Best movies like Clutching a Knife
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A worker nicknamed Turing finds himself in a quandary when the printing press where he is hired as a casual is hit by a strike. As his wife badly needs medication after getting pregnant, he is forced to sign a waiver inhibiting him from joining any mass action in exchange for a wage advance from his employer. Left with no choice, he turns scab and is ostracized by his friends and colleagues. At the hospital where the wife undergoes treatment, she would not be released until all the bills have been fully paid. The situation further heads for the worse when the firm is finally shut down. Turing opts for a desperate move.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 548
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: Philippines, France
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags:
Best tv shows and movies like Clutching a Knife (1984):
Similar in 81%
The Vulture (1982)
Plot Summary:
Two old women who happen to be pickpockets stole money from Simon, the taxi driver. The police are unable to find the thieves, so Simon decides to find them himself.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: Hungary
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: neo noir, cult classic, road movie, tragic ending, detective, weird, cult film, cult movie cast
Similar in 82%
Supermarket (1974)
Plot Summary:
Willi is 18 years old and lives on the street. Without a goal in his life he walks around the city and meets several people, helping but also cheating him. When he meets a girl, Monica, he realizes that there are people out there whose lives are even more desperate than his. So he's trying to help her (and him) by planning a great robbery on a supermarket's money transporter.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 925
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: poliziottesco
Similar in 81%
Miguelito, the Rebel (1985)
Plot Summary:
This is the story of Miguelito, his estranged mother Auring and the quest for justice against a powerful politician. After ten years of suffering in jail for a crime she did not commit, Auring cries out for two things - justice and her son back in her arms. Bravely she faces her powerful oppressors led by the formidable town mayor who also happens to be the father of her son. Being the first film Brocka directed since his highly publicized arrest and detention, Miguelito is one's typical soap opera set in a political backdrop that portrays the social condition of the time.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 26
Genere: Action, Drama
Country: Philippines
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 82%
Sister Stella L. (1984)
Plot Summary:
A nun who acts as a counselor in a home for unwed mother undergoes political awakening when her friend and namesake belonging to the same congregation as hers inspires her to get involved in the struggle for justice and freedom of striking workers in a cooking oil company.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 130
Genere: Drama
Country: Philippines
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: political
Similar in 79%
To the Last Limit (1991)
Plot Summary:
An ex-convict Viktor Dremov, who is also an ex-boxer, tries to mend his ways and start a new life but his former girlfriend is marrying another man (some old antiquarian), while local thugs rob him of his car and press him constantly trying to make him work for them. Being framed and hunted he should kill them all before he becomes a broken or a dead man.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 147
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
No Compromise (1988)
Plot Summary:
A cop goes after a husband-and-wife team of criminals who are expecting the birth of their first child.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 55
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: poliziottesco
Similar in 86%
Vinashak (1998)
Plot Summary:
Jailor Lankeshwar houses some of his hit-men as prisoners and uses them to commit criminal activities only to return and be safe in his jail. This gets notice by ACP Amar Agnihotri; who with his recommendation Arjun Singh a police inspector is made to act as a prisoner in Lankeshwar's jail. Arjun's duty is to monitor if at all there are any criminal activities going on in the jail; soon Arjun will find himself trapped as no one are who they claim they are.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 339
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: India
Duration: 159 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 82%
Seoul Vibe (2022)
Plot Summary:
Chasing speed, dreams and money, a team of drivers get involved in the slush fund investigation of a powerful figure during the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Comedy, Crime, Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 138 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 82%
Mala Leche (2004)
Plot Summary:
Two street punks, Carlos and Pedro, find themselves out of their depth on the mean streets of Santiago de Chile. As they are trying to purchase some coke for a local psychopath Yao, they are jumped by thieves who head off with his money. After Yao beats them up and tells them they have 48 hours to recover his money, Carlos and Pedro must risk their lives to meet their deadline and find themselves in rapidly escalating worse and worse circumstance.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 252
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: Chile
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: crime drama
Similar in 81%
Thiruda Thiruda (1993)
Plot Summary:
Portly CBI Inspector Laxminarayan is assigned to track down 1000 Crore Rupees worth of stolen currency from the Government Security Press in Nasik. His assignment will lead him to Ashok Tejani, and then to two burglars in Tamil Nadu, Shankar and Anand, who are on the run from the Police along with a suicidal village belle, Kajri. Laxminarayan's efforts will be frustrated even more after Ashok is killed and his gun-toting Goa-based girlfriend, Chandralekha, is absconding; and the entry of an international drug dealer, simply known as Vikram, who will stop at nothing to get his hands on the loot.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: India
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: detective, poliziottesco
Similar in 90%
If You Were Young: Rage (1970)
Plot Summary:
