Highest-Rated Movies about 'Murder For Hire'

Fargo (1996), Zodiac (2007), The Lady from Shanghai (1947), Body Heat (1981), The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976), Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), The Limey (1999) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Murder For Hire movies.

#1. Fargo (1996)

Storyline: Jerry works in his father-in-law's car dealership and has gotten himself in financial problems. He tries various schemes to come up with money needed for a reason that is never really explained. It has to be assumed that his huge embezzlement of money from the dealership is about to be discovered by father-in-law. When all else falls through, plans he set in motion earlier for two men to kidnap his wife for ransom to be paid by her wealthy father (who doesn't seem to have the time of day for son-in-law). From the moment of the kidnapping, things go wrong and what was supposed to be a non-violent affair turns bloody with more blood added by the minute. Jerry is upset at the bloodshed, which turns loose a pregnant sheriff from Brainerd, MN who is tenacious in attempting to solve the three murders in her jurisdiction.

Plot Keywords: black comedy, neo noir, female nudity, dysfunctional family, original story, americana, double cross ...

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#2. Zodiac (2007)

Storyline: A serial killer in the San Francisco Bay Area taunts police with his letters and cryptic messages. We follow the investigators and reporters in this lightly fictionalized account of the true 1970's case as they search for the murderer, becoming obsessed with the case. Based on Robert Graysmith's book, the movie's focus is the lives and careers of the detectives and newspaper people.

Plot Keywords: serial killer, year 1970, year 1969, investigation, reporter, female stockinged feet, female stockinged legs ...

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#3. The Lady from Shanghai (1947)

Storyline: Michael O'Hara, against his better judgement, hires on as a crew member of Arthur Bannister's yacht, sailing to San Francisco. They pick up Grisby, Bannister's law partner, en route. Bannister has a wife, Elsa, who seems to like Michael much better than she likes her husband. After they dock in Sausalito, Michael goes along with Grisby's weird plan to fake his (Grisby's) murder so he can disappear untailed. He wants the $5000 Grisby has offered, so he can run off with Elsa. But Grisby turns up actually murdered, and Michael gets blamed for it. Somebody set him up, but it is not clear who or how. Bannister (the actual murderer?) defends Michael in court.

Plot Keywords: hall of mirrors, chinatown san francisco, crooked lawyer, cross examination, crutch, double cross, drug overdose ...

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#4. Body Heat (1981)

Storyline: Ned Racine is a seedy small town lawyer in Florida. During a searing heatwave he's picked up by married Matty Walker. A passionate affair commences but it isn't long before they realise the only thing standing in their way is Matty's rich husband Edmund. A plot hatches to kill him but will they pull it off?

Plot Keywords: femme fatale, fatal attraction, adulteress, man and woman in bed, plan gone wrong, scantily clad female, con ...

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#5. The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)

Storyline: Cosmo Vitelli owns the Crazy Horse West, a strip joint in Los Angeles. He's laconic, vet, and a gambler. When we meet him, he's making his last payment on a gambling debt, after which, he promptly loses $23,000 playing poker. The guys he owes this time aren't so friendly, pressuring him for immediate payment. When he's not able to do so, they suggest he kill a Chinese bookie to wipe away his debt. Vitelli and the film move back and forth between the double-crossing, murderous insincerity of the gamblers and the friendships, sweetness, and even love among Vitelli, the dancers, a dancer's mother, and the club's singer, Mr. Sophistication.—<jhailey@hotmail.com>

Plot Keywords: strip club, nightclub, female nudity, public nudity, nipples, female frontal nudity, stripper ...

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#6. Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)

Storyline: Martin Blank is a freelance hitman who starts to develop a conscience, which causes him to muff a couple of routine assignments. On the advice of his secretary and his psychiatrist, he attends his 10th year High School reunion in Grosse Pointe, Michigan (a Detroit suburb where he's also contracted to kill someone). Hot on his tail are a couple of over-enthusiastic federal agents, another assassin who wants to kill him, and Grocer, an assassin who wants him to join an "Assassin's Union."

Plot Keywords: cut hand, blood splatter, dancing, shot through a window, bar, depression, gasoline ...

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#7. To Live and Die in L.A. (1985)

Storyline: Working largely in cases of counterfeiting, LA based Secret Service agent Richie Chance exhibits reckless behavior which according to his longtime and now former partner Jimmy Hart will probably land him in the morgue before he's ready to retire. That need for the thrill manifests itself in his personal life by his love of base jumping. Professionally, it is demonstrated by the fact that he is sextorting a parolee named Ruth Lanier, who feeds him information in return for him not sending her back to prison for some trumped up parole violation. With his new partner John Vukovich, Chance is more determined than ever, based on recent circumstances, to nab known longtime counterfeiter Ric Masters, who is more than willing to use violence against and kill anyone who crosses him. Masters is well aware that the Secret Service is after him. Masters' operation is somewhat outwardly in disarray, with Chance being able to nab his mule, Carl Cody, in the course of moving some of the fake money, and one of his associates, a lawyer named Max Waxman, probably stealing money from him. Partly with information from Ruth, Chance is trying to find and exploit the weaknesses in Masters' operation. To accomplish his goal, Chance takes more and more unethical and illegal measures, which may be problematic for Vukovich, who comes from a family of police officers who are sworn to uphold the law.—Huggo

Plot Keywords: male full frontal nudity, pantyhose, los angeles california, hotel, bar, based on novel, surprise ending ...

