Our list of best visually striking crime movies on Netflix includes classic titles like Cape Fear (with Robert De Niro) and futuristic titles such as Snowpiercer.
Note: If you’re looking for exciting TV shows on Netflix, you can also check out The 57 Best Crime Drama and Thriller Shows On Netflix: 2020 Edition.
The List of 21 Best Visually Striking Crime Movies On Netflix
Here are the titles we have selected for you:
- Cape Fear
- Lust, Caution
- There Will Be Blood
- The Hateful Eight
- The Irishman
- Haywire
- Shadow
- Extinction
- A Ghost Story
- Fullmetal Alchemist
- The 4th Company
- Killing Them Softly
- Snowpiercer
- Sin City
- I Lost My Body
- Y tu mamá también
- Death Note
- Mute
- District 9
- Inception
- Taxi Driver
Cape Fear
When attorney Sam Bowden (Nick Nolte) knowingly withholds evidence that would acquit violent sex offender Max Cady (Robert De Niro) of rape charges, Max spends 14 years in prison.
But after Max’s release, knowing about Sam’s deceit, he devotes his life to stalking and destroying the Bowden family. When practical attempts to stop Max fail, Sam realizes that he must act outside the law to protect his wife and daughter in Martin Scorsese’s remake of the classic 1962 thriller.
Lust, Caution
A great and visually striking film: During World War II a secret agent (Tang Wei) must seduce, then assassinate an official (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) who works for the Japanese puppet government in Shanghai. Her mission becomes clouded when she finds herself falling in love with the man she is assigned to kill.
There Will Be Blood
Ruthless silver miner, turned oil prospector, Daniel Plainview moves to oil-rich California. Using his adopted son HW to project a trustworthy, family-man image, Plainview cons local landowners into selling him their valuable properties for a pittance. However, local preacher Eli Sunday suspects Plainviews motives and intentions, starting a slow-burning feud that threatens both their lives.
The Hateful Eight
While racing toward the town of Red Rock in post-Civil War Wyoming, bounty hunter John “The Hangman” Ruth (Kurt Russell) and his fugitive prisoner (Jennifer Jason Leigh) encounter another bounty hunter (Samuel L. Jackson) and a man who claims to be a sheriff.
Hoping to find shelter from a blizzard, the group travels to a stagecoach stopover located on a mountain pass. Greeted there by four strangers, the eight travelers soon learn that they may not make it to their destination after all.
The Irishman
The Irishman is a 2019 American epic crime film directed and produced by Martin Scorsese and written by Steven Zaillian, based on the 2004 nonfiction book I Heard You Paint Houses by Charles Brandt. It stars Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci, with stars like Harvey Keitel in supporting roles.
The film follows Frank Sheeran (De Niro), a truck driver who becomes a hitman involved with mobster Russell Bufalino (Pesci) and his crime family, including his time working for the powerful Teamster Jimmy Hoffa (Pacino).
Haywire
Mallory Kane (Gina Carano) is a highly trained operative for a government security contractor. Her missions take her to the world’s most dangerous areas.
After Mallory successfully frees a hostage journalist, she’s betrayed and left for dead by someone in her own agency. Knowing her survival depends on learning the truth behind the double-cross, Mallory uses her black-ops training to set a trap. But when things go awry, Mallory knows she’ll die unless she can turn the tables on her adversary.
Shadow
To finally achieve victory over a rival kingdom, a brilliant general devises an intricate plan involving his wife, a look-alike and two kings.
Extinction
A man’s home life starts to suffer when he has recurring nightmares about a destructive and unknown force. He must soon find the strength to save his wife and two daughters when extraterrestrials launch a devastating attack on the planet.
A Ghost Story
Recently deceased, a ghost returns to his suburban home to console his bereft wife, only to find that in his spectral state, he has become unstuck in time, forced to watch passively as the life he knew and the woman he loves slowly slip away.
Fullmetal Alchemist
In the fictitious country of Amestris, two young brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric, are bestowed with the gift of alchemy – the supernatural ability to transform matter.
