Heist Movies, Definitively Ranked

Not many filmmakers who aren’t Quentin Tarantino have managed to squeeze moments of such philosophical anti-profundity (little arguments like the one over Mr. Pink’s approach to tipping) between moments of such overt and unashamed violence (pretty much everything else). In a choppy non-chronological narrative, we get a picture of a heist that’s gone wrong, and an attempt to establish which of the surviving criminals—who find themselves stuck in a warehouse with each other—might be the rat that’s undermined the whole operation.

3) Out of Sight (1998)

Adapt Elmore Leonard’s writing for the screen and there’s a pretty good chance it’ll go well. Jackie Brown, Justified, and 3:10 to Yuma are evidence of that, and Out of Sight is too. It tracks a developing romance between a bank robber (George Clooney) and the federal marshal he kidnaps (Jennifer Lopez), who then tries to sort of kidnap him back. That’s a fun, spicy situation, but this being Soderbergh, what it’s still all really about is people. It’s not crime for crime’s sake, but crime because crime is a great way of interrogating human behaviour. Or, if you just like an exciting crime film, then it’s crime for crime’s sake. Everybody wins!

2) The Killing (1956)