Best Crime Movies of 2003

A barren soundstage is stylishly utilized to create a minimalist small-town setting in which a mysterious woman named Grace hides from the criminals who pursue her. The town is two-faced and offers to harbor Grace as long as she can make it worth their effort, so Grace works hard under the employ of various townspeople to win their favor. Tensions flare, however, and Grace's status as a helpless outsider provokes vicious contempt and abuse from the citizens of Dogville.

The lives of three men who were childhood friends are shattered when one of them has a family tragedy.

A man against capital punishment is accused of murdering a fellow activist and is sent to death row.

Paul Rivers, an ailing mathematician lovelessly married to an English émigré; Christina Peck, an upper-middle-class suburban housewife and mother of two girls; and Jack Jordan, a born-again ex-con, are brought together by a terrible accident that changes their lives.

An emotionally scarred highway drifter shoots a sadistic trick who rapes her, and ultimately becomes the United States' first female serial killer.

A phobic con artist and his protege are on the verge of pulling off a lucrative swindle when the con artist's teenage daughter arrives unexpectedly.

Several ordinary high school students go through their daily routine as two others prepare for something more malevolent.

Charlie Croker pulled off the crime of a lifetime. The one thing that he didn't plan on was being double-crossed. Along with a drop-dead gorgeous safecracker, Croker and his team take off to re-steal the loot and end up in a pulse-pounding, pedal-to-the-metal chase that careens up, down, above and below the streets of Los Angeles.

A slick New York publicist who picks up a ringing receiver in a phone booth is told that if he hangs up, he'll be killed... and the little red light from a laser rifle sight is proof that the caller isn't kidding.

A miserable conman and his partner pose as Santa and his Little Helper to rob department stores on Christmas Eve. But they run into problems when the conman befriends a troubled kid.

Out-of-control, trash-talking buddy cops Marcus Burnett and Mike Lowrey of the Miami Narcotics Task Force reunite, and bullets fly, cars crash and laughs explode as they pursue a whacked-out drug lord from the streets of Miami to the barrios of Cuba. But the real fireworks result when Marcus discovers that playboy Mike is secretly romancing Marcus’ sexy sister.

It's a major double-cross when former police officer Brian O'Conner teams up with his ex-con buddy Roman Pearce to transport a shipment of "dirty" money for shady Miami-based import-export dealer Carter Verone. But the guys are actually working with undercover agent Monica Fuentes to bring Verone down.

David, an orderly at a hospital, tells his horrific story of being kidnapped and forced to play a vile game of survival.

A revenge-seeking gold digger marries a womanizing Beverly Hills lawyer with the intention of making a killing in the divorce.

Dan Mahowny was a rising star at the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. At twenty-four he was assistant manager of a major branch in the heart of Toronto's financial district. To his colleagues he was a workaholic. To his customers, he was astute, decisive and helpful. To his friends, he was a quiet, but humorous man who enjoyed watching sports on television. To his girlfriend, he was shy but engaging. None of them knew the other side of Dan Mahowny--the side that executed the largest single-handed bank fraud in Canadian history, grossing over $10 million in eighteen months to feed his gambling obsession.

Hondo Harrelson recruits Jim Street to join an elite unit of the Los Angeles Police Department. Together they seek out more members, including tough Deke Kay and single mom Chris Sanchez. The team's first big assignment is to escort crime boss Alex Montel to prison. It seems routine, but when Montel offers a huge reward to anyone who can break him free, criminals of various stripes step up for the prize.

Tells the seemingly random yet vitally connected story of a set of incidents that all converge one evening at 11:14pm. The story follows the chain of events of five different characters and five different storylines that all converge to tell the story of murder and deceit.

A withdrawn young man, Leland Fitzgerald is imprisoned for the murder of a mentally disabled boy, who also happened to be the brother of his girlfriend, Becky. As the community struggles to deal with the killing, Pearl Madison, a teacher at the prison, decides to write about Leland's case. Meanwhile, others affected by the murder, including Becky and her sister, Julie, must contend with their own problems.

In this true story, Veronica Guerin is an investigative reporter for an Irish newspaper. As the drug trade begins to bleed into the mainstream, Guerin decides to take on and expose those responsible. Beginning at the bottom with addicts, Guerin then gets in touch with John Traynor, a paranoid informant. Not without some prodding, Traynor leads her to John Gilligan, the ruthless head of the operation, who does not take kindly to Guerin's nosing.

A British crime novelist travels to her publisher's upmarket summer house in Southern France to seek solitude in order to work on her next book. However, the unexpected arrival of the publisher's daughter induces complications and a subsequent crime.

A DEA agent investigates the disappearance of a legendary Army ranger drill sergeant and several of his cadets during a training exercise gone severely awry.

Matt Lee Whitlock, respected chief of police in small Banyan Key, Florida, must solve a vicious double homicide before he himself falls under suspicion. Matt Lee has to stay a few steps ahead of his own police force and everyone he's trusted in order to find out the truth.

A raucous story of the interweaving lives and loves of small-town delinquents, shady cops, pretty good girls and very bad boys. With Irish guts and grit, lives collide, preconceptions shatter and romance is tested to the extreme. An ill-timed and poorly executed couple's break-up sets off a chain of events affecting everyone in town.

What Jake Vig doesn't know just might get him killed. A sharp and polished grifter, Jake has just swindled thousands of dollars from the unsuspecting Lionel Dolby with the help of his crew. It becomes clear that Lionel wasn't just any mark, he was an accountant for eccentric crime boss Winston King. Jake and his crew will have to stay one step ahead of both the criminals and the cops to finally settle their debt.

