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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Asphalt jungle

Asphalt jungle

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Bieber help me, I do like stories like this:

In a meticulously planned heist that took barely five minutes to execute, armed men disguised as police officers drove onto the tarmac at the international airport in Brussels Monday night and stole diamonds worth around $50 million as they were being loaded onto a plane bound for Switzerland, officials said.

What are the best theft movies ever btw?

Reader Interactions

183Comments

  5. 5.

    Sanjuro

    The Score (Robert DeNiro, Ed Norton)
    Kelly’s Heroes (Clint Eastwood, Donald Sutherland)
    The Great Train Robbery (Sean Connery, Donald Sutherland)

  6. 6.

    dmsilev

    I remember years ago reading about a gang that tried to pull a similar heist. Everything went fine for them, except that their intelligence was off and what they ended up with was several bags full of industrial diamond dust. Useful, yes, but just slightly less valuable than gem diamonds…

    I’m not really sure it qualifies as a heist movie, but To Catch A Thief is pretty darn good.

  7. 7.

    Gregory

    @Roger Moore: Yup.

    Also “Once a Thief,” “It Takes a Thief,”,”A Fish Called Wanda” and “Reservoir Dogs” (though the theft itself isn’t shown).

  8. 8.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    How does one fence $50 million in diamonds?

    Surely we have some retired heisters here who could at least speak in broad generalities.

    Or anybody with an opinion.

  9. 9.

    Hawes

    The Killing Sterling Hayden, enuff said

    Quick Change “What kind of clown are you?” “Crying on the inside kind, I guess.”

    Inside Man was decent

    And while I didn’t like the movie, I liked the capers in the remake of The Thomas Crown Affair.

    Ohh. Late addition: The Usual Suspects.

  10. 10.

    Omnes Omnibus

    The best? I don’t know. Some of my favorites: Topkapi, To Catch a Thief, How to Steal a Million, The Lavender Hill Mob, Heist, Thief, and The Great Train Robbery.

  11. 11.

    Gregory

    @Roger Moore: Yup.

    Also “Once a Thief,” “It Takes a Thief,”,”A Fish Called Wanda” and “Reservoir Dogs” (though the theft itself isn’t shown).

  13. 13.

    Egypt Steve

    A couple of weeks ago saw “How to Steal a Million” with Audrey Hepburn and Peter O’Toole. Kind of silly, but I like anything with Audrey Hepburn.

    “Heat” is a damn fine heist film, except for DeNiro’s cliched final line: “I told you I wasn’t ever going back!”

  16. 16.

    Tokyokie

    Du rififi chez les hommes, Le cercle rouge et Bob le flambeur, although that last one is sort of the anti-caper caper movie. I’d say the French do them better, but Rififi was made by an exiled American (although one of French descent), and the director of the other two was the most Americanized of French film directors.

  20. 20.

    MikeJ

    Rififi
    Bob le flambeur
    Bande à part
    Ocean’s Eleven (the original)
    Fish Called Wanda
    The Italian Job (w/ Michael Caine)
    Point Blank (Lee Marvin)
    The Hot Rock

  22. 22.

    Gregory

    I agree with Roger Moore. Also “Once a Thief,” “It Takes a Thief,”,”A Fish Called Wanda” and “Reservoir Dogs” (though the theft itself isn’t shown).

  25. 25.

    carolus

    Hands down, it’s Thief starring James Caan, Robert Prosky and Tuesday Weld.

    Great soundtrack to boot.

  27. 27.

    jh

    Mamet’s ‘Heist” with is one of my faves. Watching Hackman, DeVito, Delroy Lindo and Sam Rockwell go at it is awesome.

    The HBO movie of the same name with Pierce Brosnan was pretty good too.

    And somebody said Topapki, which is one of was one of my alltime faves.

  31. 31.

    Roger Moore

    @comrade scott’s agenda of rage:

    How does one fence $50 million in diamonds?

    I’m guessing they either had a buyer lined up before the theft or were hired by the person who wants the diamonds. If you sell diamonds at retail (e.g. you’re a jeweler) it should be easy enough to push them into legitimate commerce slowly enough to avoid notice.

