Tubi, a free streaming service, offers thousands of movies and TV series to anyone who signs up. It has a large catalog of intriguing options, all sorted by genre, making it easy for viewers to narrow down their selections. Movies and TV series make their way onto and off of the streaming service, so it’s essential to check whether a listing indicates that a title will be leaving Tubi on a specific date.
For those searching through the genres to see what kind of movies they may want to watch next, there isn’t a set listing forcrimemovies. to track down the best movies that focus on criminal activities, one must search the keyword “crime” and sort through everything that might be listed with that tag. This also brings up any movie or show with the word “crime” in it.
Rather than going through this hassle, here’s a list of the 10 best crime movies currently available on Tubi.
10’Small Town Crime' (2018)
Written and directed by Eshom and Ian Nelms,Small Town Crimeshowcases the talents of John Hawkes, the criminally underrated Academy Award-nominated actor. Hawkes plays a former cop who finds a dead woman on the side of the road. He gets sucked into a conspiracy about the death and ultimately becomes mixed up with some nefarious characters, putting himself and his family in danger. Hawkes is joined by Anthony Anderson, Octavia Spencer, Robert Froster, Clifton Collins Jr., Michael Vartan, Daniel Sunjata, and Dale Dickey to investigate thiscrime in a small town.
The movie premiered at SXSW in 2017 and was released on DirecTV Cinema later that year before premiering in theaters in 2018. It’s a taut 91 minutes and currently holds a 79% on Rotten Tomatoes. The Nelms brothers have since directed the Mel Gibson/Walton Goggins Christmas thrillerFatmanand the Orlando Bloom action thrillerRed Right Hand.
9’Life of Crime' (2013)
Another film featuring John Hawkes, albeit in a supporting role,Life of Crimewas written and directed by Daniel Schechter. The film is based onThe Switchby Elmore Leonardand features characters that would later appear in his bookRum Punch, which Quentin Tarantino turned into his film,Jackie Brown. The movie is a kidnapping caper that features Hawkes and Yasiin Bey as Louis and Ordell, two crooks who look to kidnap Mickey, played by Jennifer Aniston, the wife of real estate developer Frank, played by Tim Robbins.
What unfurls is a black comedy featuring backstabbing, adultery, divorce, and corruption, all leading the kidnappers and kidnapped to consider working together. The film also costars Will Forte, Mark Boone Junior, and Isla Fisher. It sits with a 68% Tomatometer score, as it’s a charming film with a cast that does good work with the source material.
8’The Cheap Detective' (1978)
Parodying Humphrey Bogart films, Peter Falk plays the eponymous detective inThe Cheap Detective, a 1978 movie written by Neil Simon and directed by Robert Moore. The crime action comedy features Falk as Lou Peckinpaugh, a bumbling private investigator who must help discover a lost treasure while proving his own innocence following the death of his partner. The movie’s big reveal offers a bit of slapstick humor that fits in perfectly with parodyingThe Maltese Falcon.
The Cheap Detectivefeatures an all-star cast with Ann-Margaret, Eileen Brennan, Sid Caesar, Stockard Channing, Dom DeLuise, James Coco, John Houseman, Louise Fletcher, James Cromwell, Madeline Kahn, and Abe Vigoda. It also featured only the second appearance ever by Jonathan Banks as well as a cameo by Scatman Crothers.
7’Chopper' (2000)
Andrew Dominik is a celebrated and divisive documentarian and filmmaker with four documentaries and four feature-length films to his name. His three most recent feature films,The Assassination of Jesse James by theCoward Robert Ford,Killing Them Softly, andBlonde,have all made noise in Hollywood with big-name actors and actresses. But the Australian director’s first film,Chopper, was made in 2000 and has the biggest cult following of any of his films.
The movie stars Eric Bana as Mark “Chopper” Read, a criminal turned author and the film is based on the autobiographical books he wrote. Bana,currently starring inUntamed, puts forth a tour-de-force performance in this violent movie, which shows Chopper’s time in prison and his transgressions following his release. It costars Vince Colosimo, Simon Lyndon, Katie Beahan, David Field, and Dan Wyllie. It has a 76% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes but an 89% audience score.
6’Married to the Mob' (1987)
Featuring an A+ cast,Married to the Mobwas directed by Jonathan Demme. This crime romantic comedy came during a string of Demme’s career where he focused on romances and comedies, having madeMelvin and Howard,Swing Shift, andSomething Wildright before it.Married to the Mobstars Michelle Pfeiffer as Angela, the wife of mobster Frank, played by Alec Baldwin. Angela is fed up with being associated with the mafia and wants to get out.
