Best movies like Illegal Tender
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
After the gangsters who killed his father come to settle a score, a teenage boy and his mother turn the tables on the killers - one Latino family's quest for honor and revenge as the hunted become the hunters.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: exciting, tense, captivating, psychological, suspense, crime drama, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Best tv shows and movies like Illegal Tender (2007):
Similar in 86%
Journey to the End of the Night (2006)
Plot Summary:
In a dark and decadent area of São Paulo, the exiled Americans Sinatra and his son Paul own a brothel. Paul is a compulsive gambler addicted in cocaine and his father is married with the former prostitute Angie, and they have a little son. When a client is killed by his wife in their establishment, they find a suitcase with drugs.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA, Germany, Brazil
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, suspenseful, stylized, hispanic, realistic, surprise ending, independent film
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Similar in 88%
Fighting Back (1982)
Plot Summary:
It's a hard crime story about a Philadelphia shop owner who has enough of the criminals' violences and ravages. He organizes a patrol of civil people. It all starts to go wrong because his team's actions are taken as racial discrimination.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 701
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: psychological, exciting, tense, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 82%
The Poker Club (2008)
Plot Summary:
Four friends discover and accidentally kill a burglar -- who may not be alone -- in the kitchen during their weekly poker night.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 427
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: suspense, psychological, tense, captivating, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, surprise ending
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Similar in 84%
Lila & Eve (2015)
Plot Summary:
Lila, a grief-stricken mother reeling from her son’s murder, attends a support group where she meets Eve, who urges her to take matters into her own hands to track down her son’s killers.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: suspense, tense, serious, exciting, captivating, crime drama, rough, realistic, suspenseful, independent film
Similar in 89%
The Butcher's Son (2009)
Plot Summary:
A cop works against his country's corrupt government in order to find justice on a case.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 837
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Dominican Republic
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, suspenseful, rough, crime drama, exciting, realistic
Similar in 76%
Good Day for It (2011)
Plot Summary:
A man forced to abandon his wife and daughter years earlier must risk his life to settle an old score and reunite his family.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 796
Genere: Crime, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, psychological, suspense, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, interesting
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Similar in 75%
Wrong Turn at Tahoe (2009)
Plot Summary:
A debt collector for the mob (Academy Award(R)-winner Cuba Gooding, Jr.) finds his fate taking a series of treacherous turns after his powerful boss and mentor (Miguel Ferrer) is caught in a dangerous double cross with the most dangerous drug dealer around (Academy Award(R)-nominee Harvey Keitel) in this crime thriller from writer/director Franck Khalfoun.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: rough, realistic, suspenseful, serious, exciting
Similar in 79%
Rockaway (2007)
Plot Summary:
Trane is a decorated war hero just shipped home to the States from Afghanistan after the brutal murder of his wife and child back in Rockaway, Queens. Upon his return, Trane encounters his old friend Dave, who describes the new forces of crime and prostitution that have moved into their neighborhood and caused the destruction of his family.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 428
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 78 min
Plot tags: rough, realistic, suspenseful, tense, serious, crime drama
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Similar in 78%
Ready 2 Die (2014)
Plot Summary:
After a violent bank robbery, the trio of hoods make their way across East L.A. carrying a blood-soaked bag of money. When word gets out, they must fend off gangs and crooked cops alike as they strive to keep the loot and stay alive.