  40. 40.

    Chat Noir

    Don’t know if this qualifies as a theft movie per se, but I love “Dog Day Afternoon.” Top notch cast and writing.

  42. 42.

    AliceBlue

    A Fish Called Wanda

    Quick Change

    The League of Gentlemen (a b/w film I had never heard of and saw on TCM a few weeks ago. It’s about a group of ex-British army officers planning a bank heist; really enjoyable. Funny in spots too).

  44. 44.

    cmorenc

    I liked “Ruthless People”, although it is a black comedy built around a hostage-and-ransom plot theme rather than a true straight heist movie. It features Danny DeVito and Bette Midler at their best.

  46. 46.

    Davis X. Machina

    @Chat Noir: I’m waiting for the remake, set in an ATM vestibule, in which a much older Pacino leads the much older crowd outside in chants of “Sciatica!”

  47. 47.

    PeakVT

    Diamonds traded in Antwerp last year had a total value of $51.9 billion, accounting for 80 percent of the world’s rough diamond trade and 50 percent of trade in polished gems.

    I know it’s a minute fraction of the global economy, but that still seems like a lot of money for little shiny rocks.

  51. 51.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    I liked a Polish film called Vinci pretty well when I saw it a few years ago. It borrows a little from the remake of the Italian job, but has a major plot device (making several high quality forgeries of the Da Vinci painting they’re planning to steal) that I’d never seen used in a heist film before.

    Not sure if Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid counts as a heist film, but they do steal stuff, and it is an excellent movie.

    I think To Catch a Thief counts, and even if it doesn’t it’s worth watching just to ogle Grace Kelly, who was absolutely gorgeous in that film.

  52. 52.

    pamelabrown53

    @Omnes Omnibus: I like your list although I’d add “The Usual Suspects”, and “The Thomas Crown Affair” and the 1932 movie “Trouble in Paradise (Kay Francis, Herbert Marshall and Miriam Hopkins) because they include some romance.

  55. 55.

    Egypt Steve

    btw, does “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” count as a theft movie? If so, it’s definitely on my list. Even if we all do hate Clint now.

  59. 59.

    El Cid

    I’ll wait until someone makes a movie about the guys in the Atlanta area who stole the $65,000 worth of chicken wings from cold storage.

    Think of the drama — the robbers coming up with the plan in the midst of low-wage jobs, the pressure of the upcoming superbowl for the wing market, the environmental pressures of drought limiting our chickens!

    [28 Jan ’13] Gwinnett County [Georgia, NE of Atl] police investigators said they believe Dewayne Patterson and Renaldo Jackson used a rental truck on Jan. 12 and took 10 pallets of frozen wings from Nordic Cold Storage.

    The theft comes at a time when demand and prices for chicken wings are at the highest…

    One percent fewer chickens were produced this year after last year’s drought drove up feed and corn prices, according to the National Chicken Council.

    Okay, they were caught soon after, but the exciting part of the movie would be these guys coming up with the plan.

  61. 61.

    WereBear

    The Maltese Falcon has a theft, central. You’ll get slapped and like it.

    But a lot of great ones have already been mentioned.

    Asphalt Jungle; still extraordinary. I must have seen it twenty times.

    It’s really funny that “the caper” is a mainstay of Hollywood; yet there hasn’t been that many movies to get it just right.

    For instance, the movie The Hot Rock had a lot going for it, but never quite gelled, while the book is awesome.

  63. 63.

    Legalize

    I love heist pictures. These are all good for a variety of reasons:

    Rififi.
    Inside Man.
    Inception.
    Heat.
    The Good, the Bad, and the Weird.
    Oceans 11 (Clooney version).
    The Taking of Pelham One Two Three.
    The Sting.
    The Score.
    The Killing.
    Sexy Beast.
    Thief.
    The Town.

  64. 64.

    Tokyokie

    @Yutsano: And uncut stones are even easier to move into legitimate commerce, while smaller stones are not particularly distinguishable. There’s a reason that diamonds have long been a preferred currency of black marketeer types: They’re far more valuable than gold by weight (about $1600/oz. for gold and north of $6000/carat for a diamond, and there’s about 142 carats in an ounce) and they’re difficult to trace.

