Best movies like A Life Not to Follow
Last updated March 2024
Looking for movies like A Life Not to Follow? Provide your familiarity to lead others to tv series and movies you've watched already that may also enthral them. Help expand the group of people raising videos amongst one another. We welcome your participation!
Plot Summary:
A Neo-Noir film told in three interlacing chapters: Eric is a dead man and he knows it. Death is imminent and he must make amends for his past sins, by killing those who wronged him, no matter the price: A wiseguy willing to do anything to move up in the world must now make the ultimate sacrifice. He must kill his best friend or in turn be killed: An F.B.I.agent turned P.I. is on the trail of a missing girl. In his long search for her he comes face to face with a host of unsavory characters who will lead him to perdition or salvation.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 318
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: neo noir, dark, suspense, tense, captivating, suspenseful, independent film, detective, cult film
Best tv shows and movies like A Life Not to Follow (2015):
Similar in 89%
Killing Jesus (2017)
Plot Summary:
Paula, a young art student, witnesses the assassination of her father, a university professor. Frustrated by the local police she starts to investigate the murder herself. Driven by anger, frustration and sorrow, she commits fearless acts that put her and her family at risk.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Colombia, Argentina
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, suspense, suspenseful, disturbing, thought provoking
Similar in 75%
Criminal Activities (2015)
Plot Summary:
Four young men make a risky investment together that puts them in trouble with the mob.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: tense, humorous, captivating, suspense, entertaining, suspenseful, neo noir
Similar in 77%
Thalaivaa (2013)
Plot Summary:
A mafia don sends his son out of the country because he doesn't want even a shadow of his life falling on him. Destiny wills otherwise. The son makes an innocuous trip to Mumbai to visit his dad. And ends up filling his father's large shoes.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: India
Duration: 179 min
Plot tags: exciting, tense, unusual plot structure, captivating, suspense, suspenseful
Similar in 83%
By the Gun (2014)
Plot Summary:
A rising Boston gangster (Ben Barnes) endangers those around him when he starts to make moves without the knowledge of his boss (Harvey Keitel).
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, interesting
Similar in 86%
The Jingoist (2020)
Plot Summary:
In the wake of September 11th, two brothers believe they have stopped a mass terrorist attack in New York. Now they must face the consequences of taking justice into their own hands.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 45
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 78 min
Plot tags: neo noir, tense, suspense, suspenseful, disturbing, talky
Similar in 80%
Durant's Never Closes (2016)
Plot Summary:
The story of Jack Durant, notorious restaurateur and ladies man whose connections to the mafia remain a mystery. Direced by Travis Mills.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 198
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: psychological, exciting, tense, captivating, suspense, suspenseful, contemplative
Similar in 89%
Avenge the Crows (2017)
Plot Summary:
A former gang member and her young cousin become embroiled in a vendetta between L.A. gangs, as rivals seek revenge for old crimes.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 423
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: tense, suspense, suspenseful, disturbing, crime drama
Similar in 90%
Beeba Boys (2015)
Plot Summary:
Gang leader Jeet Johar and his young, loyal, and often-brutal crew dress like peacocks, love attention, and openly compete with an old style Indo crime syndicate to take over the Vancouver drug and arms scene. Blood is spilled, hearts are broken, and family bonds shattered as the Beeba Boys do anything to be seen and to be feared in a white world.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 631
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Canada
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, brutal, suspense, suspenseful, disturbing
Similar in 82%
Black Widow (2019)
Plot Summary:
The Black Widow is not dead ... Drug Queen Carmen van Walraven is hiding in Canada and leads an anonymous life there. One evening a colleague is harassed and Carmen helps her. In self-defense, she kills the perpetrator, is arrested and extradited to the Netherlands. While her children are in shock that their mother is still alive, there are also some people who still have to settle something with Carmen. Everyone is again dragged into an emotional rollercoaster. Carmen will now have deal with her past to save her family.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Netherlands
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, suspense, suspenseful, disturbing
Similar in 85%
Annika Bengtzon: Crime Reporter - Lifetime (2012)
Plot Summary:
When David Lindholm, Sweden's most famous police officer, found shot in bed identifies herself quickly with his young wife Julia. Julia is threatened with life imprisonment for murder, both her husband and her missing four year old son Alexander. However, Julia refuse. It was not her. There was another woman who shot her husband and kidnapped her son. While life is falling apart around Annika digs herself deeper into the murdered police's violent past.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Sweden
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, serious, realistic, disturbing, tense, captivating, suspense
Similar in 86%
I'm Not a Killer (2019)
Plot Summary:
One livid dawn, a cold and damp wind blows as a man walks alone through the darkness. Deputy Police Superintendent Francesco Prencipe is on his way to meet his best friend, Judge Giovanni Mastropaolo whom he hasn't seen for almost two years. The men drive for two hours and exchange but a few words. Later that morning, the Judge is found dead, a single gunshot wound to his head. Francesco is the last person who saw him and his fingerprints are the only ones found in the house. But is he the murderer?.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 537
Genere: Crime, Thriller
Country: Italy
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, suspense
Similar in 84%
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 76%
Toro (2016)
Plot Summary:
Toro (Spanish for "Bull") is a young con man and the right hand of Romano, a powerful mob boss in Torremolinos, Málaga (Andalusia, south to Spain). After Toro decides to leave Romano to get a life free of crime, his last sting fails, resulting one of his brothers dead and he sent to jail. Five years later, Romano realizes that López, Toro's older brother, is robbing him money from his tourism business and he orders to kidnap Diana, López's little daughter, until this one get back the money. Without options, López visits Toro, now a touristic driver with the third grade prison close to get the parole, who only wants to be free to marry his girlfriend Estrella. When Toro accepts to help López and both meet Romano looking for a solution, Toro ends attacking Romano's men and fleeing with Diana, trying to escape from Romano's revenge. But Romano starts a ruthless searching for they three, meanwhile Toro counts the hours to back the prison according to the third grade.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Spain
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: neo noir, psychological, exciting, tense, captivating, suspense, suspenseful, hood, perverse, noir
Similar in 88%
Best Seller (1987)
Plot Summary:
Hit man Cleve approaches writer/cop Dennis about a story for his next book: How Cleve made a living, working for one of the most powerful politicians in the country. To get the story right, they travel around the country to gather statements and evidence, while strong forces use any means they can to keep the story untold.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, psychological, suspense, tense, captivating, realistic, neo noir, offbeat, detective, independent film
Similar in 88%
Locked In (2021)
Plot Summary:
A single mother must protect her daughter and herself during a heist gone wrong at a high-tech storage facility.
