee Lucas. As Henry, Rooker lives in a dingy apartment with a roommate named…
10 to Midnight (1983)

10 to Midnight (1983)

[7] Charles Bronson (The Magnificent Seven) headlines this above-average low-budget thriller about a veteran L.A. cop in pursuit of a serial killer who stalks women in the nude. Early in the film, Bronson tells his boss (Wilford Brimley) that the killer's "knife…
Invisible Stripes (1939)

Invisible Stripes (1939)

[7] George Raft, Humphrey Bogart, and William Holden star in this better-than-average gangster flick. Raft and Bogart play convicts just released from prison. Raft reunites with his mother (Flora Robson) and younger brother (Holden) and tries to start a clean, new life,…
Touch of Evil (1958)

Touch of Evil (1958)

[8] Writer/director Orson Welles also co-stars in his adaptation of Whit Masterson's novel Badge of Evil, a sinister late-era film noir thriller set at the U.S.-Mexican border. Charlton Heston plays a Mexican narcotics officer who spars with Welles's corrupt American police captain…
Gorky Park (1983)

Gorky Park (1983)

[6] William Hurt (Body Heat, The Accidental Tourist) stars as a Russian police investigator who uncovers an international conspiracy while pursuing a grisly triple murder case. Brian Dennehy (First Blood) plays an American adversary-turned-ally, while Lee Marvin co-stars as the prime suspect,…