On the afternoon of July 1, 1981, Los Angeles police responded to a distress call on Wonderland Avenue and discovered a grisly quadruple homicide. The police investigation that followed uncovered two versions of the events leading up to the brutal murders - both involving legendary porn actor John Holmes.

In the wilderness of British Columbia, two hunters are tracked and viciously murdered by Aaron Hallum. A former Special Operations instructor is approached and asked to apprehend Hallum—his former student—who has 'gone rogue' after suffering severe battle stress from his time in Kosovo.

A young drifter working on a river barge disrupts his employers' lives while hiding the fact that he knows more about a dead woman found in the river than he admits.

The New York club scene of the 80s and 90s was a world like no other. Into this candy-colored, mirror ball playground stepped Michael Alig, a wannabe from nowhere special. Under the watchful eye of veteran club kid James St. James, Alig quickly rose to the top... and there was no place to go but down.

Tiffany, Charlie and Vernon are con artists looking to up the ante from their typical scams. They figure a good way of doing this is taking down Dean "The Dean" Stevens, a well-known cardsharp, in a rigged game. However, they first need enough money to enter a game with Stevens, so they decide to strike a deal with fellow crook Larry Jennings to scam a local gangster -- which turns out to be a bad idea.

A man blinded in a childhood accident fights crime using his superhumanly-elevated remaining senses.

Gang leader Tony pulls off a major diamond heist with his crew, but cop-turned-criminal Ling knows who has the loot and responds by kidnapping Tony's daughter and holding her for ransom. Unfortunately, Tony's lost the diamonds as well. As he frantically searches for his daughter and the jewels, Tony pairs with a high-kicking government agent who once worked with Ling and seeks revenge on him.

Two mismatched security guards are thrown together to bust a smuggling operation.

This true story, which takes place in Fort Campbell, KY, tells the heart-wrenching story of the life and tragic death of soldier Barry Winchell. His love for Calpernia Addams, a transgender nightclub performer, was misunderstood by his fellow soldiers and eventually led to his murder.

An aging gambler on a losing streak attempts to rob a casino in Monte Carlo. But someone's already tipped off the cops before he even makes a move.

A private detective is hired to find the elusive computer hacker "Trinity." Part of the Animatrix collection of animated shorts in the Matrix universe.

A senator arranges for his son, a rich white kid who fancies himself black, to be kidnapped by a couple of black actors pretending to be murderers to try and shock him out of his plans to become a rapper.

After the Joker escapes from Arkham Asylum, Batman catches up with him in a dark alley. But the Dark Knight isn’t the only hunter prowling the streets.

The life and career of Andre Stander, a South African police officer turned bank robber.

After a robbery gone wrong, three criminals turn against each other and embark on a blood-soaked bullet-riddled quest for cash and revenge. An unusual contemporary black-comedy western set in Australia, chock full of action and homage to the work of Sergio Leone.

A powerful and disturbing two-part drama about sexual manipulation, the loss of innocence and betrayal of trust, starring Ben Daniels. A policeman's determination to solve the three-year-old case of an abducted schoolboy leads him to uncover a web of systematic abuse that is threatening to destroy the lives of vulnerable children

Freya McAllister suddenly starts hearing voices in her head on the night of her High School Prom. One night Dr Michael Welles arrives telling Freya that she isn't crazy but that her voices are the thoughts of everyone around her. He teaches her to turn her telepathic powers into a powerful gift. What he doesn't say is that he works for the National Security Agency...

Claire, a brilliant student, seeks answers to the meaning of life in the calm of her biology laboratory. One day, she meets a mysterious young man, Jack, at the cinema, and is intrigued by his style, assurance and audacity. Apart from his artistic activities, Jack has a regular scam going, ripping off foreign businessmen with his loyal mate Charlie and two actresses. But his tough guy exterior conceals a secret passion for old books, and he dreams of writing a novel one day. Jack falls hard for Claire's purity and curiosity. An unusual romance develops between them. But Jack is scared of their growing intimacy and rejects Claire, withdrawing into his shell. Abandoned and confused, Claire gradually begins to neglect her studies and embarks on a spiraling course of self-destruction, whilst Jack, who tries to ignore her, concentrates on his criminal activities. However, a sharp detective, named Linda Fox, is following his dodgy tracks.

Manuel Jordan is a man who is free after serving 23 years for killing a teenager during an attempted robbery. After nearly two decades of staring at his victim's face on a newspaper clipping in his cell, the newly paroled man seeks redemption. Instead, redemption—in the form of a mysterious minister and two needy women— finds him.

From his hospital bed, a writer suffering from a skin disease hallucinates musical numbers and paranoid plots.

Two childhood friends — a New York hairstylist and a wanna-be musician — get mixed-up with the mob and are forced to deliver $50,000 to Australia, but things go all wrong when the money is lost to a wild kangaroo.

16 Years of Alcohol is a 2003 drama film written and directed by Richard Jobson, based on his 1987 novel. The film is Jobson's first directorial effort, following a career as a television presenter on BSkyB and VH-1, and as the vocalist for the 1970s punk rock band The Skids.

An out-of-town heist becomes a nightmare for a crew of French burglars when they mistakenly rob the head of the Chicago mafia. Unaccustomed to the ways of the American underworld, it is not long before they have the mafia, the FBI and a couple of street gangs on their backs as they attempt to make their way back to Paris.

A young drifter, struggling to makes ends meet, accepts a job to kill a prominent accountant. When he isn't paid for the hit, revenge is now his path.

The story of two lads from Belfast as they stumble their way through the London gay underworld in search of 'gainful employment'. This being the offering of sexual favours to older gay men in order to subsidise their respective giros. 9 Dead Gay Guys is a high-camp send-up of gay stereotypes.