Movie Auditor › Rankings › 1980s › Crime
Best Crime Movies of the 1980s, Ranked by IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and TMDB
127 crime films from the 1980s are in our catalog; the 50 best are ranked below. Top of the list is Scarface (1983), at 8.3 on IMDb. The average IMDb score across this list is 7.5. Biggest split between audiences and critics: Clue, 7.3 on IMDb against 41 on Metacritic.
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| # | Movie | Genre | IMDb | Tomato | Meta | TMDB | Director |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Scarface '1983 | Action / Crime / Drama | 8.3 | 77% | 65 | 8.2 | Brian De Palma |
| 2 | Once Upon a Time in America '1984 | Drama / Crime | 8.3 | 86% | 75 | 8.4 | Sergio Leone |
| 3 | The Untouchables '1987 | Crime / Thriller | 7.8 | 83% | 79 | 7.8 | Brian De Palma |
| 4 | Who Framed Roger Rabbit '1988 | Fantasy / Animation / Comedy / Crime | 7.7 | 96% | 83 | 7.5 | Robert Zemeckis |
| 5 | Mississippi Burning '1988 | Drama / Crime / Mystery / Thriller | 7.8 | 79% | 65 | 7.7 | Alan Parker |
| 6 | Blue Velvet '1986 | Mystery / Thriller / Crime | 7.7 | 87% | 75 | 7.6 | David Lynch |
| 7 | Lethal Weapon '1987 | Action / Thriller / Crime | 7.6 | 82% | 68 | 7.3 | Richard Donner |
| 8 | The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! '1988 | Comedy / Crime | 7.6 | 88% | 76 | 7.3 | David Zucker |
| 9 | Time of the Gypsies '1988 | Drama / Crime / Fantasy / Romance | 8.1 | 100% | - | 7.6 | Emir Kusturica |
| 10 | Batman '1989 | Fantasy / Action / Crime | 7.5 | 77% | 69 | 7.2 | Tim Burton |
| 11 | A Fish Called Wanda '1988 | Comedy / Crime | 7.5 | 96% | 80 | 7.2 | Charles Crichton |
| 12 | Beverly Hills Cop '1984 | Comedy / Crime / Action | 7.4 | 83% | 66 | 7.2 | Martin Brest |
| 13 | Down by Law '1986 | Crime / Drama / Comedy | 7.7 | 85% | 75 | 7.4 | Jim Jarmusch |
| 14 | Midnight Run '1988 | Comedy / Crime / Thriller | 7.5 | 95% | 78 | 7.2 | Martin Brest |
| 15 | Crimes and Misdemeanors '1989 | Comedy / Drama / Crime | 7.8 | 92% | 77 | 7.4 | Woody Allen |
| 16 | Blood Simple '1985 | Crime / Drama / Thriller | 7.5 | 94% | 84 | 7.3 | Joel Coen |
| 17 | Blow Out '1981 | Crime / Mystery / Thriller | 7.4 | 88% | 86 | 7.3 | Brian De Palma |
| 18 | The Thin Blue Line '1988 | Crime / Documentary | 7.9 | 100% | 79 | 7.7 | Errol Morris |
| 19 | The Killer '1989 | Action / Crime / Drama / Thriller | 7.7 | 96% | 82 | 7.6 | John Woo |
| 20 | A Short Film About Killing '1988 | Crime / Drama | 7.9 | 91% | - | 7.6 | Krzysztof Kieślowski |
| 21 | Dirty Rotten Scoundrels '1988 | Comedy / Crime | 7.4 | 89% | 68 | 7.1 | Frank Oz |
| 22 | Body Heat '1981 | Thriller / Crime | 7.4 | 96% | 77 | 7.0 | Lawrence Kasdan |
| 23 | Wall Street '1987 | Crime / Drama | 7.3 | 78% | 56 | 7.2 | Oliver Stone |
| 24 | The Long Good Friday '1980 | Crime / Thriller / Drama | 7.5 | 97% | 82 | 7.2 | John Mackenzie |
| 25 | Thief '1981 | Crime / Thriller / Drama | 7.4 | 80% | 78 | 7.2 | Michael Mann |
| 26 | Raising Arizona '1987 | Comedy / Crime | 7.3 | 91% | 69 | 7.1 | Joel Coen |
| 27 | Lethal Weapon 2 '1989 | Action / Thriller / Crime | 7.3 | 82% | 70 | 7.1 | Richard Donner |