This becomes a burden after their mother dies from an illness before they figure out how to use their alchemic skills. Edward loses his left leg and Alphonse’s entire body is unusable. The boys replace their deformities with prosthetic limbs and become Full Metal Alchemists as they seek out the legendary Philosopher’s Stone to heal themselves.
The 4th Company
A young inmate in a Mexican prison finds solace in joining the prison football team, though he soon learns that the players double as enforcers for a violent gang.
Killing Them Softly
When rival crook Johnny Amato (Vincent Curatola) hatches a plan to rob a card game run by mob lackey Markie (Ray Liotta), he picks a low-rent thug named Frankie (Scoot McNairy) to do the job. Frankie picks a less-than-ideal partner (Ben Mendelsohn) to help him, but despite their combined incompetence, they manage to make off with the mob’s money. In retaliation, Markie’s bosses hire Jackie Cogan (Brad Pitt), a mob enforcer, to eradicate those responsible.
Snowpiercer
Survivors of Earth’s second Ice Age live out their days on a luxury train that ploughs through snow and ice. The train’s poorest residents, who live in the squalid caboose, plan to improve their lot by taking over the engine room.
Sin City
Another visually interesting movie! In this quartet of neo-noir tales, a mysterious salesman (Josh Hartnett) narrates a tragic story of co-dependency, while a musclebound vigilante (Mickey Rourke) tears his way through the criminal underworld in search of his lost love (Jaime King). In another part of the city, a grizzled cop (Bruce Willis) foils the ambitions of a child-killer (Nick Stahl), and an ex-prostitute (Brittany Murphy) evades her ex-pimp (Benicio Del Toro) with the help of her new boyfriend, Dwight (Clive Owen).
I Lost My Body
A cut-off hand escapes from a dissection lab with one crucial goal: to get back to its body. As it scrambles through the pitfalls of Paris, it remembers its life with the young man it was once attached to, until they met Gabrielle.
Y tu mamá también
The lives of Julio and Tenoch, like those of 17-year old boys everywhere, are ruled by raging hormones, intense friendships, and a headlong rush into adulthood. Over the course of a summer, the two best friends, while living out a carefree cross-country escapade with a gorgeous older woman, also find connection with each other, themselves and the world around them.
Death Note
Death Note is an animation movie based on a Japanese manga series written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata. The story follows Light Yagami, a teen genius who stumbles across a mysterious otherworldly notebook: the “Death Note”, which belonged to the Shinigami Ryuk, and grants the user the supernatural ability to kill anyone whose name is written in its pages.
Mute
In a Berlin of the future, a mute bartender’s search for his missing lady-love takes him deeper and deeper into the city’s criminal underbelly.
District 9
District 9 is one of our favorites. Thirty years ago, aliens arrive on Earth — not to conquer or give aid, but — to find refuge from their dying planet. Separated from humans in a South African area called District 9, the aliens are managed by Multi-National United, which is unconcerned with the aliens’ welfare but will do anything to master their advanced technology. When a company field agent (Sharlto Copley) contracts a mysterious virus that begins to alter his DNA, there is only one place he can hide: District 9.
Inception
Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a thief with the rare ability to enter people’s dreams and steal their secrets from their subconscious. His skill has made him a hot commodity in the world of corporate espionage but has also cost him everything he loves. Cobb gets a chance at redemption when he is offered a seemingly impossible task: Plant an idea in someone’s mind. If he succeeds, it will be the perfect crime, but a dangerous enemy anticipates Cobb’s every move.
Taxi Driver
Suffering from insomnia, disturbed loner Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) takes a job as a New York City cabbie, haunting the streets nightly, growing increasingly detached from reality as he dreams of cleaning up the filthy city. When Travis meets pretty campaign worker Betsy (Cybill Shepherd), he becomes obsessed with the idea of saving the world, first plotting to assassinate a presidential candidate, then directing his attentions toward rescuing 12-year-old prostitute Iris (Jodie Foster).
*****
If you’ve enjoyed this collection of best visually striking crime movies, you can view Mystery Tribune’s lists for best crime, mystery and thriller movies and TV shows on Netflix, Amazon or other premium channels here.