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#8. The Limey (1999)

Storyline: An ex-con, fresh out of prison, goes to L.A. to try to learn who murdered his daughter. However, he quickly finds that he is completely out of place with no understanding of the culture he finds. His investigations are helped by another ex-con. Together they learn that his daughter had been having an affair with a record producer, who is presently having an affair with another young woman. An aging actress, who also knew his daughter, forces him to look at his own failures as a father. The movie does focus on the drama of the situation and the inter-relationships of the characters and seldom slips into an action piece.

Plot Keywords: revenge, friendship, friend, gay slur, gay, reference to god, grocery store ...

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#9. Red Rock West (1993)

Storyline: When a promised job for Texan Michael fails to materialise in Wyoming, Mike is mistaken by Wayne to be the hitman he hired to kill his unfaithful wife, Suzanne. Mike takes full advantage of the situation, collects the money and runs. During his getaway, things go wrong, and soon get worse when he runs into the real hitman, Lyle.

Plot Keywords: neo noir, surprise ending, freight train, black comedy, motel, small town, mistaken identity ...

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#10. Zero Effect (1998)

Storyline: Daryl Zero is a private investigator. Along with his assistant, Steve Arlo he solves impossible crimes and puzzles. Though a master investigator, when he is not working, Zero doesn't know what to do with himself. He has no social skills, writes bad music, and drives Arlo crazy. In his latest case, Zero must find out who is blackmailing a rich executive, and when his client won't tell him, why. The only problem with this case is Zero has done something he's never done before: got emotionally involved.

Plot Keywords: private detective, neo noir, whodunit, los angeles california, number in title, letter, loyalty ...

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#11. Fletch (1985)

Storyline: Irwin "Fletch" Fletcher, Los Angeles journalist, really lives for his profession. As Jane Doe, he publishes articles that have caused several heads to roll in the past. Now, Fletch is at it again: In disguise as a bum, he lives at the beach, researching drugs and their dealing. One day, Fletch is addressed by Alan Stanwyk, a rich man, who asks him, the bum, a favour. For the sum of $50,000, Fletch should kill poor cancer-ridden Mr. Stanwyk with a gun, so that his wife will get the insurance money. What the guy didn't think of was Fletch's real profession. Returning into normal life, Fletch instantly takes up research not only to find out that Mr. Stanwyk is healthy as life itself but he also runs into certain connections between drug dealing at the beach, Alan Stanwyk, his private jet, the police and a very expensive piece of Land in Utah.

Plot Keywords: dating, ranch, investigation, lapd, waiter, dream sequence, undercover ...

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#12. The Matador (2005)

Storyline: A chance encounter between a travelling salesman and a lonely hitman triggers a strangely profound relationship which provokes each to act in ways neither would have imagined possible. Fate steps in to form a friendship between two men from irreconcilable worlds that will alter the lives of both forever.

Plot Keywords: hitman, bisexual man, denver colorado, underwater scene, cell phone, school uniform, cigarette smoking ...

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#13. The Whole Nine Yards (2000)

Storyline: Montreal, Canada. A down-on-his luck dentist, "Oz" Oseransky (Matthew Perry), discovers that his new neighbor is Jimmy "The Tulip" Tudeski (Bruce Willis), former mob-contract-killer-turned-police-informant upon whose head the Hungarian mob has put a steep price. Egged on my his loathsome wife, Sophie (Rosanna Arquette), Oz sets off to Chicago to let the mob know where The Tulip is and hopefully claim part of the reward.

Plot Keywords: hitman, adultery, sex in bed, leg spreading, dentist, undercover cop, black humor ...

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#14. 2 Days in the Valley (1996)

Storyline: John Herzfeld deftly welds together a multitude of subplots-- a loser hitman and a cool assassin involved in an insurance scam; a washed-up director, turned suicidal, if only he had someone to care for his beloved dog; a snooty art dealer, wracked by kidney stones, cared for by his devoted assistant; a grungy deranged vice cop, now partnered with a fresh-faced rookie; and two beautiful and jealous women entangled in their deadly scheme--into a spoof of the crime thriller genre.

Plot Keywords: female frontal nudity, breasts, female removes her clothes, female nudity, scantily clad female, suicidal, black comedy ...

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#15. Throw Momma from the Train (1987)

Storyline: Larry Donner is an author and writing professor who tutors people that want to write books. Larry's life has become a misery when his ex-wife Margaret has published a book he wrote under her name and has gotten rich over it. Owen Lift, one of Larry's students, offers Larry to kill Margaret, and in return Owen, wants Larry to kill his horrible mother. Larry thinks it's a joke, until he learns Owen killed his ex-wife. And Larry has now become the prime suspect.

Plot Keywords: writing, directed by star, mother son relationship, domineering mother, resentment, black comedy, murder for hire ...

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