Best gangster films of the last three years

Crann na Beatha

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e_e

A Prophet

2009 but eh, close enough. I also liked Killing Them Softly but many hate it.

loveBBhate

Why only 3 years may I ask? Not exactly giving a lot to choose from.

Just realised this is probably a piss take

Crann na Beatha

This post has been deleted.

loveBBhate

Phoenix wrote: »

huh?

Sorry I just don't understand why it's limited to only the last 3 years?!

Ciaran_B

Animal Kingdom and Killing Them Softly.

upstairs for coffee

I quite enjoyed Michael Shannon's performance in The Iceman.

Tipsy McSwagger

Just watch Boardwalk Empire.

Faith+1

I thought Mesrine was pretty goo but that was 4 years AGO....

Bullseye1

IF it had been four years there was a couple that could have been included. Have not see Prophet must check it out. I liked Mesrine but that was four years ago. Gangster squad had a great cast but wasn't a great movie, not terrible so would be worth a rental.

Dirty Dingus McGee

I liked Lawless,Killing them Softly is excellent as is Mesrine and A Prophet

Alfred Borden

I enjoyed Gangster Squad, dont get all the hate for it.

Jimmy Iovine

'A Prophet' was good.

'Boardwalk Empire' is what you should be watching though. Far better than any of the movies put out.

They have real-life gangsters in it as well as some fictional greats - Lucky Luciano, Al Capone, Meyer Lansky and so on.

DrumSteve

upstairs for coffee wrote: »

I quite enjoyed Michael Shannon's performance in The Iceman.

His perfomance was great, pity the film was such a let down.

That story would have made a great 1 series tv show I thought.

brianregan09

Drive

TiGeR KiNgS

Raf32 wrote: »

I enjoyed Gangster Squad, dont get all the hate for it.

I think the hate comes from the fact that it is very bland and unimaginative.

It offers nothing new to the genre and it just felt like the studio pulled all the strings (money grab).

Bipolar Joe

If you're counting non-English language, The Man From Nowhere and New World are two awesome Korean gangster films.

Marty McFly

The Town? For me that counts as a gangster/heist movie and one of my favorite movies in recent times.

Lawless was god as well.


Mesrine I enjoyed more so Pt 1 than 2, another one worth checking out which was 5 years old so a but past the year mark is Gomorrah.


Been awhile since I watched The Prophet but remember feeling let down by it maybe I'm due a re watch.

Balaclava1991

Kill The Irishman (2011) starred Ray Stevenson, Christopher Walken, Val Kilmer, Robert Davi, Paul Sorvino and Vincent D'Onofrio. Fantastic cast and a great true story and a decent enough movie. Ordinarily it would have done well but it couldn't compete with the blockbusters so it bombed. Gangster movies are like the western and the romantic comedy. When you have seen one you have seen them all. The genre has nothing new to offer. There are plenty of classics to choose from. It would be very hard indeed to make a movie about organized crime that is not telling you something you don't already know.

Real life gangsters nowadays probably choose to be gangsters because they want to be like movie characters so if a filmmaker is making a true life gangster movie the dialogue is going to be full of movie references and the lead character is probably a deluded maniac who thinks he is Tony Montana or Michael Corleone or Henry Hill. Check out the gruesome videos those Mexican drug cartels post on video sharing websites and these guys think they are movie stars and dream about Hollywood making movies about their lives after someone cuts them to pieces with a chainsaw.

Anyway video games like Grand Theft Auto give gamers the opportunity to create their own virtual gangster movie.

Marty McFly

Balaclava1991 wrote: »

Kill The Irishman (2011) starred Ray Stevenson, Christopher Walken, Val Kilmer, Robert Davi, Paul Sorvino and Vincent D'Onofrio. Fantastic cast and a great true story and a decent enough movie. Ordinarily it would have done well but it couldn't compete with the blockbusters so it bombed. Gangster movies are like the western and the romantic comedy. When you have seen one you have seen them all. The genre has nothing new to offer. There are plenty of classics to choose from. It would be very hard indeed to make a movie about organized crime that is not telling you something you don't already know.

Really? I thought to Kill the Irishman was horrendous and made for hard viewing the acting was terrible at best and direction and plot were even worse. I've read the book it is a fascinating story and one that should be told but the film at times seemed to drag then at other points the story felt rushed and a bit of a mess. It would have done well had it of been a competently made film and not the garbage that was sadly made.

Nor do I agree with once you have seen one you have seen them all the same could be said for any genre of film if that were the case. There are a lot of unique stories out there that can be told based on real life or fictional.


There has always been an audience for gangster films and shows. the likes of Sopranos, The Wire and most recently Boardwalk Empire are all gangster per say but from very different persepctives. Much as Goodfellas, Scarface and Lawless can all be classed as gangster but very different in there own right.

Balaclava1991

Marty McFly wrote: »

Really? I thought to Kill the Irishman was horrendous and made for hard viewing the acting was terrible at best and direction and plot were even worse. I've read the book it is a fascinating story and one that should be told but the film at times seemed to drag then at other points the story felt rushed and a bit of a mess. It would have done well had it of been a competently made film and not the garbage that was sadly made.

Nor do I agree with once you have seen one you have seen them all the same could be said for any genre of film if that were the case. There are a lot of unique stories out there that can be told based on real life or fictional.


There has always been an audience for gangster films and shows. the likes of Sopranos, The Wire and most recently Boardwalk Empire are all gangster per say but from very different persepctives. Much as Goodfellas, Scarface and Lawless can all be classed as gangster but very different in there own right.

Well we will agree to disagree about Kill The Irishman. I liked it. Fun movie. To each his own and all that.:D

Gangster movies have a limited number of plots.

The basic ones are:

1. A King Lear style criminal kingpin is trying to pass on his empire to his spoiled brats while his rivals are circling like vultures.
2. A street kid is taken under the wing of a criminal mentor starts out as a soldier, earns his bones, rises to the top and then it all comes crashing down with betrayal and sticky ends for everybody.
3. A cop or federal agent infiltrates the mob and is so immersed in the criminal life that he almost forgets who he is and where his loyalties lie.
4. The mobster is a family man just like you and me, the criminal business is a daily grind just like a normal 9 to 5 career, there is a blur between politics, business and criminality while the regular honest joe who works and pays his taxes and obeys the law is just asking to be ripped off.

For me there is not much more that can be done with the gangster genre.

I want to be pleasantly surprised.

The Sopranos was a great series that ended on a high but it had run out of road. The cast and crew had fun making it and the audience loved it but it had to end once they had said all that could be said about the gangster life.

Lilyhammer might have something new to say because it explores the post-gangster witness protection scenario - what do the guys who didn't get whacked and didn't get sent down and who betrayed all their old friends do with the rest of their lives?

TheDoc

Boardwalk empire for me wins hands down, its in my opinion up there with Sopranos as one of TV's greatest.

Also, I enjoyed Kill the Irishman, not sure why, I know there are problems, but couldnt help liking it.

Bullseye1

The act of killing. It's full of real life gangsters.