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The Worst Gangster Films of All Time

The Worst Gangster Films of All Time

The best gangster movies are commentaries on why some people can’t, or won’t, assimilate into a civil society. These films often depict their protagonists as victims of their environment – poverty, ethnic bias, drug and alcohol abuse, broken homes – who have few options other than a life of crime. The challenge for the film director is to present a nuanced portrayal of a criminal that explains his or her behavior and the events that pushed the person into a life outside the law. (For directors who succeeded, see this list of the 50 best gangster movies of all time.)

The worst gangster films fail at nuance, and more than just that. To determine the worst examples of all time, 24/7 Tempo developed an index using average ratings on IMDb, an online movie database owned by Amazon, and a combination of audience scores and Tomatometer scores on Rotten Tomatoes, an online movie and TV review aggregator, as of December 2021. (All ratings and scores were weighted equally.) 

Only movies classified in the crime genre tagged with the keyword “gangster” on IMDb, or that were nominated by the American Film Institute for their 2008 list of top 10 gangster films were considered. We excluded films that did not explicitly center on organized crime or criminals even though they may have dealt in part with that subject or those characters.

Besides failing at subtlety, movies that made our list disappoint because of muddled plots, miscasting, and/or too much violence and gore that overwhelm the film. Some movies on the list are comedies, like “The Godson” and “The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight,” that just aren’t all that funny. Some, like “The Sting II,” with the star power of Jackie Gleason, Oliver Reed, and Teri Garr, are sequels that should have never been made.

Oscar winners Nicolas Cage, Ben Affleck, Clint Eastwood, and Cuba Gooding Jr. starred in movies on this list that they probably regret appearing in. Proven box-office draws such as Burt Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson, Ving Rhames, and John Travolta were unable to save the clunkers they were cast in on the list. 

Twelve of the motion pictures on the list garnered a zero among Rotten Tomatoes critics. “Gotti,” starring John Travolta, was one of the movies that failed to get a positive score among  critics. It did manage a Rotten Tomatoes audience score of 45 percent, the highest of any gangster film on the list.

Source: Courtesy of Touchstone Home Video

25. Playing God (1997)
> IMDb user rating: 5.6/10 (7,570 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 33% (9,697 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 16% (32 reviews)
> Directed by: Andy Wilson

David Duchovny plays a decertified surgeon who becomes the personal doctor for a gangster (Timothy Hutton). Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune said “David Duchovny is absolutely charming in a movie that combines medicine and crime and ultimately wears out its welcome by being too cute and repetitive with its throwaway humor.”

Source: Courtesy of Universal Pictures

24. Renegades (1989)
> IMDb user rating: 5.4/10 (3,527 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 28% (5,309 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 20% (5 reviews)
> Directed by: Jack Sholder

Keifer Sutherland portrays an undercover Philadelphia cop forced to take part in a robbery that leads to fatalities. Lou Diamond Phillips appears as the brother of one of those killed who teams with Sutherland to seek vengeance. Critic Scott Weinberg of eFilmCritic.com dismissed the movie as “another mismatched cop adventure.”

Source: Courtesy of Warner Bros.

23. City Heat (1984)
> IMDb user rating: 5.5/10 (9,700 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 24% (6,162 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 22% (18 reviews)
> Directed by: Richard Benjamin

Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds are two cops out to avenge the death of another policeman (Richard Roundtree). Jane Alexander is their love interest. What could go wrong with a movie with that kind of cast? Apparently almost everything: Dave Kehr of the Chicago Reader said “Under the direction of last-minute replacement Richard Benjamin, the results are insufferable — grotesque, chaotic, demoralized.”

Source: Courtesy of Orion Pictures

22. 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag (1997)
> IMDb user rating: 5.4/10 (10,281 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 35% (21,311 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 10% (20 reviews)
> Directed by: Tom Schulman

The title almost says it all. In this comedy, Joe Pesci plays a mobster transporting the severed heads of rivals and his duffel bag gets mixed up with that of a medical student. This was director Tom Schulman’s lowest-rated film by Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score.

Source: Courtesy of A24

21. Revenge of the Green Dragons (2014)
> IMDb user rating: 5.3/10 (3,944 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 30% (1,118 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 15% (26 reviews)
> Directed by: Andrew Lau & Andrew Loo

Andrew Lau and Andrew Loo directed this tale of two young men rising through the ranks of a Chinese-American gang in New York. Jordan Hoffman of the New York Daily News called the film a Chinese-American “Goodfellas” that failed.

Source: Courtesy of Bliss Media

20. Give ‘Em Hell, Malone (2009)
> IMDb user rating: 5.9/10 (6,308 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 35% (2,031 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 0% (1 reviews)
> Directed by: Russell Mulcahy

A gunman (Thomas Jane) is tasked with protecting an important briefcase from a mobster (Gregory Harrison). Despite the star power of Ving Rhames, the film was criticized for trying to capitalize on the style of the movie “Sin City,” as critic Alex Lindsey Jones of Moviedex put it.