If You Were Young: Rage highlights the other side of post-war Japanese prosperity, focusing on the throngs of young people who missed out on the boom. We follow a group of young men that can't seem to get ahead, despite their willingness to try. Then one hits upon a plane - to work together to save for a dump truck and thus become independent contractors and be their own bosses at last. Ultimately life presents obstacles: jail for one, violence at the hands of the police for another and a girlfriend and subsequent children for the third. An early Kinji Fukasaku gem that imports the freewheeling style of the French New Wave and the hip detachment of American noir.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 240
Genere: Action, Crime
Country: Japan
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, disturbing, suspenseful, rough, bleak, crying, freeze frame
Similar in 89%
A World Without Thieves (2004)
Plot Summary:
Two grifters, Wang Bo and Wang Li, a couple who've been arguing, board a train in rural China. He wants to fleece a peasant, nicknamed Dumbo for his naiveté, who's carrying 60,000 yuan and trusts everyone. She wants to protect the hick kid, an act of expiation brought on by prayer and a visit to a temple. Also on board are one of more sets of thieves, including a calculating boss and his femme fatale. The boss wants to recruit Wang Bo, and a series of contests ensue, with the potential of turning deadly. While Li guards Dumbo from Bo and the others, can she and Bo sort out their relationship? And can Dumbo's simple spirituality touch anyone else?.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: China, Hong Kong
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: exciting, semi serious
Similar in 90%
Cain & Abel (1982)
Plot Summary:
In this modern-day version of the biblical legend on Cain and Abel, strong-willed matriarch Señora Pina favors her younger son Ellis over the older Loren whom she blames for the death of her husband. Ellis grows up cowardly and spoiled while Loren becomes a responsible family man despite his increasing resentment towards his mother. What began as a sibling rivalry develops into a deep feud that would later escalate into a large-scale war - with all the mayhem and bloodshed.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 469
Genere: Action, Drama
Country: Philippines
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 82%
The Big Sweat (1991)
Plot Summary:
An ex-con, just released from jail, returns home only to become immediately embroiled in a robbery. A tenacious FBI agent hounds him every step of the way.
IMDB Rating: 2.8
IMDB Votes: 139
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 89%
Mission 2016 (2017)
Plot Summary:
When Sudi wins a lottery, he dreams of living a descent life off the streets but his dreams are shattered when his gang mate Jeff points his guns at him.
IMDB Rating:
IMDB Votes:
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: Uganda
Duration:
Plot tags:
Similar in 82%
Gangsters (2002)
Plot Summary:
Franck Chaievski and Nina Delgado are two undercover detectives of a French special force trying to identify two corrupts members of the Paris Police Force. Franck is pretending to be a gangster and Nina a prostitute living with him, and involved in a robbery of a fortune in diamonds, having seven deaths and some injured persons.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 916
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: France, Belgium
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: tense, suspense, suspenseful, psychological, erotic, neo noir
Similar in 79%
Jimmy Zip (1999)
Plot Summary:
An abused runaway with pyromaniac tendencies teams up with a metal sculptor. Together they blow away the art world and a local crime boss.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 192
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: independent film, rough, serious, realistic, grunge
Similar in 78%
Snatch Up (2018)
Plot Summary:
A golf bag filled with cash sets off a furious chase between an unemployed man, a delivery man, gangsters, a killer, and a cop.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 189
Genere: Drama, Crime, Action
Country: South Korea
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: funny, feel good, humorous, captivating, entertaining, satirical, semi serious
Similar in 75%
Ambulance (2005)
Plot Summary:
"The Ambulance" is a psychological thriller based on three rules: 1. The entire film must take place in only one location; an ambulance. 2. The story must be in real time; an 80 minute ride. 3. There must be only four characters on the ride.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Denmark
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: exciting, rough, serious, suspenseful, psychological, tense, touching, disturbing, realistic, road movie
Similar in 83%
Golden Years (2016)
Plot Summary:
Fate, the pensions crisis and a steadfast refusal to accept the injustice of old age have contrived to force law abiding, retired couple, Arthur and Martha Goode into a life of crime.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Comedy, Crime, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: captivating, satirical, disturbing, semi serious, black comedy, dark comedy
Similar in 89%
Pizza, Beer, and Cigarettes (1998)
Plot Summary:
A couple of friends work for a taxi driver to rob his passengers, but they feel like they're getting ripped off. They decide to plan their own robberies, but they are amateurs and things don't go too well. One of the youths, Cordoba, whose girlfriend Sandra is pregnant, just wants to get enough cash so they can leave Argentina and get to Uruguay to start a new life. He and his friends plan one last robbery, but things don't go as planned.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Argentina
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: social, hispanic, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing
Similar in 87%
Stealing Raden Saleh (2022)
Plot Summary:
To save his father, a master forger sets out to steal an invaluable painting with the help of a motley crew of specialists.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: Indonesia, Malaysia
Duration: 154 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
Victoria Gotti: My Father's Daughter (2019)
Plot Summary:
A revealing look at the life of Victoria Gotti, the daughter of notorious mob boss John Gotti.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 397
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: captivating, crime drama, entertaining
Similar in 78%
Red Surf (1989)
Plot Summary:
Remar and Attila are a couple of surfers who also deal drugs to make a living. They are trying to set up a final deal with local drug lord, Calavera, when their friend True Blue is busted by the cops. Blue talks too much in the police station and Calavera is out for revenge because of the betrayal.
