The Grifters is a 1990 American neo-noir crime thriller film directed by Stephen Frears, produced by Martin Scorsese, and starring John Cusack, Anjelica Huston, and Annette Bening. The screenplay was written by Donald E. Westlake, based on Jim Thompson's 1963 novel of the same name. The film won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Film and was declared one of the Top 10 films of 1990 by The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures.
Shaft is a 2000 action crime thriller film directed, co-written, and co-produced by John Singleton and starring Samuel L. Jackson in the title role with Vanessa Williams, Jeffrey Wright, Christian Bale, Dan Hedaya, Busta Rhymes, Toni Collette and Richard Roundtree. It is a contemporary sequel to the 1971 Shaft film, in which Jackson plays the nephew of John Shaft. The film opened at the number-one position at the box office when it debuted June 16, 2000. It received mixed reviews on Metacritic, but the critical consensus on Rotten Tomatoes praises Jackson's charisma.
Freedomland is a 2006 American crime drama mystery film directed by Joe Roth and starring Samuel L. Jackson, Julianne Moore, Edie Falco, Ron Eldard, William Forsythe, Aunjanue Ellis, and Anthony Mackie. It is based on Richard Price's 1998 novel of the same name, which touches on themes of covert racism. The film grossed $14.7 million against a $30 million budget. The Rotten Tomatoes critical consensus calls it "poorly directed and overacted".
Assault on Precinct 13 is a 2005 action thriller film directed by Jean-François Richet and starring Ethan Hawke and Laurence Fishburne. The cast also includes John Leguizamo, Maria Bello, Ja Rule, Drea de Matteo, Brian Dennehy, and Gabriel Byrne. It is a remake of John Carpenter's 1976 film of the same name.
Perfect Stranger is a 2007 American neo-noir psychological thriller film, directed by James Foley, and starring Halle Berry and Bruce Willis in their first film together since The Last Boy Scout (1991). It was produced by Revolution Studios for Columbia Pictures.
Confidence is a 2003 American crime drama film starring Edward Burns, Dustin Hoffman, Andy Garcia and Rachel Weisz, directed by James Foley, and written by Doug Jung.
A Time to Kill is a 1996 American legal drama film based on John Grisham's 1989 novel of the same name. Sandra Bullock, Samuel L. Jackson, Matthew McConaughey, and Kevin Spacey star with Donald and Kiefer Sutherland appearing in supporting roles. The film received mixed reviews but was a commercial success, making $152 million at the worldwide box office. It is the second of two films based on Grisham's novels directed by Joel Schumacher, with the other being The Client released two years prior.
Gone Baby Gone is a 2007 American neo-noir crime thriller film directed by Ben Affleck in his directorial debut. Affleck co-wrote the screenplay with Aaron Stockard based on the 1998 novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane. The film stars Casey Affleck and Michelle Monaghan as two Boston private investigators hunting for a young girl abducted from her single mother's apartment in Dorchester. The supporting cast includes Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris, and Amy Ryan. It was the final film to be released by The Ladd Company before its closure.
Cleaner is a 2007 American thriller film directed by Renny Harlin. It stars Samuel L. Jackson as a crime scene cleaner who thinks he has become part of a cover-up; Ed Harris, Keke Palmer, and Eva Mendes also star. The film was released on May 27, 2007.
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead is a 2007 American crime thriller film directed by Sidney Lumet. The film was written by Kelly Masterson, and stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei, and Albert Finney. The title comes from the Irish saying: "May you be in heaven a full half-hour before the devil knows you're dead". The film unfolds in a nonlinear narrative, repeatedly going back and forth in time, with some scenes shown repeatedly from differing points of view. It was the last film directed by Lumet before his death in 2011.
Brothers is a 2009 American psychological drama war film directed by Jim Sheridan and written by David Benioff. A remake of the 2004 Danish film, it follows Captain Sam Cahill, a presumed-dead prisoner of the War in Afghanistan who deals with extreme PTSD while reintegrating into society following his release from captivity. The film also stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Cahill's brother and Natalie Portman as his wife. Both films take inspiration from Homer's epic poem the Odyssey.
Mother and Child is a 2009 drama film directed and written by Rodrigo García. It premiered on September 14, 2009, at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival and at the Sundance Film Festival on January 23, 2010, and was the closing night selection within Maryland Film Festival 2010. It was given a limited release in the United States beginning May 7, 2010.
Vampires Suck is a 2010 American parody film written and directed by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. It stars Jenn Proske, Matt Lanter, Christopher N. Riggi, Ken Jeong, Anneliese van der Pol, and Arielle Kebbel. The film is a parody of The Twilight Saga franchise. Like the previous Friedberg and Seltzer movies, the film was panned by critics for its humor and plot. 20th Century Fox theatrically released the film on August 18, 2010.
Sinister is a 2012 supernatural horror film directed by Scott Derrickson and written by C. Robert Cargill and Derrickson. It shows Ethan Hawke as a struggling true-crime writer whose discovery of snuff films depicting gruesome murders in his new house puts his family in danger. Juliet Rylance, Fred Thompson, James Ransone, Clare Foley, and Michael Hall D'Addario appear in supporting roles.
Reasonable Doubt is a 2014 Canadian-German crime thriller film directed by Peter Howitt and written by Peter A. Dowling. The film stars Samuel L. Jackson, Dominic Cooper, Erin Karpluk, Gloria Reuben and Ryan Robbins. It received generally negative reviews from critics.
Kite is a 2014 South African action film directed by Ralph Ziman, based on the 1998 anime of the same name by Yasuomi Umetsu. The film stars India Eisley, Callan McAuliffe and Samuel L. Jackson.
Diablo is a 2015 Canadian-American revisionist Western psychological thriller film produced, co-written and directed by Lawrence Roeck, and starring Scott Eastwood, Walton Goggins, Camilla Belle and Danny Glover. It was the first western film starring Scott Eastwood, the son of Western icon Clint Eastwood.
Juliet, Naked is a 2018 romantic comedy film directed by Jesse Peretz based on Nick Hornby's 2009 novel of the same name. It centers on the story of Annie and her unlikely romance with singer-songwriter Tucker Crowe, who is also the subject of her boyfriend's long-time music obsession. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 19, 2018.
The Protégé is a 2021 American action thriller film directed by Martin Campbell, written by Richard Wenk, and starring Maggie Q, Michael Keaton, Samuel L. Jackson, Patrick Malahide, David Rintoul, Ori Pfeffer, Ray Fearon, Caroline Loncq, and Robert Patrick. The film is about Anna, who was rescued as a child by the legendary assassin Moody, and is now the world's most skilled contract killer. However, when Moody is brutally killed, she vows revenge for the man who taught her everything she knows. The film was released on August 20, 2021 by Lionsgate. It received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $8 million at the box office.
The Guilty is a 2021 American crime thriller film directed and produced by Antoine Fuqua, from a screenplay by Nic Pizzolatto. A remake of the 2018 Danish film of the same name, the film stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Christina Vidal, with the voices of Ethan Hawke, Riley Keough, Eli Goree, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Paul Dano, and Peter Sarsgaard.