Source: Courtesy of Sunrider Productions

19. Gotti (2018)
> IMDb user rating: 4.8/10 (14,949 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 45% (8,161 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 0% (58 reviews)
> Directed by: Kevin Connolly

There have been several biopics of Gambino crime lord John Gotti, but this one, starring John Travolta as the “Teflon Don,” failed to please any of the 58 critics on Rotten Tomatoes. “A Gotti awful mess,” moaned Richard Popes of TheIndependentCritic.com. It was directed by Kevin Connolly, who starred in the cable television series “Entourage.”

Source: Courtesy of A Plus Films

18. Rage (2014)
> IMDb user rating: 5/10 (24,136 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 28% (7,147 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 12% (42 reviews)
> Directed by: Paco Cabezas

Oscar winner Nicolas Cage plays a reformed criminal whose daughter is kidnapped. He regroups his old crew to find her. Director Paco Cabezas spared no violence in this thriller, which critics called dull, dour, and lacking in originality.

Source: Courtesy of Lionsgate

17. Bangkok Dangerous (2008)
> IMDb user rating: 5.3/10 (56,168 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 26% (132,376 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 8% (96 reviews)
> Directed by: Danny Pang & Oxide Chun Pang

This clunker starring Nicholas Cage as a contract assassin is a remake of a Thai-language film released eight years earlier, also directed by brothers Danny and Oxide Chun Pang. Critic Christy Lemire of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer found it “tediously monotonous.”

Source: Courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment

16. Half Past Dead (2002)
> IMDb user rating: 4.7/10 (15,402 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 37% (18,484 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 3% (88 reviews)
> Directed by: Don Michael Paul

“Half Past Dead” stars Steven Seagal as an undercover FBI agent out to stop a master villain from finding $200 million in gold. John J. Puccio of Movie Metropolis lanced Seagal’s performance, saying “Seagal at his most minimal, saying and doing less in this film than in practically any film he’s been in. Maybe it’s for the best.” It’s the lowest-rated film by director Don Michael Paul on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer.

Source: Courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment

15. Linewatch (2008)
> IMDb user rating: 5.5/10 (2,744 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 27% (1,403 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 0% (0 reviews)
> Directed by: Kevin Bray

A border patrol agent played by Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr. (Best Supporting Actor for “Jerry Maguire”) can’t escape his gang past. This movie holds one of Gooding Jr.’s lowest audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes.

Source: Courtesy of Howco Productions Inc.

14. Jаil Bаit (1954)
> IMDb user rating: 3.6/10 (2,620 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 20% (1,127 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 29% (7 reviews)
> Directed by: Edward D. Wood Jr.

A killer on the run forces a plastic surgeon to make him a new face. The film was directed by Edward D. Wood Jr., who is credited, or blamed, for some of the worst movies ever made, among them “Plan 9 From Outer Space” and the quasi-autobiographical “Glen or Glenda.” Critic Dennis Schwartz cut Wood some slack: “This is Wood’s attempt to be taken seriously, and he makes this the best film he has ever made.”

Source: Courtesy of Trimark Pictures

13. Death Wish: The Face of Death (1994)
> IMDb user rating: 4.9/10 (7,658 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 32% (8,590 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 0% (5 reviews)
> Directed by: Allan A. Goldstein

Both Charles Bronson and the Death Wish franchise were getting long in the tooth when this vigilante sequel arrived in 1994. TV Guide unleashed on its wanton gun violence: “What’s revolting, if not surprising, about this salute to Bernie Goetz, the NRA, and All-American contempt for civil liberties, is the casual inevitability of all the violence.”

Source: Courtesy of Eagle Films

12. Elephant White (2011)
> IMDb user rating: 5.1/10 (10,716 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 28% (1,140 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 0% (3 reviews)
> Directed by: Prachya Pinkaew

Djimon Hounsou (“Amistad,” “Gladiator”) is an assassin hired by a businessman to avenge the murder of his daughter at the hands of slave traders in Thailand. Critics called “Elephant White” dreary. Kevin Bacon effects a British accent as a gun merchant.

Source: Courtesy of Universal Pictures

11. The Sting II (1983)
> IMDb user rating: 4.9/10 (2,199 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 29% (1,404 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 0% (9 reviews)
> Directed by: Jeremy Kagan

“The Sting II” is one of the better examples why some seques are not needed. Despite a stellar cast including Jackie Gleason, Oliver Reed, Karl Malden and Teri Garr, it was a complete flop. Janet Maslin seemed to sum up the critics consensus: “Moves slowly, looks terrible and copies the first film shamelessly.”

Source: Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images

10. Exterminator 2 (1984)
> IMDb user rating: 4.5/10 (2,178 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 31% (374 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 0% (5 reviews)
> Directed by: Mark Buntzman

Appalled by street crime (Robert Ginty), a man outfits a garbage truck with armor, rocket launchers, and machine guns, and arms himself with a flamethrower, to clean up his city. Critic Chuck Leary of FulvueDrive-in.com called the film “dreadful on every level.”