| 28 | Clue '1985 | Comedy / Crime / Mystery | 7.3 | 73% | 41 | 7.2 | Jonathan Lynn |
| 29 | Witness '1985 | Crime / Drama / Thriller | 7.3 | 92% | 76 | 7.1 | Peter Weir |
| 30 | Police Story '1985 | Action / Crime / Comedy | 7.5 | 90% | 78 | 7.6 | Jackie Chan |
| 31 | Manhunter '1986 | Crime / Horror / Thriller | 7.2 | 82% | 75 | 7.0 | Michael Mann |
| 32 | The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover '1989 | Crime / Drama | 7.5 | 87% | 62 | 7.3 | Peter Greenaway |
| 33 | The Inquisitor '1981 | Crime / Drama / Thriller | 7.6 | - | - | 7.5 | Claude Miller |
| 34 | La Chèvre '1981 | Comedy / Crime | 7.3 | 50% | - | 7.1 | Francis Veber |
| 35 | Atlantic City '1980 | Crime / Drama / Romance | 7.3 | 100% | 85 | 6.8 | Louis Malle |
| 36 | A Better Tomorrow '1986 | Action / Crime / Drama | 7.4 | 95% | 78 | 7.4 | John Woo |
| 37 | Running on Empty '1988 | Drama / Crime | 7.6 | 81% | 67 | 7.4 | Sidney Lumet |
| 38 | To Live and Die in L.A. '1985 | Crime / Thriller / Action | 7.3 | 89% | 81 | 7.1 | William Friedkin |
| 39 | Brubaker '1980 | Crime / Drama | 7.2 | 74% | 54 | 7.1 | Stuart Rosenberg |
| 40 | The Great Muppet Caper '1981 | Comedy / Crime / Mystery / Romance | 7.1 | 78% | 70 | 6.9 | Jim Henson |
| 41 | Heathers '1989 | Comedy / Crime | 7.1 | 95% | 72 | 7.3 | Michael Lehmann |
| 42 | Rumble Fish '1983 | Crime / Drama / Romance | 7.1 | 77% | 63 | 7.0 | Francis Ford Coppola |
| 43 | L'Argent '1983 | Crime / Drama | 7.4 | 97% | 95 | 6.9 | Robert Bresson |
| 44 | The Great Mouse Detective '1986 | Animation / Mystery / Crime | 7.1 | 79% | 73 | 7.0 | Ron Clements |
| 45 | The Outsiders '1983 | Crime / Drama | 7.0 | 71% | 45 | 7.2 | Francis Ford Coppola |
| 46 | Evil Under the Sun '1982 | Thriller / Crime / Mystery / Drama | 7.1 | 86% | 61 | 6.9 | Guy Hamilton |
| 47 | Bad Boys '1983 | Crime / Drama / Thriller | 7.2 | 89% | 53 | 7.0 | Rick Rosenthal |
| 48 | Mona Lisa '1986 | Crime / Drama / Romance / Thriller | 7.3 | 98% | 85 | 6.9 | Neil Jordan |
| 49 | House of Games '1987 | Crime / Thriller / Drama | 7.2 | 94% | 78 | 6.8 | David Mamet |
| 50 | The Accused '1988 | Crime / Drama | 7.1 | 93% | 65 | 7.1 | Jonathan Kaplan |
Our catalog covers roughly the 8,800 most-rated films on TMDB, so lesser-known titles may be missing. Order uses a confidence-weighted IMDb score so a perfect score from a handful of votes does not beat a well-established classic; the scores shown are the raw ones.
All crime movies
All movies of the 1980s
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Other genres in the 1980s
Action of the 1980s Animation of the 1980s Comedy of the 1980s Drama of the 1980s Fantasy of the 1980s Horror of the 1980s Mystery of the 1980s Romance of the 1980s Sci-Fi of the 1980s Thriller of the 1980s War of the 1980s
Directors on this list
Brian De Palma Sergio Leone Robert Zemeckis Alan Parker David Lynch Richard Donner David Zucker Emir Kusturica Tim Burton Charles Crichton Martin Brest Jim Jarmusch
Actors on this list
Al Pacino Robert De Niro James Woods Kevin Costner Sean Connery Bob Hoskins Christopher Lloyd Gene Hackman Willem Dafoe Mel Gibson Danny Glover Leslie Nielsen