On March 3, 2023, the world lost actor Tom Sizemore at the age of 61, after he was found unconscious due to a brain aneurysm and soon rushed to a Los Angeles hospital. Fans and former colleagues would show an outpouring of support on social media for the Golden Globe nominee after it was reported that his condition was not expected to improve.
In his last few years, the talented character actor’s career was heavily overshadowed by his struggles with substance abuse and other legal troubles, but I think I speak for many when I say that I had hoped we would see the star of Saving Private Ryan, Heat, and other classic ‘90s movies make a comeback at some point. Instead, all we can do now is honor his memory, and we are doing so here by revisiting the best Tom Sizemore movies now available on streaming, as a digital rental, or for purchase on physical media.
Passenger 57 (1992)
An undercover airport security operative (Wesley Snipes) becomes the only hope for the crew and passengers on a commercial jet hijacked by a notorious terrorist group.
Why it is one of the best Tom Sizemore movies: Sizemore plays Sly Develcchio — an old friend of the hero, John Cutter, whom he offers a position in his antiterrorist outfit — in one of Snipes’ best movies, the ‘90s action favorite, Passenger 57, which has often been referred to as “Die Hard on a plane.”
Rent/buy Passenger 57 digitally on Amazon.
Buy Passenger 57 on Blu-ray on Amazon.
True Romance (1993)
After falling in love and getting married on a whim in Detroit, a lonely Elvis Presley fan (Christian Slater) and an amateur sex worker (Academy Award winner Patricia Arquette) become targeted by mobsters after accidentally intercepting a drug shipment that they then try to sell off in Hollywood.
Why it is one of the best Tom Sizemore movies: Sizemore gives one of his most memorable performances as Detective Cody Nicholson — a cop trying to track down the cocaine that the romantic leads are attempting to steal — in True Romance, which is one of the late director Tony Scott’s best films and comes from a screenplay by Quentin Tarantino.
Stream True Romance on Pluto TV.
Rent/buy True Romance digitally on Amazon.
Buy True Romance on Blu-ray on Amazon.
Natural Born Killers (1994)
An emotionally traumatized man (Academy Award nominee Woody Harrelson) and woman (Academy Award nominee Juliette Lewis) find love with each other and fame from the bloody trail they leave behind them as traveling serial murderers.
Why it is one of the best Tom Sizemore movies: Another film that came from the mind of Tarantino, director Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers — also one of Harrelson’s best movies — is a boldly brutal and surreal jab at America’s violent obsessions, in which Sizemore goes completely unplugged as another cop, Detective Jack Scagnetti, who's trying to track down the film’s deadly romantic leads.
Rent/buy Natural Born Killers digitally on Amazon.
Buy Natural Born Killers on Blu-ray on Amazon.
Heat (1995)
An expert-level thief (Academy Award winner Robert De Niro) and his crew feel their successful criminal empire is beginning to collapse right from underneath them after a clue accidentally left at the scene of their most recent job puts a veteran police lieutenant (Academy Award winner Al Pacino) hot on their trail.
Why it is one of the best Tom Sizemore movies: Speaking of going unplugged, Sizemore is dynamite as Michael Cheritto — a criminal addicted to the violent nature of his chosen career — in one of the most ingenious and exciting heist movie classics (that was once called the best by a real-life thief), writer and director Michael Mann’s Heat.
Stream Heat on Hulu.
Rent/buy Heat digitally on Amazon.
Buy Heat on Blu-ray on Amazon.
Wyatt Earp (1994)
The story of how a tragedy-ridden gunfighter (Yellowstone cast member Kevin Costner) became one of the most iconic figures in the history of the Old West.
Why it is one of the best Tom Sizemore movies: One of two movies from early ‘90s inspired by the infamous events at the O.K. Corral (see 1993’s Tombstone), co-writer and director Lawrence Kasdan’s epic historical western, Wyatt Earp, also stars Sizemore as Bartholomew “Bat” Masterson, who is hired by Earp, along with his brother, Ed (Bill Pullman), to hunt buffalo.
Rent/buy Wyatt Earp digitally on Amazon.
Buy Wyatt Earp on Blu-ray on Amazon.
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
An American military captain (Academy Award winner Tom Hanks) and his modestly-sized crew risk their lives by stepping into enemy territory in order to find a young soldier whose brother recently died in action, so they can send him home.
Why it is one of the best Tom Sizemore movies: Sizemore gives one of his finest performances as Captain Miller’s second-in-command, Sgt. Michael Horvath, in the Saving Private Ryan cast for one of Steven Spielberg’s best movies and the one that earned the filmmaker his second Best Director Oscar.
Stream Saving Private Ryan on Paramount+.