  69. 69.

    gogol's wife

    I’m with all those who mentioned Topkapi and How To Steal a Million and Trouble in Paradise. I’d add Gambit.

  70. 70.

    Warren Terra

    How do you define “heist film”? I’d think you could make a pretty good case for The Great Escape – ensemble cast assembles a scheme to pull of a grand transgression, then tries to execute their plan.

  72. 72.

    MikeJ

    I think we could dig up the thread we had back in January when we were talking about TCM’s month worth of heist films.

  73. 73.

    WereBear

    Point Blank, with Lee Marvin, is a classic. His part of the heist gets stolen from him, and he has to get it back. From the Mob. And, he does.

  74. 74.

    piratedan

    lots of good ones already mentioned…. but I’ll add some unconventional ones too….

    The War Wagon
    The Bank Job
    Heist
    The Hot Rock
    The Anderson Tapes

  75. 75.

    Ron Thompson

    Well, since there are three references to it here, I’ll just note that the title of the 1950 classic is “THE Asphalt Jungle”.

  79. 79.

    Joel

    Why are diamonds so damn valuable anyways? Can’t Kyocera make synthetic diamonds that look just like the real thing, flaws and all?

  81. 81.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    How about The Producers? It’s more a con than a heist, but so is The Sting, and that’s been mentioned by many.

  82. 82.

    Hvillachez

    Don’t know about the best heist movie evar, but quite enjoyable was The Maiden Heist. Morgan Freeman, Christopher Walken, Marcia Gay Harden, William H. Macy.

  84. 84.

    Merfy

    Not a movie, but did anyone else watch “The Knights of Prosperity”? It was a tv show a few years back that starred Donal Logue (The Tao of Steve) and a then-unknown Sofia Veraga as part of a group of misfits planning to rob Mick Jagger. I remember really enjoying the first few episodes, but I lost interest once the group changed their target to Kelly Ripa or Ray Romano or some other snoozer. I think it got cancelled pretty soon after that.

  87. 87.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Raven:

    Yes, the depictions of the theft in the Panther movies are always very entertaining. Then there’s the investigation that follows, of course.

    “Do you have a lee-sance for your minkey?”

    Also, too, “Ruthless People”.

  91. 91.

    Paulk

    My God, this sounds like the plot to Rough Cut, an 80s Burt Reynolds/David Niven caper.

    Actually, despite the mustached smirker, a pretty entertaining little flick with some good twists, if you’re up for that kind of thing.

  93. 93.

    Warren Terra

    @El Cid:

    I’ll wait until someone makes a movie about the guys in the Atlanta area who stole the $65,000 worth of chicken wings from cold storage.

    Do we know enough about what happened with Canada’s Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve to hope for a good film from that story?

    (honestly, I just enjoy saying “Canada’s Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve” and knowing I’m referring to an actually existing thing; it sounds like a humorous invention)

  95. 95.

    liberal

    Speaking of (legalized) theft, what would the price of diamonds be if the supply weren’t controlled by the diamond cartel? My impression is “much, much lower,” but I haven’t seen any hard claims.

  97. 97.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    À la recherche du Noël perdu by the great French director, Jean-Brian Zatapathique. It served as the inspiration for How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

  100. 100.

    jake the snake

    Several have already mentioned “Bob Le Flambeur.”

    Stanley Kubrick said that it was the pertect crime film, and never made another crime film after he saw it.

  101. 101.

    DPS

    Fargo, Dog Day Afternoon, Reservoir Dogs? More about the consequences of a heist that goes wrong right away, I guess.

  102. 102.

    White Trash Liberal

    The Usual Suspects, Rififi, Reservoir Dogs, Raising Arzona, Fargo, Heat…

    Does Bonnie and Clyde count… Love that one

  103. 103.

    Bobby Thomson

    The Great Escape – not a theft movie per se, but it follows the same plot. So does Argo, with some revisionist history.

    Reservoir Dogs

    Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

    The Sting

    Rounders

    The Getaway

    Out of Sight

    The Big Hit

    Is the new Hobbit movie any good? I have trouble with unnecessary trilogies.

