20th Century Flicks, Bristol

Coining the new term 'action noir' in Korea, director Kim Ji-woon follows up his extraordinary features A Quiet Family and A Tale Of Two Sisters with this blackly comic thriller. Lee Byeong-heon stars as sartorially elegant Sun-woo, a unique character with a curious lifestyle - he's not only the proprietor of a hotel bar but also the right-hand man to the powerful gang leader, Mr Kang. When Kang suspects that his beautiful young mistress Hee-soo might be messing around with another man, he enlis find out more...

A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE (2005)

Certification18 Our Rating

In the small backwater town of Millbrook, Tom Stall lives an uneventful but contented life. A loving father, husband and the owner of a small but bustling cafe' he's a pillar of his little community. When two sadistic robbers threaten Tom his staff and his customers, one fateful night, he reacts without mercy. Hailed as a hero, Tom is uncomfortable with his new status and when strangers arrive from the city it becomes increasingly obvious why, it would seem Tom has a past and oh boy it ain't a p find out more...

A MOST VIOLENT YEAR (2014)

Certification15 Our Rating

At a time when New York City is experiencing a spike in criminal activity, heating and oil business owner Abel Morales fights to make himself a living, support his wife Anna and protect his interests. However, when he becomes the target of opportunistic thieves and a number of his trucks go missing, he takes matters into his own hands to track down those responsible. A tight, atmospheric thriller from the writer/director of 'Margin Call'

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A PROPHET (2009)

Certification18 Our Rating

Malik is the anti-hero of this somewhat mystical mini-epic of a movie. Just turned adult, illiterate, lacking a clear-cut ethnic identity, he finds himself doing 6 years in a prison run on the inside by a violent Corsican gang with the connivance of corrupt staff. With the guidance of the ghost of a now dead inmate Malik learns not just to read and write but to deal with the power politics of gangsterhood and it is his success at the latter that allows him to emerge from prison... There is a s find out more...

A SENSE OF FREEDOM (1979)

Certification18 Our Rating

Jimmy Boyle was a young Glaswegian hard man born into, and fully embracing, a life of crime. When Jimmy was imprisoned for murder his first reaction was rage, but while incarcerated he experienced an epiphany and embarked on a journey as far removed from his earlier infamy as it was possible to get. Based on Jimmy Boyle's own life �A Sense Of Freedom' is a powerful, often brutal, tale of redemption. find out more...

ALPHA DOG (2005)

Certification15 Our Rating

With the swimming pools, drugs, girls and parties come a bunch of spoilt young brats who seem to take their cues from 'American History X' and black inner city gangster movies. They tattoo themselves, build their bodies, call their girls bitches, sell drugs, fight and use guns. Violence, drugs, language, this movie has them in bucketloads, even sex raises its head. Plotwise; headcase Jake owes lots of drug money to drug lord's son John and John kidnaps Jake's younger brother as a hostage. Kid br find out more...

AMERICAN GANGSTER (2007)

Certification15 Our Rating

1970s; Harlem hood Frank Lucas has hijacked the New York heroin business by dealing directly with the Chinese growers in SE Asia and importing large amounts of the drug inside the caskets of soldiers killed in Vietnam. However his nemesis, flamboyant, tenacious and unbribable narcotics cop Richie Roberts, is on his tail and is determined to bring him down. find out more...

ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES (1938)

CertificationPG Our Rating

A gutsy 30s gangster noir with two 'hood boys whose paths into adulthood are a complete contrast; Cagney becoming a violent gangster and O'Brien a priest. O'Brien has to fight the local kids' hero-worship of Cagney, and this leads to an emotional and ambiguous climax. Tense, dramatic, well-acted with sharp dialogue. Astounding. find out more...

ANIMAL KINGDOM (2010)

Certification18 Our Rating

Following the death of his mother, 17-year�old Joshua 'J' Cody moves in with his estranged family, under the watchful eye of his doting grandmother, Janine 'Smurf' Cody. Her three criminal sons; Andrew 'Pope' Cody, in hiding from a gang of renegade detectives; middle brother Craig a successful but volatile drug dealer, and youngest Cody, Darren, who na�vely follows his elder brothers' lead, do not bode well for young J�s prospects. But it is the consequence of a cold�blooded revenge plot that es find out more...