An all time classic 60s movie glamourising the real life story of the Barrow gang who terrorised the American South in the early 30s. 'Reclaiming the American gangster movie, after it had been stolen by the Nouvelle Vague, Penn's film was so successful (and so imitated) that it inevitably met with some grudging devaluation. But it's still great, half comic fairytale, half brutal fact, it reflects the essential ambiguity of its heroes by treading a no man's land suspended between reality and fant find out more...

Set in Johannesburg (more than a welcome change to the usual formulaic Hollywood paradigm whereby LA or New York are not only the backdrop for disaster but act too as the centre-point of planet Earth), An ominous mothership hovers above Johannesburg containing an alien race of insectoid refugees. Derogatively referred to as 'Prawns' by humans they are cordoned off in an apartheid-esque fashion and forced to live a desolate and slum-like existence in the titular District 9. While forcibly relocat find out more...

Irish Sicilian Henry Hill always wanted to be a gangster and from running errands as a small boy, he graduates to becoming a trusted member of the "family". A stunning, violent and essential portrait of the Mafia's intimate details. An award winning film, superbly crafted by Scorsese. find out more...

1941; a Jewish girl witnesses the murder of her family by a Nazi officer and a Jewish American guerrilla team roam Occupied France operating with a Geneva Accord breaking ferocity. find out more...

Prepare to be corrupted! The long awaited, but mercifully uncut release of Tarantino's masterpiece means you can now rewind all the nasty bits in the privacy of your own home. A superbly scripted, stunningly stylish study of loyalty and double-dealings amongst underworld gangsters in sharp suits.

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Chucked out of Cuba as an undesirable by Castro a small time crook claws his way to the top in the Miami cocaine trade. A megolamaniac rise in a twisted version of the American dream. Very violent, foul mouthed and bloody - a telling parable for the 80s. find out more...

Marv is a lunkhead of incredible strength, an aggressive power he puts to merciless use when his one true love is murdered. Hartigan is the embittered, but moralistic cop who's sworn to protect a stripper and Dwight is the lover of Shellie and the inadvertent dark angel of Gail's Old Town girls, a feisty group of hookers. These are just a selection of the random characters in Rodriguez's adaptation of Frank Miller's Sin City graphic novels and it's difficult to decide which of the two is the bi find out more...

A disenchanted Vietnam vet becomes a New York taxi driver and lets the violence and squalor around him explode in his mind. One of the most atmospheric films ever made about urban alienation. Foster's first film and the one which almost resulted in Ronald Reagan's assassination when he was President - it must be good! find out more...

The story of three steel workers caught up in the Vietnam war. Concentrates as much on the shattering effect on their families as much as on the conflict itself. This emotionally charged movie kicked off America's self-examination of this shameful episode in it's history. Stunningly powerful. Won Best Picture at 1978 Academy Awards. find out more...