Outrageously camp gangster yarn about an assassin who can only achieve sexual excitement by sniffing boiled rice! Ranked No 3 in the Top 10 of underworld hitmen, he polishes off No 2 during a string of spectacular killings, but soon has No 1 hot on his tail. Occasionally mystifying, but always witty, inventive and dazzling. find out more...

Three young Hong Kong hustlers move to Saigon to try and profit, smuggling penicillin and gold, from the war, but their friendship is tested to the limits through greed, betrayal and lust, amid the horrors of a war-torn Vietnam. Comparable to the 'Deer Hunter', this violent epic is the most ambitiously personal and political of John Woo's films, but still comes packed with guns, explosives and balletic action. find out more...

It's 1968 and Gangster is in the employ of one of London's big boys, Freddie May. Gangster is completely without morality or remorse and as a consequence very good at his job, the only flaw in his life is that he wants to be Number One. Gangster hatches a plan which sees him achieve his goal and put Freddy away for a very long time, but eventually he will have to face his old boss again. 'Gangster No 1' is a hard, brutal, minimalist movie more reminiscent of the Get Carters and Long Good Fridays find out more...

Eight months after a disastrous job in Kiev left him physically and mentally scarred, ex-soldier turned contract killer, Jay, is pressured by his partner, Gal, into taking a new assignment. As they descend into the dark and disturbing world of the contract, Jay begins to unravel once again, his fear and paranoia sending him deep into the heart of darkness. An find out more...

A crackingly realised biog of a man who relentlessly dodged death with a cocky ambivalence that frankly defies credulity. 'Mesrine' is stylishly shot, smoothly directed and perfectly, charmingly, sociopathically performed by Cassell. A tight, pacey thriller considerably enhanced by the fact that it's based in, well…fact. This first film takes us from his brutal initiation as a soldier during the horrors of Algeria's fight for liberation to the end of the 1960s via France and French Canada. find out more...

The definitive gangster-epic; violent? Yes, but never mindless. The Jewish Mafia's coming of age on the Lower East Side in 1923, their rise to wealth during Prohibition, and their fall in 1933, provide the background to a story of friendship and betrayal, love and death. Leone's masterful cinematography evokes both the harshness of the vice-ridden decades before and after Prohibition, but also the philosophy behind it. Splendid performances by De Niro and Woods and a stupendous score by Ennio Mo 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...

The Kemp brothers are superb in this atmospheric film of the violent rise, and eventual fall, of the notorious East End gangsters the Kray twins from their deprived childhood through their vicious protection and gambling empire to the infamous murder of Jack "The Hat" McVeigh in The Blind Beggar pub. find out more...

A case history of a middle-aged man with an urge to commit insane and violent murders, well OK he just liked to top people, as we all feel like doing from time to time, but in this case the police could never catch him. A flashback goes some way towards explaining how he developed such a disdain for authority, and the film takes an almost doco-style approach to the crimes of its protagonist and takes great pains to examine the impact his behavior had on his mother, father and wife. A rare insigh find out more...