1. Mean Streets
A small-time hood must choose from among love, friendship and the chance to rise within the mob.
It has an average vote of 7.087 on TMDB.
2. East of Eden
In the Salinas Valley in and around World War I, Cal Trask feels he must compete against overwhelming odds with his brother for the love of their father. Cal is frustrated at every turn, from his reaction to the war, how to get ahead in business and in life, and how to relate to his estranged mother.
It has an average vote of 7.569 on TMDB.
3. In China They Eat Dogs (I Kina spiser de hunde)
Arvid is an ordinary bank clerk who lives a rather unassuming life with his dear girlfriend. But his life is turned completely upside down when he bravely manages to avert a robbery against the bank where he works.
It has an average vote of 7.384 on TMDB.
4. Amores Perros (Amores perros)
A fatalistic car crash in Mexico city sets off a chain of events in the lives of three people: a supermodel, a young man wanting to run off with his sister-in-law, and a homeless man. Their lives are catapulted into unforeseen situations instigated by the seemingly inconsequential destiny of a dog.
It has an average vote of 7.635 on TMDB.
5. Run Lola Run (Lola rennt)
Lola receives a phone call from her boyfriend Manni. He lost 100,000 DM in a subway train that belongs to a very bad guy. She has 20 minutes to raise this amount and meet Manni. Otherwise, he will rob a store to get the money. Three different alternatives may happen depending on some minor event along Lola's run.
It has an average vote of 7.296 on TMDB.
6. Jackie Brown
Jackie Brown is a flight attendant who gets caught in the middle of smuggling cash into the country for her gunrunner boss. When the cops try to use Jackie to get to her boss, she hatches a plan — with help from a bail bondsman — to keep the money for herself.
It has an average vote of 7.362 on TMDB.
7. Citizen Kane
Newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane is taken from his mother as a boy and made the ward of a rich industrialist. As a result, every well-meaning, tyrannical or self-destructive move he makes for the rest of his life appears in some way to be a reaction to that deeply wounding event.
It has an average vote of 8.011 on TMDB.
8. Bound
Corky, a tough female ex-convict working on an apartment renovation in a Chicago building, meets a couple living next door, Caesar, a paranoid mobster, and Violet, his seductive girlfriend, who is immediately attracted to her.
It has an average vote of 7.184 on TMDB.
9. Cliffhanger
A year after losing his friend in a tragic 4,000-foot fall, former ranger Gabe Walker and his partner, Hal, are called to return to the same peak to rescue a group of stranded climbers, only to learn the climbers are actually thieving hijackers who are looking for boxes full of money.
It has an average vote of 6.497 on TMDB.
10. Nacho Libre
Nacho Libre is loosely based on the story of Fray Tormenta , aka Rev. Sergio Gutierrez Benitez, a real-life Mexican Catholic priest who had a 23-year career as a masked luchador. He competed in order to support the orphanage he directed.
It has an average vote of 6.466 on TMDB.
11. Maverick
Maverick is a gambler who would rather con someone than fight them, and needs an additional three thousand dollars in order to enter a winner-takes-all poker game that begins in a few days, so he joins forces with a woman gambler with a marvellous southern accent, and the two try and enter the game.
It has an average vote of 6.871 on TMDB.
12. Red Rock West
When a promised job for Texan Michael fails to materialize in Wyoming, Mike is mistaken by Wayne to be the hitman he hired to kill his unfaithful wife, Suzanne. Mike takes full advantage of the situation, collects the money, and runs. During his getaway, things go wrong, and soon get worse when he runs into the real hitman, Lyle.
It has an average vote of 6.7 on TMDB.
13. Widows
A police shootout leaves four thieves dead during an explosive armed robbery attempt in Chicago. Their widows have nothing in common except a debt left behind by their spouses' criminal activities. Hoping to forge a future on their own terms, they join forces to pull off a heist.
It has an average vote of 6.495 on TMDB.
14. Gang War
Saxophone player Clyde meets a woman named Flowers, and teaches her to dance. He later discovers that gangster boss "Blackjack" is also in love with her. "Blackjack" is also battling gang boss Mike Luego in a violent turf war.
It has an average vote of 6 on TMDB.
15. Bugsy
New York gangster Ben 'Bugsy' Siegel takes a brief business trip to Los Angeles. A sharp-dressing womanizer with a foul temper, Siegel doesn't hesitate to kill or maim anyone crossing him. In L.A. the life, the movies, and most of all strong-willed Virginia Hill detain him while his family wait back home. Then a trip to a run-down gambling joint at a spot in the desert known as Las Vegas gives him his big idea.
It has an average vote of 6.384 on TMDB.
16. Purple Noon (Plein soleil)
Tom Ripley is a talented mimic, moocher, forger and all-around criminal improviser; but there's more to Tom Ripley than even he can guess.
It has an average vote of 7.576 on TMDB.
17. Wild Things 2
Two Florida high school vixens hatch a murderous plan to win an inheritance, but they hadn't bargained for an escalating whirlpool of blackmail and sexual games with a sleazy insurance investigator who has his own plans for the money.
It has an average vote of 5.2 on TMDB.
18. The Way of the Dragon (猛龍過江)
Tang Lung arrives in Rome to help his cousins in the restaurant business. They are being pressured to sell their property to the syndicate, who will stop at nothing to get what they want. When Tang arrives he poses a new threat to the syndicate, and they are unable to defeat him. The syndicate boss hires the best Japanese and European martial artists to fight Tang, but he easily finishes them off.
It has an average vote of 7.375 on TMDB.
19. Friends with Money
As she reaches her mid-thirties and quits her lucrative job, singleton Olivia finds herself unsure about her future and her relationships with her successful and wealthy friends. She begins to envy the security of her richer friends and, although their lives may seem easier, Olivia's friends have their problems too: screenwriters Christine and Patrick are unable to collaborate on their latest project, Jane and Aaron have lost the romance in their relationship, and Franny and Matt have difficulties handling the demands of parenthood.
It has an average vote of 5.1 on TMDB.
20. Swallowtail Butterfly (スワロウテイル)
The struggles of a group of outcasts living in "Yentown", in an alternate-future Japan.
It has an average vote of 7.4 on TMDB.