White Chicks (2004)

"White Chicks" (2004) follows the hilariously misguided attempts of two FBI agent brothers, Marcus and Kevin Copeland, to redeem themselves after botching a drug bust. As a bizarre form of penance, they are tasked with protecting a pair of wealthy socialites, the Wilson sisters, who are slated to be used as bait in a kidnapping plot. When the real women refuse to participate in the risky scheme, Marcus and Kevin find themselves in a bind. Their desperate solution? To undergo a radical transformation, donning whiteface and elaborate prosthetics to impersonate the very sisters they were supposed to be protecting, thus embarking on a chaotic undercover mission in the affluent Hamptons. While "White Chicks" is primarily celebrated as a comedy, its inclusion on a "Best Crime Movies" list, though unconventional, can be justified by its unique approach to the genre. The film centers on an FBI operation, albeit one executed through an absurd guise. The core plot revolves around a criminal threat (the kidnapper) and the FBI's efforts to thwart it, employing investigative techniques and intelligence gathering, albeit with a wildly improbable twist. The brothers' infiltration into the socialite world, while comedic, serves as their operative method to gather information and ultimately neutralize the criminal threat. It’s a crime film in its thematic skeleton, satirizing and subverting the typical tropes of the genre through its outrageous premise and execution.