Perhaps the most influential period in cinema history was the Italian neo-realism period of the late 40s and director Vittorio De Sica was one of the prime reasons for this important period of film-making. "The Bicycle Thieves" is a film about a poor man whose only means for a job is his bicycle, which gets stolen. The film follows him and his young boy throughout war-ravaged Rome in search of the stolen bike. The trip involves some of the most brilliant vignettes in film history; the church, th find out more...

Three working-class friends rob the local trade union safe but all they get away with is a set of books. The brightest works out their meaning........ A superb thriller full of references to the atomisation of the working class by institutional means. find out more...

A seventeen year old Nicole Kidman stars in this Aussie kids' crime caper as Judy, who along with her friends PJ and Goose inadvertently steal a box of walkie-talkies belonging to a group of bungling bank robbers. With both the police and the inept criminals on their tails' they BMX their way out of trouble, jumping fruit barrows, weaving through crowds and even riding down a giant water-chute. With the cast following the ‘Chuckle Brothers' method of acting and the BMX stunts being a bit so-so, find out more...

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...

Lee Israel (Melissa McCarthy) made her living in the 1970's and 80's profiling the likes of Katharine Hepburn, Tallulah Bankhead, Estee Lauder and journalist Dorothy Kilgallen. When Lee is no longer able to get published because she has fallen out of step with current tastes, she turns her art form to deception, abetted by her loyal friend Jack.

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Abel Davis is a criminal, hunted in Italy. The police are closing in, so he and his pal Raymond arrange to flee back to France with Abel's wife, Thérèse, and their two young sons. Abel and Raymond commit a brazen robbery to get funds, killing two men; in the escape, more die. Abel arrives in Nice with the boys, calls his pals in Paris, and gets the brush-off. Reluctantly, they send a stranger, Eric Stark, to bring Abel to Paris, but he's getting the message he's on his own. Hono find out more...

(Written by Ben Travis for Empire Online)
After experiencing tragedy at a young age, the reckless and creative Estella (Emma Stone) falls into a life of crime in 1970s London — until she has the chance to live out her dreams of becoming a designer under the tutelage of fearsome fashion legend The Baroness (Emma Thompson). In the original, animated 101 Dalmatians, there was nothing black-and-white about Cruella de Vil. As her name less implied, more flat-out screamed, she was a Disn find out more...

Lumet's complex and atmospheric thriller is based on a real event. Pacino is superb as the neurotic and incompetent gay bankrobber who needs the money from the robbery to finance his lover's sex change operation. The film's beauty is it's closely detailed psychological observation. Excellent.

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Two classic Bogart films for the price of one! High Sierra follows a failed robber broken out of prison by an old associate, who takes part in a failed robbery in which a man is killed, and makes a getaway into the Sierra mountains for a final doomed stand. Treasure of the Sierra Madre; 'Gold does funny things to a man's soul'. That's the issue tackled by this seminal movie about the pursuit of money and its effect on the brotherhood of man. Bogart plays the down-and-out Dobbs who hooks up with find out more...

Benjy Taylor is a rookie cop who goes undercover to nab a gang of car thieves led by Ted Varrick. Taylor becomes too involved and starts to enjoy the thrill and lifestyle of the car thieves, and falls in love with Varrick's sister Ann.
If it sounds similar to Fast and Furious movies, it's because it's the prototype for em! A super-slick 80s thriller.

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