IMDB Rating: 4.2
IMDB Votes: 927
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: suspense, suspenseful, disturbing, psychological, tense
Similar in 83%
Port of Call (2015)
Plot Summary:
Based on a real murder case where a dismembered corpse of a murdered 16 year-old prostitute girl was found in Hong Kong in 2008.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 126 min
Plot tags: suspense, psychological, tense, unusual plot structure, captivating, suspenseful, noir, neo noir, crime drama, twisted
Similar in 80%
Veil (2017)
Plot Summary:
The temptation to have a one night stand leads a man to a distant town and a woman with a dark agenda. When he doesn't return, it falls upon his black sheep sister to uncover the truth of what happened.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 21
Genere: Crime, Drama, Horror, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 74 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, suspense, suspenseful, disturbing
Similar in 80%
Drishyam (2013)
Plot Summary:
Georgekutty lives a happy life with his wife and daughters. Things take a turn when his daughter gets indecently filmed using a hidden camera, by the son of a police inspector.
IMDB Rating: 8.3
IMDB Votes: 43000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: India
Duration: 160 min
Plot tags: suspense, twisted, tense, suspenseful, suspense thriller, captivating, twist ending, psychological thriller, surprise ending, epic
Similar in 87%
Chekka Chivantha Vaanam (2018)
Plot Summary:
A bloody power struggle erupts between three brothers who are vying to take over the family business following the death of their father.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: India
Duration: 146 min
Plot tags: suspense, psychological, exciting, tense, captivating, suspenseful
Similar in 81%
Pericle (2016)
Plot Summary:
A failed porn actor, working as an enforcer for a mafia kingpin, finds himself confronted with an all-out turf war after an errand goes drastically wrong. Going on the run is his only option.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 457
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Italy, France, Belgium
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: psychological, exciting, tense, touching, suspense, suspenseful
Similar in 90%
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 80%
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
Similar in 78%
Mulholland Falls (1996)
Plot Summary:
In 1950s Los Angeles, a special crime squad of the LAPD investigates the murder of a young woman.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 19000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: neo noir, suspense, tense, detective, serious, rough, realistic, suspenseful, hood, thrilling
Similar in 79%
Beautiful & Twisted (2015)
Plot Summary:
Following the murder of hotel heir Ben Novack Jr., police focus their investigation on his wife, Narcy.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, tense, captivating, suspense, suspenseful
Similar in 76%
Backfire (2017)
Plot Summary:
After a botched robbery escalates to homicide, a north Philly gun runner has to escape or outsmart the south Philly Italian mob as they close in for vengeance.
IMDB Rating: 3.6
IMDB Votes: 454
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: psychological, exciting, tense, touching, captivating, suspense, suspenseful
Similar in 82%
Black Luck (2016)
Plot Summary:
A hitman in hiding struggles to keep his monsters at bay when his dark past comes calling. Some days your LUCK just goes BLACK.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 378
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: bloody, exciting, tense, suspense, suspenseful
Similar in 88%
Mob Town (2019)
Plot Summary:
Based on the true story of the notorious 1957 ‘mob summit’ in upstate New York. Spearheaded by Vito Genovese, more than 50 leaders of the organized crime syndicates from around the country converged on the sleepy town to discuss upcoming expansion plans. Their plans are foiled when local police trooper Ed Croswell discovers their activities and, consequently, exposes the mob to the American public. Croswell’s actions shed light on the massive web of corruption and changed the face of law enforcement forever.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 970
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: exciting, tense, captivating, suspense, suspenseful
Similar in 89%
Villain (2020)
Plot Summary:
After 10 years, Eddie Franks is out of prison and trying to stay on the straight and narrow, but his drug-mule brother, Sean has other ideas. Rival gangster brothers demand Sean repay his debt to them, causing Eddie to get tangled in the crossfire, and he ends up using his life savings to calling in favours with mobster friends to try and help.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, suspense, tense, captivating, disturbing, social, hood
Similar in 76%
The Untouchables (1987)
Plot Summary:
Young Treasury Agent Elliot Ness arrives in Chicago and is determined to take down Al Capone, but it's not going to be easy because Capone has the police in his pocket. Ness meets Jimmy Malone, a veteran patrolman and probably the most honorable one on the force. He asks Malone to help him get Capone, but Malone warns him that if he goes after Capone, he is going to war.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 326000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: suspense, suspenseful, stylized, clever, exciting, tense, serious, captivating, rough, neo noir
Similar in 81%
Carlito's Way (1993)
Plot Summary:
A Puerto-Rican ex-con, just released from prison, pledges to stay away from drugs and violence despite the pressure around him and lead on to a better life outside of NYC.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 229000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 144 min
Plot tags: neo noir, suspense, atmospheric, suspenseful, tense, melancholic, intense, rough, bleak, serious