IMDB Rating: 4.1
IMDB Votes: 851
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, suspenseful, exciting, realistic, crime drama, independent film
Similar in 84%
In the Shadows (2001)
Plot Summary:
When a stunt man dies in Miami, his uncle, a New York mob boss, sends a hit man to tail the stunt coordinator, whom the boss wants dead. The hit man, Eric O'Bryne, gets close to his mark's daughter, and through her he asks her dad to teach him to do stunts. While waiting for the word to kill this mentor, Eric discovers the joy of stunt work and of being part of a family. Meanwhile, several people are looking for the dead man's briefcase of money and a cloth bag of illegal drugs that he stole from an undercover FBI agent now desperate to get the borrowed drugs back to the bureau. The stunt coordinator says that 'we dance in the shadows of death.' Can Eric step out into the sun?.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 991
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, realistic, suspenseful, independent film
Similar in 76%
Zero Tolerance (1994)
Plot Summary:
After surviving a sneak attack on himself and fellow agents Jimmy and Gene as they were transporting drug kingpin Raymond Manta out of a Mexican jail, FBI agent Jeff Douglas becomes an uwitting pawn of the White Hand drug cartel. Mistakenly told that his already murdered family is being held hostage, Jeff is forced to turn one-time courier for the White Hand, whose leaders are Manta and four others named Helmut Vitch, Milt Kowalski, Russ LaFleur, and Hansel Lee. After surviving a car-bombing in Las Vegas, Jeff learns the truth about his family being murdered, and he sets out to exterminate the White Hand cartel. Unofficially aided by an agent named Megan, whose mother was raped and murdered years ago, Jeff steals FBI files and begins his campaign of revenge on the White Hand cartel.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 655
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: suspense, independent film, exciting, tense, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, stylized, fast
Similar in 89%
Never Die Alone (2004)
Plot Summary:
A drug kingpin's return home touches off a turf war.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: hood, tense, rough, serious, suspenseful, neo noir, crime drama, realistic, surprise ending, ambiguous ending
Similar in 88%
The Last Hit Man (2008)
Plot Summary:
Ageing hit man, Harry, has just botched a job and is now the target. His daughter is also in the assassin trade and is now a target too. A young hit man called Billy is sent to take Harry out but they form an uneasy alliance.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 854
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Canada
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: captivating, suspense, exciting, tense, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 83%
Marseille (2014)
Plot Summary:
Alex, the son of a gang boss from Marseilles, joins the French Foreign Legion to avoid a hit put out on him by the Corsican Mafia. Four years later, Alex deserts and returns to Marseilles to get back together with Katia, his former girlfriend. But in the city, relationships have changed.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 315
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: France
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: captivating, psychological, tense, suspense, rough, serious, emotional, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 75%
The Prodigy (2005)
Plot Summary:
"The Prodigy" tells the story of small-time enforcer Truman Fisher's vicious conflict with a sadistic assassin who has chosen the unwilling Truman to be his successor. The assassin, who goes by the alias Rains and whose exploits have become the source of legend among Truman's underworld colleagues, drives Truman, through the pressure of constant violence and grief, to understand his own capacity for both bloodshed and compassion. Ultimately this reveals to Truman that he as with all of us, must find our place in this world or as Rains would say "our place in this grand design." This action begins quickly as Truman meets with a turncoat from a rival gang. This tense showdown erupts quickly into mayhem, when Rains makes his unexpected entrance. In the wake of the ensuing bloodbath, Truman is forced to reevaluate his own role in the small, violent world he inhabits, suddenly aware that there are larger powers at work which he does not understand.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 921
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: exciting, rough, suspenseful, suspense, independent film, serious, realistic, surprise ending
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Similar in 75%
Across the Line: The Exodus of Charlie Wright (2010)
Plot Summary:
The story centers on Charlie, a Los Angeles billionaire financial whiz who goes into self-imposed exile in Tijuana after his empire is revealed to have been a Ponzi scheme. While looking for the woman he abandoned there 25 years before, Charlie is pursued by a Mexican gangster, a federal agent and thugs sent by a former client looking to retrieve his money.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, captivating, tense, crime drama, rough, realistic, suspenseful, independent film
Similar in 88%
Badge 373 (1973)
Plot Summary:
When his partner is killed, tough Irish detective Eddie Ryan (Robert Duvall) vows to avenge the death, whatever the cost. As he begins unraveling clues, his behavior becomes so outrageous that he's obliged to turn in his badge, but the experience only emboldens him. Ryan eventually learns that his partner was caught up in a Puerto Rican gun-running scheme masterminded by a crook named Sweet Willie (Henry Darrow), who wants to foment revolutionary war.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 884
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: grim, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, weird
Similar in 88%
The Ministers (2009)
Plot Summary:
A NYPD detective attempts to avenge the death of her father, but unwittingly becomes involved with one of his killers.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, captivating, psychological, suspense, rough, realistic, suspenseful, independent film, detective
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Similar in 85%
Kiss of Death (1995)
Plot Summary:
Jimmy Kilmartin is an ex-con living in Astoria in the New York City borough of Queens, trying to stay clean and raising a family with his wife Bev. But when his cousin Ronnie causes him to take a fall for driving an illegal transport of stolen cars, a police officer named Calvin Hart is injured and Jimmy lands back in prison. In exchange for an early release, he is asked to help bring down a local crime boss named Little Junior Brown. Jimmy remarries and attempts to renew a relationship with his child. But he is sent undercover by Detective Hart to work with Junior and infiltrate his operations. As soon as Little Junior kills an undercover federal agent with Jimmy watching, the unscrupulous district attorney and the feds further complicate his life. He must take down Junior or face the consequences.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 20000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: neo noir, suspense, surreal, intense, rough, suspenseful, tense, serious, brutal, hood
Similar in 86%
Monument Ave. (1998)
Plot Summary:
Bobby O'Grady a low level member of a Boston Irish gang run by Jackie O'Hara. Jackie demands absolute, total loyalty to him. When Jackie kills one of Bobby's buddies, Teddy, Bobby and others have to keep it an absolute secret, even from their and Teddy's relatives.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, suspenseful, tense, serious, independent film, neo noir, cult classic, rough, bleak, realistic
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Similar in 80%
The Outfit (1973)
Plot Summary:
A two-bit criminal takes on the Mafia to avenge his brother's death. Earl Macklin is a small time criminal who is released from prison after an unsuccessful bank robbery only to discover that a pair of gunmen killed his brother.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: neo noir, serious, realistic, exciting, suspense, retro, grindhouse, hood, cult classic, crime thriller
Similar in 90%
The Gunman (2004)
Plot Summary:
When Detective Ben Simm's wife is killed, he has to learn to be both father and mother to his little girl while searching for a Vigilante that has his own sense of justice.
