15 crime movies you shouldn’t miss in 2022

New crime movies shows you shouldn’t miss in 2022:

Ambulance

2021 saw Jake Gyllenhaal star in the modest and restrained Netflix thriller The Guilty. It was a remake of a (somewhat superior) Danish film of the same name. 2022 sees the Donnie Darko actor appear in another remake of a Danish flick, this time the less modest and restrained Ambulance. How do we know the levels of modesty and restraint likely to go into this heist thriller? Well, it’s directed by Armaggeddon and Transformers man Michael ‘Crash Bang Wallop’ Bay.

Killers of the Flower Moon

Martin Scorsese’s latest prestige project sees him teaming up not only with Leonardo DiCaprio again, but with Robert De Niro once more. The frequent co-collaborators have come together to make a western crime epic that addresses the real-life cover-up around the serial murders of multiple members of the oil-wealthy Oklahoma-based Osage Nation in the 1920s. Based on journalist David Grann’s non-fiction book of the same name.

Knives Out 2

The tongue-in-cheek whodunit Knives Out was a surprise hit with critics and audiences alike back in 2019. A sequel was immediately mooted and 2022 will see its release. Daniel Craig returns as the idiosyncratic detective Benoit Blanc, with another ensemble cast lined up.

This time Edward Norton, Dave Bautista, Kathryn Hahn, Janelle Monáe, Leslie Odom Jr, Kate Hudson and Ethan Hawke pitch in. Netflix paid a staggering $469m for the rights to this and one more sequel, with Craig said to be on $100m for both films – so expect a big push from the streaming giant when the film’s release date looms.

Death on the Nile

Kenneth Branagh’s second appearance as the Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot has been in the can for two years but finally sees cinemas in February. 2017’s Murder on the Orient Express, while not incredible, was pretty enough and a fine way to spend two hours. Its follow-up trades a train for a boat, with Poirot aboard the SS Karnak where – wouldn’t you know it – someone’s offed. Gal Gadot, Letitia Wright, Annette Bening, Armie Hammer, Russell Brand, Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders form the majority of the line-up of suspects.

The Gray Man

Netflix’s huge spending continued as they signed off a £200m cheque for Avengers: End Game directors Joseph and Anthony Russo to make an epic crime/spy action thriller extravaganza that sees a couple of A-listers facing off. Ryan Gosling is a CIA operative who’s betrayed by the Agency and forced to go rogue. Chris Evans, a former colleague and pal, is sent to track him down and take him out. Rising starlet Ana de Armas continues her ascent to superstardom in a supporting role.

Bullet Train

Japanese writer Kōtarō Isaka’s book has been adapted into a crime thriller starring a whole host of famous faces including Brad Pitt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, Zazie Beetz, Michael Shannon, Logan Lerman, Bad Bunny and Sandra Bullock. The general gist sees a bunch of highly capable assassins all trying to kill each other and stay alive aboard a high-speed train. It’s currently scheduled for release in July.

See How They Run

An intriguing cast of Saoirse Ronan, Sam Rockwell, David Oyelowo, Ruth Wilson, Adrien Brody, Shirley Henderson and Reece Shearsmith combine to bring this throwback piece to picture-houses across the world in 2022.

The setting is the hugely evocative West End of London in the 1950s. A murder in Theatreland turns into a baffling whodunit for Rockwell and Ronan’s ‘Old Bill’ characters. With Knives Out 2 and this on the cards, it’s going to be a bumper year for funny throwback murder mysteries.

Wash Me in the River

Robert De Niro, Jack Huston and John Malkovich star in what’s unlikely to be a huge release, but could be pulpy genre fun. A fairly straightforward revenge flick, Huston stars a ex-Oxy addict who’s out for vengeance (with a nail gun) on the drug dealers responsible for selling the drugs that killed his fiancée. De Niro is – we’re guessing – the sympathetic sheriff on his trail. US rapper and trap star Quavo plays the head honcho drug boss who may or may not be getting a nail in his skull at the end.

Deep Water

Keen to avoid a pricey divorce, rich husband Ben Affleck ignores – even encourages – his wife’s infidelity. But when the men she sees start to die in mysterious circumstances, he (understandably) becomes the prime suspect. Based on the 1957 novel by crime-writing genius Patricia Highsmith, Deep Water co-stars Ana de Armas as Affleck’s wife.

Havoc

Netflix really does look to be having a huge year, with yet another of 2022’s major crime/action movies – Gareth Evans’ Havoc – coming from then. The Welsh director of The Raid is a set piece specialist and as such, we’ve incredibly high hopes for the action scenes here.

Tom Hardy plays the no-nonsense detective fighting through a criminal underworld to save a politician’s son from some Very Bad Men. Forest Whitaker, Timothy Olyphant, Justin Cornwell, Jessie Mei Li and Luis Guzmán round out the cast. Havoc by name, havoc – we’re certain – by nature.

Reptile

Big-time music video director Grant Singer takes time off from shooting mini films for the likes of The Weeknd, Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande to helm his first feature film, a crime thriller featuring an oddly late-90s cast. Benicio del Toro, Justin Timberlake, Alicia Silverstone, Frances Fisher and Eric Bogosian star. The plot sees a New England cop, Det. Nicols, investigating the murder of a real estate agent. Unsurprisingly, it’ll be coming out on Netflix.

The Good Nurse

We’re used to seeing Eddie Redmayne play nice guys. So next year’s The Good Nurse should prove interesting. The Academy Award winner takes on the role of Charles Cullen, a real-life nurse who was arrested in 2003 for the murders of multiple people in his care. He was later convicted of 29 killings, but is thought to be responsible for anywhere up to 400. Coming to, you guessed it, Netflix.

Sniff

Here’s an interesting one. Set in a wealthy retirement community, retired detectives Morgan Freeman and Danny DeVito investigate a surprising criminal underbelly at play. Al Pacino and Helen Mirren play the villain and femme fatale in this oddity that could well do for the nod-and-a-wink film noir what Knives Out did for the nod-and-a-wink whodunit. Mirren’s husband Taylor Hackford (Ray, An Officer and a Gentleman) directs.

Windfall

If Sniff doesn’t reignite noir to a modern audience, perhaps Windfall might. Yet another release that Netflix paid millions for, it stars Lily Collins and Jason Segal, with Jesse Plemons backing them up. There’s said to be a Hitchcockian feel to the thing. We’ll see.

Where the Crawdads Sing

Delia Owens’ Louisiana-set novel of 2018 has been adapted for the big screen by producer Reese Witherspoon and director Olivia Newman, with a June release date lined up. Normal People‘s Daisy Edgar-Jones and Sharp Objects‘ Taylor John Smith head up the cast of this coming of age mystery drama that a lot of literary fans are going to be really quite excited about.

Excited by next year’s new crime movies? Which 2022 crime films have caught your eye? Let us know in the comments section below…