  108. 108.

    MikeJ

    @White Trash Liberal:

    Does Bonnie and Clyde count… Love that one

    I love Bonnie & Clyde, but it’s not really about a heist, it’s about their career. There’s no intricate plot to silence the alarm and knock out the guard while one of them is lowered from the skylight or tunnels from underneath. So no.

    I will allow the previous mention of The Great Escape though. They were stealing themselves from the prison camp.

  109. 109.

    Seanly

    I luvs me a good heist/con film. Here’s some of my favorites:

    Heat
    Kelly’s Heroes
    The Sting*
    Ocean’s Eleven (both)
    Snatch
    The Great Train Robbery
    and many, many of the others mentioned here.

    Is Usual Subjects really a heist film? It’s a good movie & I don’t want to spoil anything, but it’s not really a heist picture in my mind.

    There are a bunch recommended ones I haven’t seen so I must put them on my Netflix list…

    * The Sting 2 is one of those movies I can never ever see. I started watching it once, realized it was gonna be terrible and never looked back. To my mind it doesn’t exist and all the good folks at the end of The Sting lived happily ever after. The second Blues Brothers film is the other verbotten movie in my household.

  116. 116.

    Cassidy

    So, all joking aside, my favorite heist movie is 3000 Miles to Graceland. I’ve enjoyed most of the others, but they’re pretty standard fare, IMO. I do enjoy the F&F franchise only for the over the top zaniness. I also think Paul Walker is a better actor than he gets credit for. I think that Blue Streak was a lot of fun and Martin Lawrence doesn’t get enough respect. Payback was fun and I’m a little irked about the two Parker movies coming out. I really wish they had settled on a lead actor and made a franchise out of them as the books are fun.

  117. 117.

    Roger Moore

    @liberal:

    Speaking of (legalized) theft, what would the price of diamonds be if the supply weren’t controlled by the diamond cartel?

    I suspect it would depend a lot on the scenario you presented for the diamond cartel disappearing. Are you assuming that there was never such a thing, or that the existing one were somehow destroyed by anti-trust regulators? What happens to the hoard of gem-grade diamonds they’ve been keeping off the market to keep prices artificially high: is it dumped on the market all at once, is it sold off over some interval, or is it destroyed? Does somebody continue their campaign to tell men that they’re scum women that their men are scum if they don’t spend two months salary on a diamond when they get engaged?

  120. 120.

    artem1s

    @comrade scott’s agenda of rage:

    worked in the industry for awhile. depends on whether they have laser inscriptions. These can be polished off but it takes time and a stone cutter/polisher.

    If they aren’t laser inscripted then they could just sell them piecemeal on the intertubes. If they are patient and have a way to launder the money they might not ever get caught.

    If they want to sell bulk they will have to have a fence or front of some kind who operates on the wholesale level. I’m sure they are plenty of them but the law will be looking for large amounts getting dumped on the market.

    My bet is they will go through Eastern Europe or the Middle East and sell to individual buyers over the internet. The rest of the diamond world is still pretty well controlled by DeBeers.

    But $50M isn’t really that many diamonds, if they are large, good quality gem cut stones. you could carry them around in your pockets. Less than a thousand stones, maybe only a few hundred. $50M in gold, that’s hard to get rid of.

  121. 121.

    vagabundoloco

    @Egypt Steve:

    I was going to suggest The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, too, but also wasn’t sure if it technically counts as a heist movie.

    I suppose intrigue-filled, spaghetti Western, treasure hunt is a more accurate description, but it’s still a very heisty movie.

    One of the greats, regardless. Worth watching, and rewatching.

  124. 124.

    Tokyokie

    @Seanly: Well, in The Sting 2, Jackie Gleason, Mac Davis and Oliver Stone replace, respectively, Paul Newman, Robert Redford and Robert Shaw, so you pretty much have to wonder, why bother? It comes off like a cheap knockoff of The Sting from a B-movie studio in the Philippines, not so much bad as tawdry, like trying to pass off cheap rayon for hand-woven silk. Had it not borne the imprimatur of The Sting, it would have just been another forgettable made-for-TV sort of thing. As for Blues Brothers 2000, I sat (mostly slept) through it on a trans-Pacific flight. It’s actually worse than you might have imagined. It’s a rare movie indeed whose suckitude comes through with the sound off while being watched in two-minutes bursts from under drooping eyelids.