Source: Jason Kempin / Getty Images

9. Turn It Up (2000)
> IMDb user rating: 4.2/10 (1,266 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 26% (1,888 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 8% (38 reviews)
> Directed by: Robert Adetuyi

The only way for a young man to escape the clutches of gang life in this movie is through his talent as a hip-hop artist. Critics thought “Turn It Up” was derivative and formulaic, and one audience survey scored it D- on a scale of A to F.

Source: Courtesy of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

8. The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight (1971)
> IMDb user rating: 4.9/10 (1,450 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 25% (445 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 0% (5 reviews)
> Directed by: James Goldstone

Based on a Jimmy Breslin novel, the comedy is about a Brooklyn mob kingpin (Jerry Orbach) who tries to knock off his rivals. Television veteran James Goldstone (“Star Trek,” “Route 66,” “The Fugitive,” and “The Outer Limits”) directed the flop.

Source: Courtesy of After Dark Films

7. Dragon Eyes (2012)
> IMDb user rating: 4.5/10 (5,934 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 18% (598 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 0% (3 reviews)
> Directed by: John Hyams

Featuring action star Jean-Claude Van Damme, “Dragon Eyes” is about a man (Cung Le) who utilizes his fighting skills to protect his neighborhood from drug dealers and corrupt police. The zero Tomatometer score is the lowest for director John Hyams, who’s had two films – “All Square” and “Alone” – top more than 90 percent on the scale.

Source: Courtesy of GEM Entertainment

6. Kite (2014)
> IMDb user rating: 4.4/10 (6,063 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 18% (2,062 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 0% (15 reviews)
> Directed by: Ralph Ziman

An orphaned teen (India Eisley) enlists two men to help her avenge the deaths of her parents. “Kite” was dismissed by all 15 critics on Rotten Tomatoes. Ben Kenigsbuerg of the New York Times said “Nasty for nastiness’s sake, ‘Kite’ drags to achieve its brief running time; you wonder whether the slow motion is an artistic device or a stalling tactic.” It’s the lowest-rated film on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer for director Ralph Ziman.

Source: Courtesy of Netflix

5. The Last Days of American Crime (2020)
> IMDb user rating: 3.7/10 (10,914 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 22% (451 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 0% (43 reviews)
> Directed by: Olivier Megaton

In the future, three people plot a huge theft before a government-broadcast signal extinguishes crime for good. IndieWire’s David Ehrlich called “The Last Days of American Crime” a “death march of clichés that offers nothing to look at and even less to consider.”

Source: Courtesy of Blue Sky Media

4. Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li (2009)
> IMDb user rating: 3.7/10 (23,676 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 18% (207,464 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 3% (61 reviews)
> Directed by: Andrzej Bartkowiak

A crime boss (Neal McDonough) won’t let anything stand in his way as he takes over a section of Bangkok. A team led by a martial-arts expert (Robin Shou) and an Interpol agent (Chris Klein) try to stop him. Adapted from a video game, “Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li” faltered because of a poor plot and miscast actors. “Vapid and dull,” said Marc Savlov of the Austin Chronicle.

Source: Courtesy of GatebreakR

3. The Godson (1998)
> IMDb user rating: 3.4/10 (1,478 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 23% (1,072 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 0% (2 reviews)
> Directed by: Bob Hoge

A mob don sends his son to learn the tricks of the organized-crime trade. The comedy starred comic actors Rodney Dangerfield and Dom DeLuise, but even they could not save this film. “Dangerfield and DeLuise are two of my favorite funnymen, but this is so bad I turned it off halfway through,” said Chuck O’Leary of Fantastica Daily.

Source: Courtesy of Allied Artists Pictures

2. Mitchell (1975)
> IMDb user rating: 2.6/10 (4,659 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 29% (952 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 0% (2 reviews)
> Directed by: Andrew V. McLaglen

Joe Don Baker, whose righteous rage as Sheriff Buford Pusser made “Walking Tall” a hit, returned in a similar role in “Mitchell,” playing a big-city cop cracking down on drug traffickers. This was not one of director Andrew V. McLaglen’s career highlights, and he’s had a few, including “Shenandoah” and “Chisum.”

Source: Courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment

1. Gigli (2003)
> IMDb user rating: 2.5/10 (48,287 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 13% (45,240 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 6% (188 reviews)
> Directed by: Martin Brest

This gangster film that’s also a rom-com featured Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez as the would-be kidnappers of the brother of a federal prosecutor. Critics trashed the film, citing in particular the lack of screen chemistry between Affleck and Lopez. This wasn’t director Martin Brest’s finest hour. He’s helmed four films that have had a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score of 80 percent or higher, including “Midnight Run.” The Oscar-nominated director (for “Scent of a Woman”) won the Razzie for Worst Director in 2004 for “Gigli.”

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