IMDB Rating: 4.5
IMDB Votes: 465
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: disturbing, tense, serious, suspenseful, independent film, bleak, realistic
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Similar in 86%
Empire (2002)
Plot Summary:
A big time drug dealer Victor Rosa is looking to get out of the game and sees his chance with a big deal with a new friend who happens to be a Wall St. stockbroker. Thinking this will be his chance to go out on top Victor soon finds out that he has been double crossed and his last option is to get revenge.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: intense, suspense, melancholic, stylized, rough, serious, suspenseful, hood, tense, realistic
Similar in 84%
Carlito's Way: Rise to Power (2005)
Plot Summary:
Jay Hernandez (Friday Night Lights), Mario Van Peebles (Ali), Luis Guzmán (Carlito's Way) and Sean Combs (Monster's Ball) star in the gripping tale of the early years of gangster legend Carlito Brigante. Seduced by the power of the brutal New York underworld, he enters a deadly circle of greed and retribution. Assisted by his two brothers-in-crime, Carlito is on the fast track to becoming Spanish Harlem's ultimate kingpin. He quickly learns, however, that the only way to survive at the top is through loyalty to his friends and respect for the rules of the street. (FILMAFFINITY).
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, stylized, hood, crime drama, action packed, surprise ending
Similar in 87%
Bonded by Blood (2010)
Plot Summary:
In 1995, drug suppliers and career criminals Tony Tucker, Patrick Tate and Craig Rolfe were blasted to death by a shot gun whilst waiting in a Range Rover in Rettendon, Essex. The film charts their rise to become the most prolific dealers and feared criminals in the south of England, maintaining the hold on their empire with fear and violence until their untimely death.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: tense, rough, serious, suspenseful, realistic
Similar in 77%
Easy Money III: Life Deluxe (2013)
Plot Summary:
JW now lives in exile and is more than ever determined to find out what happened to his missing sister Camilla. Every trace leads him to the world of organized crime in Stockholm. Jorge is about to do his last score - the largest robbery in Swedish history. But during the complicated preparations he meets a woman from his past - Nadja. Martin Hägerström is chosen to go undercover into the Serbian mafia, in order to get its notorious boss Radovan Krajnic behind bars. When an assassination attempt is made on Radovan, his daughter Natalie is pulled into the power struggle within the Serbian mafia.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Sweden
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, rough, realistic, suspenseful, captivating, suspense, non-linear
Similar in 88%
Hell's Kitchen (1998)
Plot Summary:
When a robbery goes awry, the bandits all end up in a puddle of blood and only one lives and goes to jail for five years. Upon his release, the girlfriend wants her new boyfriend to kill him. Only trouble is the boyfriend knows that the fault was not the ex-con's and can't bring himself to do the task. Meanwhile, the ex-con tries to turn his life around by becoming a boxer and training under a former heavyweight contender.
IMDB Rating: 4.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, suspenseful, tense, suspense, disturbing, independent film, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 83%
Primordial (2015)
Plot Summary:
Valerie Graves, a misanthropic, disillusioned woman in her mid-twenties, is haunted by sadistic urges that she has struggled to repress since childhood.
IMDB Rating: 4.2
IMDB Votes: 128
Genere: Comedy, Crime, Drama, Horror, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: gothic, psychological, tense, suspense, independent film, neo noir, black comedy, dark comedy
Similar in 87%
Caught in the Crossfire (2010)
Plot Summary:
Two detectives investigating a gang-related find themselves targeted by both gang members and crooked cops.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, exciting, serious, hood, tense, captivating, rough, realistic, independent film, non-linear
Similar in 86%
Mobsters (1991)
Plot Summary:
The story of a group of friends in turn of the century New York, from their early days as street hoods to their rise in the world of organized crime.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: suspense, talky, intense, realistic, suspenseful, rough, serious, stylized, hood, exciting