  126. 126.

    WereBear

    @AliceBlue: Actually, to be pedantic, it is:

    Made it, Ma! Top of the world!

    Though I think it’s funny how movie quotes evolve; sometimes, the civilian version is actually better. More pithy, or something.

    But I am a huge Cagney fan, and it’s one of his greatest.

    If that battery is dead, it’s gonna have company.

  127. 127.

    handsmile

    Quickly scanning this thread, but I’m surprised (maybe even disappointed) that Inside Job (2010) has yet to be nominated. The most successful heist of our time.

    Besides the usual suspects (and The Usual Suspects), I’m glad that a few previous commenters thought to mention The Grifters, Three Kings, and Ronin, all first-rate and perhaps underappreciated examples of the genre.

    And I have a real love for the Coen Brothers re-make of The Ladykillers, but that’s mostly for Hanks performing against type and the immortal performance of Irma P. Hall as Mrs. Munson.

  128. 128.

    kindness

    The best theft movies?

    Is there a movie of Congress giving the galtians everything after they crashed the world economy in 2008?

  129. 129.

    Tokyokie

    @kd bart: Yeah, of course. Duh. Ken Russell once said, and I’m paraphrasing, “Most actors only have a couple or three tricks, and the director’s job is getting them to perform those tricks on screen. Except Oliver Reed. He only has one trick.” And he seems to be performing that trick somnambulantly in The Sting 2.

  130. 130.

    e.a.f.

    Sounds like Paddy Mitchell is alive and well and still working. He and the Stop Watch gang pulled this off in canada back in the 1970s. They all went to jail but Paddy Mitchell did escape and still is out there. I would suggest, he might be in brussels.

    These heists are just works of art. I don’t know why they want to send the guys to jail. Politicians steal so much more.

    then of course they never did catch the gang who pulled the vault job in Vancouver either, back in the 1970s.

    I realize these are criminal actions, but then so much other crime, by governments and corporations just goes unchallenged.

  131. 131.

    e.a.f.

    Sounds like Paddy Mitchell is alive and well and still working. He and the Stop Watch gang pulled this off in canada back in the 1970s. They all went to jail but Paddy Mitchell did escape and still is out there. I would suggest, he might be in brussels.

    These heists are just works of art. I don’t know why they want to send the guys to jail. Politicians steal so much more.

    then of course they never did catch the gang who pulled the vault job in Vancouver either, back in the 1970s.

    I realize these are criminal actions, but then so much other crime, by governments and corporations just goes unchallenged.

  132. 132.

    Thor Heyerdahl

    @BGinCHI:

    See the work of Jean-Pierre Melville, almost all of it.

    The master of heist films.

    Agreed. I watched “Le Cercle Rouge” and thought it was fantastic.

  135. 135.

    Hungry Joe

    This one has everything: intricate, knuckle-biting heist; brilliant, cold-blooded thief; lovable dupe; brave, intrepid hero; thrilling chase: “The Wrong Trousers.”

  136. 136.

    Thor Heyerdahl

    @Egypt Steve:

    btw, does “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” count as a theft movie? If so, it’s definitely on my list. Even if we all do hate Clint now.

    I’d then put “Once Upon a Time in the West” on the list. Henry Fonda plays a great land thieving character.

  141. 141.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @e.a.f.:

    I realize these are criminal actions, but then so much other crime, by governments and corporations just goes unchallenged.

    This is why Bernie Madoff went to jail. He stole from the rich, not from the poor.

  142. 142.

    Steeplejack

    @Egypt Steve, @The Dangerman:

    Heat is well cast from top to bottom–not just De Niro and Pacino but Tom Sizemore, Jon Voight, Diane Venora, Amy Brenneman and even Val Kilmer, about whom one producer once allegedly said, “I wouldn’t hire him to star in The Val Kilmer Story.” Kevin Gage is excellent as the psycho Waingro.