IMDB Rating: 4.1
IMDB Votes: 772
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: action thriller, independent film, serious, realistic, suspenseful, slasher, suspense
Similar in 75%
Yamakasi (2001)
Plot Summary:
Yamakasi - Les samouraïs des temps modernes is a 2001 French movie written by Luc Besson. It demonstrates the skills of the Yamakasi, a group of traceurs who battle against injustice in the Paris ghetto. They use parkour to steal from the rich in order to pay off medical bills for a kid injured copying their techniques.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: witty, semi serious, exciting, sincere, realistic, action thriller
Similar in 85%
Bread and Roses (2000)
Plot Summary:
Maya is a quick-witted young woman who comes over the Mexican border without papers and makes her way to the LA home of her older sister Rosa. Rosa gets Maya a job as a janitor: a non-union janitorial service has the contract, the foul-mouthed supervisor can fire workers on a whim, and the service-workers' union has assigned organizer Sam Shapiro to bring its "justice for janitors" campaign to the building. Sam finds Maya a willing listener, she's also attracted to him. Rosa resists, she has an ailing husband to consider. The workers try for public support; management intimidates workers to divide and conquer. Rosa and Maya as well as workers and management may be set to collide.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Switzerland
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: realistic, political, melancholic, disturbing, sincere, independent film, social, intense, cult classic, crying
Similar in 78%
Midnight Dancers (1994)
Plot Summary:
Brothers Joel (Alex Del Rosario), Dennis (Grandong Cervantes) and Sonny (Lawrence David) work together as dancers at a low-rent gay bar in downtown Manila, in the Philippines. Despite his mother's pleas, Sonny decides to quit college to work full-time at the bar, while Dennis has moved beyond dancing into prostitution at the urging of the manipulative club manager. Joel, the eldest, tries to balance his secret gay life with his socially respectable role as a husband and father.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 308
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Philippines
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: tagalog, sincere, serious, realistic, contemplative, sexual, neorealism, sexy, thought provoking, enigmatic
Similar in 89%
Rodents (1999)
Plot Summary:
The world of Salvador, a young and naive petty thief is changed by the arrival of his cousin Angel, an ex-convict in search of easy money, and with a hideout. Salvador gets wrapped up in Angel's twisted dealings in an attempt to escape from his suffocating family, dragging along his family and friends, in his criminal path. Where will this all lead?.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 894
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: Ecuador
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: tense, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, disturbing, gloomy
Similar in 82%
Trouble Man (1972)
Plot Summary:
It seems that masked men are knocking over the floating crap games of Chalky and Pete. Chalky and Pete hire the cool, loose, elegant Mr. T to fix things. Then, the masked manipulators set up the death of a collector for a rival gang lord. It looks like it's up to T to hold a gang war from breaking out, keep the police off his back, and earn his fee from Chalky and Pete.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: neo noir, crime drama, cult classic, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, surprise ending, suspense
Similar in 85%
Heat (1995)
Plot Summary:
Obsessive master thief, Neil McCauley leads a top-notch crew on various daring heists throughout Los Angeles while determined detective, Vincent Hanna pursues him without rest. Each man recognizes and respects the ability and the dedication of the other even though they are aware their cat-and-mouse game may end in violence.
IMDB Rating: 8.3
IMDB Votes: 702000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 170 min
Plot tags: neo noir, tense, detective, suspense, suspenseful, intense, exciting, bleak, atmospheric, clever