But after her husband is killed by mob boss Tony (Dean Stockwell), she has to deal with his unwanted advances and Tony’s jealous wife Connie (Mercedes Ruehl). This is all happening while Matthew Modine’s FBI agent Mike Downey is keeping tabs on her. The movie blends comedy and drama well, and Demme was praised for his direction. Pfeiffer and Stockwell’s performances are particularly of note, the latter earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. The filmalso stars Oliver Platt, Joan Cusack, Nancy Travis, Trey Wilson, and Chris Isaak.
5’Foxy Brown' (1974)
One of the premier blaxploitation films of its era,Foxy Brownstars Pam Grier as the titular character. Foxy is seen as one of the most influential female characters of the genre, despite backlash against some of the film’s themes. The movie features Foxy Brown trying to exact revenge on a gang of drug dealers who kill her government agent boyfriend. The film is known for its style and was part of a double feature withTruck Turner, another blaxploitation film starring Isaac Hayes.
It was written and directed by Jack Hill and costars Antonio Fargas, Peter Brown, Kathryn Loder, Terry Carter, Harry Holcomb, and Sid Haig.Grier’s career has become synonymouswith this role, as her character inJackie Brownis an homage to it. The sex. drugs, and violence in the film made it a hard sell for many in society, but the movie was a financial success, earning $2.46 million at the box office against a production budget of $500,000.
4’King of New York' (1990)
King of New Yorkwas directed by Abel Ferrara, one of the more well-known noir directors of his era. The neo-noir film stars Christopher Walken as Frank White, a drug lord who gets out of Sing Sing Penitentiary and wants to immediately reassert his claim to the throne of the New York City underworld. An incredibly violent film, it features Laurence Fishburne as his right-hand man Jimmy Jump, who must work with White to stay ahead of three detectives who are tracking their movements, played by David Caruso, Victor Argo, and Wesley Snipes.
Ferrera nails the mood and style of the genre and the movie has a lingering sense of dread its entire run time.Walken’s performance was praised, as Roger Ebert noted his “sinister ease” in bringing White to life. Despite giving a raw look at New York City, the movie was a box office bomb, earning only $2.6 million against a $5 million production budget. But it was well-received by critics, as it has a 74% Tomatometer.
3’Hard Boiled' (1992)
The final Hong Kong film John Woo made before he transitioned to Hollywood movies,Hard Boiledis one of his most well-known and well-received films. The movie featuresChow Yun-Fat as a police inspectorwho, after his partner is killed by a group of gun smugglers, takes the law into his own hands and aims to take down the entire syndicate himself. He meets Tony Leung’s character, who is undercover as a triad assassin, and the two work together.
The stylish action and heavy shootouts keep this thriller humming. Woo’s deft direction and the emotional weight that Tony Leung and Chow Yun-Fat provide to their characters help every moment of the film land. It is widely recognized as one of the best Hong Kong action movies of the past 35 years, as it holds a 92% Tomatometer and Popcornmeter score.
2’Animal Kingdom' (2010)
The feature directorial debut of David Michôd,Animal Kingdomis an Australian crime drama featuring an all-star cast of actors who have all made names for themselves in Hollywood. The film follows the Cody family, a Melbourne-based crime family, and what they do to try and stay ahead of other syndicates and drug dealers. In a lights-out performance as the matriarch of the family, Jacki Weaver played Smurf, which earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
Her sons are played by Ben Mendelsohn, Sullivan Stapleton, and Luke Ford, while Joel Edgerton plays Mendelsohn’s best friend and armed robber in arms. James Frecheville plays J, Smurf’s grandson, who is forced to live with the family after his mother passes away. Guy Pearce plays a police officer who looks out for J as he understands what it means for him to be brought into the family. It is a gripping look at a crime family andspawned a TV series sequelwith Ellen Barkin playing the matriarch.
1’Nightcrawler' (2014)
Uneasiness is the feeling audiences get from watching Jake Gyllenhaal’s performance in Dan Gilroy’sNightcrawler.Gyllenhaal puts forthone of his best performances to dateas Lou Bloom, a man who seeks out morbid crimes in Los Angeles in order to film them and sell the footage to local news stations. Bloom has a cold and calculated way about him and goes to great and disturbing lengths to find the latest crime scenes and accidents.
Costarring Rene Russo, Riz Ahmed, and Bill Paxton, the film gave a sharp critique of the news industry and what people will do to get famous. Modern journalism is put under the microscope and Gyllenhaal breathes eerie life into the character. For anyone looking for an unsettling crime thriller,Nightcrawlerwill deliver.