    As for the ending, it’s pretty much the curse of the genre that they all unravel a bit at the end. So not too many points off for that.

  143. 143.

    gene108

    @vagabundoloco:

    I was going to suggest The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, too, but also wasn’t sure if it technically counts as a heist movie.

    I think you’d have to throw in For a Few Dollars More, if you’re going Spaghetti Westerns/heist movies.

  147. 147.

    Thor Heyerdahl

    @Seanly:

    The second Blues Brothers film is the other verbotten movie in my household.

    The only good thing about that film was that blues jam with so many of the masters

  151. 151.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Shana: I would have listed Charade, but I didn’t see it as a pure heist film – the heist itself having taken place 20 years earlier. But I do love the film.

  154. 154.

    mandarama

    A lot of young women now are moving away from diamonds for their engagement rings, because of the publicity about mining practices, false price elevations, and how the industry funds conflict. For my birthday, I got moissanite earrings–just as beautiful and sparkly, very close to diamonds on the Moh scale so durable, less expensive, and made in labs. It’s silicone carbide, and named after the dude who discovered it in meteor rocks in the 19th century. I mean, science and meteor rocks…that’s just cool, and even more so when you put it up against sweat mining, exploitation, and corporate malfeasance.

    When I got married lo these many years ago, we couldn’t afford the traditional engagement ring anyway…but I like sparkly stuff, and moissanite is just cool.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moissanite

  155. 155.

    Cassidy

    @Steeplejack: Bah, whatever. ;) He’s made some fun movies. No one will ever accuse him of being an amazing actor, but he has a great screen prescence.

  156. 156.

    Steeplejack

    Lots of good movies mentioned in this thread. I thought The Anderson Tapes would go unmentioned, but I see someone did cite it.

    On the comic/farcical end of the spectrum, After the Fox (1966) holds up pretty well. Peter Sellers is a master criminal who uses a fake movie production to cover the smuggling of a gold shipment. It’s a weird crazy quilt–written by Neil Simon and directed by Vittorio De Sica, with Victor Mature as a has-been matinee idol who thinks the movie is production is real–and it’s not completely successful, but it’s worth taking a look at when it shows up on TCM.

    I was trying to think of the earliest heist movie I could remember, and I guess it all goes back to The Great Train Robbery (1903).

  157. 157.

    Steeplejack

    @Cassidy:

    Actually, he has been in some good movies; it’s just that his clunker ratio has been pretty high and seems to be skyrocketing. He was good in Boiler Room and Pitch Black. But the Riddick sequels and the Fast/Furious franchise propelled him into full Stallone pomposity mode.

    ETA: He does have–or can have–a powerful screen presence. I just hate to see it wasted. Sort of like Jason Statham.

  158. 158.

    Cassidy

    @Steeplejack: Honestly, I think he’s a guy who recognizes his limits as an actor. By alla ccounts he seems like a decent guy and I think he knows his range isn’t great, but he does action really well.

    ETA: That being said, I enjoy popcorn fare. I like Riddick and am looking forward to the next movie. I think they make for good sci-fi. A Man Apart was decent. It wasn’t Man on fire, but passable.

  159. 159.

    Steeplejack

    @Cassidy:

    But even with limited chops as an actor you can do action movies that aren’t completely self-absorbed crap. That’s my beef with most of Diesel’s movies. They seem to scream, “I’m Vin Diesel, bitch! Just my presence on screen is awesome enough.” Ditto for middle- and late-period Stallone.

    Compare and contrast with, say, Bruce Willis, who, although I think he is a good actor, can work in the limited-chops zone quite well. (I note that the new Die Hard movie looks like it could actually be worse than anything Stallone or Diesel has done.)

    I think for the limited-chops actor it comes down to selection of material. Pick a good script where your limited chops can work, fine. Pick a personal “vehicle,” disaster ahead.

  160. 160.

