WEEFILM CURATED LIST

Best Crime Movies With The Family Perfect For When You Need A Good Cry

Looking for crime movies with the family perfect for when you need a good cry? Here are 10 hand-picked films that actually deliver. No filler, just great cinema.

10 Films · Updated 2026-04-30

The best movies to watch with the whole family are the ones that hold attention across every age group — no one checking their phone, everyone genuinely invested. Crime films with genuine emotional reach tend to be the ones focused on what violence costs the people adjacent to it — the grief of proximity rather than the event itself.

1

The Shawshank Redemption

· ★★★★☆ 8.7/10

Imprisoned in the 1940s for the double murder of his wife and her lover, upstanding banker Andy Dufresne begins a new life at the Shawshank prison, where he puts his accounting skills to work for an amoral warden. During...

View Details →
2

The Godfather

· ★★★★☆ 8.7/10

Spanning the years 1945 to 1955, a chronicle of the fictional Italian-American Corleone crime family. When organized crime family patriarch, Vito Corleone barely survives an attempt on his life, his youngest son, Michael...

View Details →
3

The Godfather Part II

· ★★★★☆ 8.6/10

In the continuing saga of the Corleone crime family, a young Vito Corleone grows up in Sicily and in 1910s New York. In the 1950s, Michael Corleone attempts to expand the family business into Las Vegas, Hollywood and Cub...

View Details →
4

The Dark Knight

· ★★★★☆ 8.5/10

Batman raises the stakes in his war on crime. With the help of Lt. Jim Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman sets out to dismantle the remaining criminal organizations that plague the streets. The partnership ...

View Details →
5

The Green Mile

· ★★★★☆ 8.5/10

A supernatural tale set on death row in a Southern prison, where gentle giant John Coffey possesses the mysterious power to heal people's ailments. When the cell block's head guard, Paul Edgecomb, recognizes Coffey's mir...

View Details →
6

Pulp Fiction

· ★★★★☆ 8.5/10

A burger-loving hit man, his philosophical partner, a drug-addled gangster's moll and a washed-up boxer converge in this sprawling, comedic crime caper. Their adventures unfurl in three stories that ingeniously trip back...

View Details →
7

GoodFellas

· ★★★★☆ 8.5/10

The true story of Henry Hill, a half-Irish, half-Sicilian Brooklyn kid who is adopted by neighbourhood gangsters at an early age and climbs the ranks of a Mafia family under the guidance of Jimmy Conway.

View Details →
8

City of God

· ★★★★☆ 8.4/10

In the poverty-stricken favelas of Rio de Janeiro in the 1970s, two young men choose different paths. Rocket is a budding photographer who documents the increasing drug-related violence of his neighborhood, while José “Z...

View Details →
9

Once Upon a Time in America

· ★★★★☆ 8.4/10

A former Prohibition-era Jewish gangster returns to the Lower East Side of Manhattan over thirty years later, where he once again must confront the ghosts and regrets of his old life.

View Details →
10

Se7en

· ★★★★☆ 8.4/10

Two homicide detectives are on a desperate hunt for a serial killer whose crimes are based on the "seven deadly sins" in this dark and haunting film that takes viewers from the tortured remains of one victim to the next....

View Details →

The next time you are planning a night with the family and need a crime movie that actually delivers, start here. This list is updated regularly so the recommendations stay fresh. And if you find a favourite, check out its dedicated page for more details, cast info, and similar films you might love.