Rent/buy Saving Private Ryan digitally on Amazon.
Buy Saving Private Ryan on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon.
Black Hawk Down (2002)
An American military staff sergeant (Josh Hartnett) and his crew risk their lives to rescue 160 Army Rangers who are left stranded in Somalia after a devastating dual-helicopter crash.
Why it is one of the best Tom Sizemore movies: Another highly realistic war movie starring Sizemore (this time as Lt. Col. Danny McKnight) is Black Hawk Down — an immersive, shocking account of a real incident from 1993, from director Ridley Scott.
Stream Black Hawk Down on HBO Max.
Rent/buy Black Hawk Down digitally on Amazon.
Buy Black Hawk Down on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon.
Strange Days (1995)
In a future Los Angeles ravaged by a violent race war, a former cop (Ralph Fiennes) who now sells illegal recordings of other people’s memories uncovers a bizarre and shocking conspiracy.
Why it is one of the best Tom Sizemore movies: In his second collaboration with Natural Born Killers’ Juliette Lewis, Sizemore goes bad once again as private investigator Max Peltier, the main antagonist of Strange Days — an underrated dystopian crime thriller from director Kathryn Bigelow which was co-written by James Cameron.
Stream Strange Days on HBO Max.
Buy Strange Days on Blu-ray on Amazon.
Devil In A Blue Dress (1994)
In post World War II-era Los Angeles, a Black war veteran (Academy Award winner Denzel Washington) becomes embroiled in a deadly political conspiracy while investigating the disappearance of a wealthy mayoral candidate’s mistress (Jennifer Beals).
Why it is one of the best Tom Sizemore movies: Based on the novel by Walter Mosley, which also marked the debut appearance of his detective hero Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins, Devil in a Blue Dress is a stirring slice of film noir in which Sizemore stars as Dewitt Albright — the man who hires Easy for the case.
Stream Devil In A Blue Dress on Amazon Prime.
Buy Devil In A Blue Dress on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon.
The Relic (1997)
An evolutionary biologist (Penelope Ann Miller) and a police lieutenant (Sizemore) discover that a series of strange, brutal murders are linked to a horrific creature unearthed from a tribal artifact on display in a Chicago museum.
Why it is one of the best Tom Sizemore movies: The actor would appear in many horror films over the last few years of his career, but his best is probably The Relic — a fun, underrated creature feature from director Peter Hyams that's based on the novel by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.
Stream The Relic on Amazon Prime.
Buy The Relic on DVD on Amazon.
Bringing Out The Dead (1999)
A veteran paramedic (Academy Award winner Nicolas Cage) begins to reach the end of his rope while suffering from visions of the people he could not save over the course of three increasingly erratic nights on the job.
Why it is one of the best Tom Sizemore movies: In some ways, you could count director Martin Scorsese and writer Paul Schrader’s adaptation of Joe Connelly’s novel, Bringing Out the Dead — in which Sizemore plays Tom Wolls, one of the paramedics partnered with Cage’s unhinged central character, Frank Pierce — as a horror movie for its bizarre aesthetic and “ghostly” themes.
Stream Bringing Out The Dead on Paramount+.
Rent/buy Bringing Out The Dead digitally on Amazon.
Buy Bringing Out The Dead on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon.
Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down The White House (2017)
Using the code name “Deep Throat,” the Associate Director for the FBI (Academy Award nominee Liam Neeson) assists two Washington Post reporters in their investigation of the Watergate scandal.
Why it is one of the best Tom Sizemore movies: An account of the events surrounding one of the United States’ most infamous political scandals from the perspective of its mysterious whistle blower, Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House stars Sizemore as Bill Sullivan — an FBI agent with whom Felt shares a rivalrous rapport.
Rent/buy Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down The White House digitally on Amazon.
Buy Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down The White House on DVD on Amazon.
BONUS: Point Break And Enemy Of The State
One of Sizemore’s first collaborations with Strange Days director Kathryn Bigelow was in 1991’s Point Break and, also, he later reunited with True Romance helmer Tony Scott for 1998’s Enemy of the State.
Why they are some of the best Tom Sizemore movies: While Sizemore’s roles as undercover DEA agent Deets in Point Break and as mob boss Paulie Pintero in Enemy of the State are relatively small (the latter leaving him uncredited), his larger-than-life performances were memorable highlights from each movie and from his career overall.
Rent/buy Point Break digitally on Amazon.
Buy Point Break on Blu-ray on Amazon.
Stream Enemy Of The State on Hulu.
Rent/buy Enemy Of The State digitally on Amazon.
Buy Enemy Of The State on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon.
Check out these great Tom Sizemore movies to keep the memory of the actor’s talent alive.
