7 best movies about money crimes

Good morning Dinks.  I am sure you already know this about me but I am going to say it again, I love watching movies.  Crime fiction movies are my ultimate favorite, I love a good CIA or FBI movie.  I know it’s weird, but give me a good plan executed into the perfect crime and I’m hooked.  If the plot is about money crimes it makes the story even better.

I should also mention that I tend to purchase my movies online nowadays because it gives me a much greater selection and allows me to save some money in the process. By browsing the online selection of DVDs, I can search by genre and find the exact films that I want to buy without any trouble whatsoever. It definitely beats trying to track down the crime dramas that I love at the store, since many of them are more obscure titles that can be difficult to find. If you are struggling to find a particular title, I highly recommend having a look online.

I spent my weekend watching movies about financial crime, specifically movies about stealing money.  I watched The Town, which stars Ben Affleck and Jeremy Renner who are two men that I just can’t get enough of.  Then I watched The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, the remake with John Travolta and Denzel Washington.  I love crime fiction stories so this was the perfect way to spend the weekend while my boyfriend Nick was watching football.

The one question I always ask myself when watching movies about money crime is – what’s the point in stealing money if you can’t ever spend it?  That’s how the criminals always get caught.  They get greedy and they start spending the money, which leaves a paper trail and they end up in jail.

Here are my top 4 favorite movies about money crimes:

Ocean’s Eleven. Other than being a movie filled with some of the hottest leading men in Hollywood, this is a great movie about robbing casinos.  What starts out as a plot for personal revenge ends up in a big pay day for this crew of 11 guys.

The Town.  It is said that Charlestown near Boston Massachusetts is the home to the most bank robberies anywhere in the United States.  This movie follows four friends who rob banks because it’s all they know how to do.  Their father’s did it and their grandfathers did it before them.  Robbing banks is a family trade passed down from generation to generation in The Town.

The Taking of Phelam 123. I have admittedly never seen the original movie, but the remake is amazing.  A classic story about a Wall Street employee gone bad.  He learns how the stock market works then commits a crime to manipulate Wall Street and create a huge financial gain on his personal investments.

Mad Money.  You gotta love a movie that involves three female criminals.  Katie Holmes, Queen Latifa and Diane Keaton are the masterminds behind a plan that has them robbing the Federal Reserve Bank for three years.

Here are 3 movies about money crimes from our friends at Wise Bread:

The Firm. This may be one of Tom Cruise’s best roles ever. He plays a young lawyer whose new job at a big law firm comes with a big pay check.  But as lawyers keep dying at the firm he discovers his new dream job comes with mob ties.

The Sting.  This movie is about two con men who want to get revenge on a major crime boss in Chicago after he did them wrong.  This movie won seven Academy Awards after its release in 1973.

Wall Street.  Gordon Gekko is a stock broker whose personal motto is “Greed is good”. He loves money, but he loves the power it brings even more.  Gekko starts mentoring a young broker who becomes addicted to money and starts insider trading as a way to feed his money habit.

Photo by PeterB

Kristina Tahnyak

Tahnya is a Certified Financial Planner and former Investment Advisor turned marketing and communications professional She holds a degree from Concordia University, is debt free and currently works in the field of digital marketing.