HPG Networks’ Top 10 Movies Based In NYC

Taking Of Pelham 123

The taking of Pelham 123 is a rare film that really authentically captures the timelessness of the culture in NYC.

Armed men hijack a New York City subway train, holding the passengers hostage in return for a ransom, and turning an ordinary day's work for dispatcher Walter Garber into a face-off with the mastermind behind the crime. The 2009 film stars John Travolta, Denzel Washington as Garber, and James Gandolfini as the mayor of NYC.

Uncut Gems

A charismatic jeweler makes a high-stakes bet that could lead to the windfall of a lifetime. In a precarious high-wire act, he must balance business, family and adversaries on all sides in pursuit of the ultimate win.

Uncut gems is a rollercoaster ride of a movie. The film starts with the jarring discovery of an rare black opal in an Ethiopian mine. The opal makes it’s way to an NYC jewelry dealer.

Riddled with debt, Howard consistently leverages deals and gambling debts over and over again in an attempt to dig himself out of a world in which he is constantly harassed by loan sharks and debt collectors.

wolf of Wall Street

In 1987, Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) takes an entry-level job at a Wall Street brokerage firm. By the early 1990s, while still in his 20s, Belfort founds his own firm, Stratton Oakmont. Together with his trusted lieutenant (Jonah Hill) and a merry band of brokers, Belfort makes a huge fortune by defrauding wealthy investors out of millions. However, while Belfort and his cronies partake in a hedonistic brew of sex, drugs and thrills, the SEC and the FBI close in on his empire of excess.

goodfellas

A young man grows up in the mob and works very hard to advance himself through the ranks. He enjoys his life of money and luxury, but is oblivious to the horror that he causes. A drug addiction and a few mistakes ultimately unravel his climb to the top. Based on the book "Wiseguy" by Nicholas Pileggi.

The film is possibly one of Martin Scorsese's best films. Led by the electric performances of Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta and Joe Pesci, this violent tale of crime, greed and loyalty hits you like a freight train.

gatsby

Midwest native Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) arrives in 1922 New York in search of the American dream. Nick, a would-be writer, moves in next-door to millionaire Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio) and across the bay from his cousin Daisy (Carey Mulligan) and her philandering husband, Tom (Joel Edgerton). Thus, Nick becomes drawn into the captivating world of the wealthy and -- as he bears witness to their illusions and deceits -- pens a tale of impossible love, dreams, and tragedy.

Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, near New York City, the novel depicts first-person narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and Gatsby's obsession to reunite with his former lover, Daisy Buchanan. Based on the world renowned novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the story and film perfectly captures the dilemma capitalism puts aspiring entrepreneurs in. The entire story surrounds a hustler using the wealth acquired from a questionable income stream to chase after a girl who was his former lover.

american psycho

In New York City in 1987, a handsome, young urban professional, Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale), lives a second life as a gruesome serial killer by night. The cast is filled by the detective (Willem Dafoe), the fiance (Reese Witherspoon), the mistress (Samantha Mathis), the coworker (Jared Leto), and the secretary (Chloë Sevigny). This is a biting, wry comedy examining the elements that make a man a monster.

The movie takes all the stereotypes about businessmen and mocks them in a sophisticated manner. The overt attachment to unimportant details, like business cards. The obsession with always having the most expensive things (Bateman remarks that Allen's flat overlooks the park and is surely more expensive than his).

gangs of new York

Amsterdam Vallon (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a young Irish immigrant released from prison. He returns to the Five Points seeking revenge against his father's killer, William Cutting (Daniel Day-Lewis), a powerful anti-immigrant gang leader. He knows that revenge can only be attained by infiltrating Cutting's inner circle. Amsterdam's journey becomes a fight for personal survival and to find a place for the Irish people in 1860's New York.

The film does an incredibly good job of captivating life in the Five Points, an NYC neighborhood famous for its notoriety and intense crime rates. The neighborhood was controlled by a variety of different street gangs.

Five Points (or The Five Points) was a 19th-century neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The neighborhood, partly built on land that had filled in the freshwater lake known as the Collect Pond. The Five Points gained international notoriety as a densely populated, disease-ridden, crime-infested slum that existed for over 70 years.

the godfather

The Godfather is a 1972 American crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who co-wrote the screenplay with Mario Puzo, based on Puzo's best-selling 1969 novel of the same title. The film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Richard Castellano, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard Conte, and Diane Keaton. It is the first installment in The Godfather trilogy, chronicling the Corleone family under patriarch Vito Corleone (Brando) from 1945 to 1955. It focuses on the transformation of his youngest son, Michael Corleone (Pacino), from reluctant family outsider to ruthless mafia boss.

American Hustle

Set in the decaying 1970’s tristate area, American Hustle captures the feel of getting by in a completely different time where NYC was on the verge of bankruptcy and businesses and people had to do all they could to stay above water.

American Hustle is a 2013 American black comedy crime film directed by David O. Russell. It was written by Eric Warren Singer and Russell, inspired by the FBI Abscam operation of the late 1970s and early '80s. It stars Christian Bale and Amy Adams as two con artists who are forced by an FBI agent (Bradley Cooper) to set up an elaborate sting operation on corrupt politicians, including the mayor of Camden, New Jersey (Jeremy Renner). Jennifer Lawrence plays the unpredictable wife of Bale's character.

taxi driver

Suffering from insomnia, disturbed loner Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) takes a job as a New York City cabbie, haunting the streets nightly, growing increasingly detached from reality as he dreams of cleaning up the filthy city. When Travis meets pretty campaign worker Betsy (Cybill Shepherd), he becomes obsessed with the idea of saving the world, first plotting to assassinate a presidential candidate, then directing his attentions toward rescuing 12-year-old prostitute Iris (Jodie Foster).