    Cassidy

    @Steeplejack: I never got that vibe, but that’s a subjective thing. I think he makes fun of himself a lot, tbh. The Pacifier was all about making fun of his typecasting as an action star and it worked. Honestly, I think his movies get better with him more involved. The F&F series was okay. The first one was fun and the 2nd and 3rd sequels were crap, but once he got back involved (4 and after) and was part of the creation team with Justin Lin, the movies got better. I realize they’re not everyone’s thing, but the production did improve. Same goes for Pitch Black. It was good. Riddick was “meh”, but I’m excited for the next one because he’s involved.

  161. 161.

    Citizen_X

    The Getaway. Peckinpah, MacQueen, Ally McGraw, crime across Texas, how can you go wrong?

    And Dead Presidents is way underrated.

  162. 162.

    Hawes

    I’d make a distinction (too late for this thread) that there is a difference between a “crime” movie (Goodfellas, any number of noir classics, most mobster movies) and a “caper” movie which revolves around one or two pretty clever thefts. I’m not sure if Heat is a crime movie or a heist movie.

    Additionally, I hated The Hot Rock. It was like everything shitty about the ’70s rolled into one sweaty, polyester clad mess.

  164. 164.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Hawes:

    I’m not sure if Heat is a crime movie or a heist movie.

    Crime movie. The heists and and specifically how they are done are not central to the plot.

  165. 165.

    phein39

    I haven’t seen these mentioned yet:

    Die Hard is a pretty good heist-thwarted film,
    The Getaway (Steve McQueen version only), is a good after-the-heist film.
    Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, with Eastwood and Bridges, is, well, cute.

    How could Office Space not be listed? Could this be the first cyber-heist?

    The Villain: Arnold Schwartznegger as “Handsome Stranger,” named after his father, fending off Kirk Douglas.

    Haven’t seen Drive, but my teen-agers like it.

  167. 167.

    Studly Pantload, the emotionally unavailable unicorn

    Imma gotta throw some love out to the Breaking Bad episode, “Dead Fright.” Not a movie, but a damn riveting 40 minutes or so train heist plot with an ending that only further cements why Mrs. Pantload and I refer to the series as “Holy Shit!”, since we tend to wind up saying that each time we watch an ep.

  168. 168.

    Michael

    It’s not a heist movie in the traditional sense, but the first Mission Impossible revolved around first preventing a heist (unsuccessdully) and the perpetrating one, and I thought that was a really fun movie.

  170. 170.

    Steeplejack

    @Cassidy:

    Honestly, I think his movies get better with him more involved.

    I’ll concede your point there. I kind of gave up on the F-F franchise and never made it to the fourth one.

    Also had the thought that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson does a good job of handling the limited-chops career conundrum.

  174. 174.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @gene108: Not sure either of those count. The people perpetrating the heist were the bad guys in both instances. I think the protagonists have to be the perps in a true heist film.

  175. 175.

    YellowJournalism

    Road to Perdition has a few neat heist scenes.

    And if Reservoir Dogs counts because of what happens after the heist, then Charade definitely should count. Both movies get better with each viewing, too!

  178. 178.

    Miss_modal

    Nine Queens and The Aura (both by Fabian Bielinsky)
    Out of Sight and Ocean’s Eleven (Soderbergh)
    The Killing (Kubrick)
    Snatch
    Bob le Flambeur
    Does Big Trouble in Little China count?
    Quick Change
    Usual Suspects
    Inception

    I’d say The Killing is the best straight-up heist movie; Ocean’s Eleven is the funniest/most fun (Snatch is close, but not fully a heist film); Nine Queens is my favorite on the list but is closer to a con-game film than a heist (The Aura is a heist film but not quite as good) and Inception, of course, is probably the most convoluted/thought-provoking. Special mention to Charley Varrick (because Walter Matthau, duh) and Office Space. Also the heist episode of Community, where they rescue the Dean from Chang.

  181. 181.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    Fun with Dick and Jane with George Segal and Jane Fonda, though the remake with Jim Carrey and Tia Leoni wasn’t bad.

  183. 183.

    Scamp Dog

    @Cassidy: Did anyone else think “Riddick-ulous”? To be fair, I haven’t seen the movie, just the trailer. Which was enough to make me not want to see it.

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