Best movies like Gangster Squad
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Los Angeles, 1949. Ruthless, Brooklyn-born mob king Mickey Cohen runs the show in this town, reaping the ill-gotten gains from the drugs, the guns, the prostitutes and — if he has his way — every wire bet placed west of Chicago. And he does it all with the protection of not only his own paid goons, but also the police and the politicians who are under his control. It’s enough to intimidate even the bravest, street-hardened cop… except, perhaps, for the small, secret crew of LAPD outsiders led by Sgt. John O’Mara and Jerry Wooters who come together to try to tear Cohen’s world apart.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 221000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: rough, tense, exciting, stylized, serious, suspenseful, suspense, intense, realistic, neo noir
Best tv shows and movies like Gangster Squad (2013):
Similar in 77%
Lethal Weapon 3 (1992)
Plot Summary:
Archetypal buddy cops Riggs and Murtaugh are back for another round of high-stakes action, this time setting their collective sights on bringing down a former Los Angeles police lieutenant turned black market weapons dealer. Lorna Cole joins as the beautiful yet hardnosed internal affairs sergeant who catches Riggs's eye.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 176000
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: suspense, entertaining, action packed, saga, action comedy, neo noir, exciting, humorous, suspenseful, action adventure
Similar in 80%
Rapid Fire (1992)
Plot Summary:
College student Jake Lo is pursued by smugglers, mobsters and crooked federal agents after he witnesses a murder by a Mafia kingpin.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: exciting, intense, serious, suspenseful, cult classic, suspense, crime drama, rough, realistic, fast
Similar in 87%
Raw Deal (1986)
Plot Summary:
Mark Kaminsky is kicked out of the FBI for his rough treatment of a suspect. He winds up as the sheriff of a small town in North Carolina. FBI Chief Harry Shannon, whose son has been killed by a mobster named Patrovina, enlists Kaminsky in a personal vendetta with a promise of reinstatement into the FBI if Patrovina is taken down. To accomplish this, he must go undercover and join Patrovina's gang.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 37000
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: USA, Netherlands
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: intense, rough, realistic, exciting, serious, suspenseful, action packed, cult classic, hood, perverse
Similar in 83%
The French Connection (1971)
Plot Summary:
Tough narcotics detective 'Popeye' Doyle is in hot pursuit of a suave French drug dealer who may be the key to a huge heroin-smuggling operation.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 133000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: detective, neo noir, atmospheric, tense, realistic, breathtaking, cerebral, grim, crime drama, exciting
Similar in 88%
Out for Justice (1991)
Plot Summary:
Gino Felino (Steven Seagal) is an NYPD detective from Brooklyn who knows everyone and everything in his neighborhood. Killing his Partner was someone's mistake, because he's now Out For Justice.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 25000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: suspense, bloody, detective, cult classic, suspenseful, grindhouse, hood, perverse, action thriller, exciting
Similar in 89%
A Man Apart (2003)
Plot Summary:
When Vetter's wife is killed in a botched hit organized by Diablo, he seeks revenge against those responsible. But in the process, Vetter and Hicks have to fight their way up the chain to get to Diablo but it's easier said than done when all Vetter can focus on is revenge.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 49000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA, Germany
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: suspense, harsh, emotional, rough, serious, suspenseful, exciting, realistic, captivating, cult classic
Similar in 89%
Public Enemies (2009)
Plot Summary:
Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger's charm and audacity endear him to much of America's downtrodden public, but he's also a thorn in the side of J. Edgar Hoover and the fledgling FBI. Desperate to capture the elusive outlaw, Hoover makes Dillinger his first Public Enemy Number One and assigns his top agent, Melvin Purvis, the task of bringing him in dead or alive.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 315000
Genere: Action, Biography, Crime, Drama, History
Country: USA, Japan
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: suspense, stylized, exciting, factual, intense, serious, captivating, realistic, atmospheric, rough
Similar in 90%
Urban Justice (2007)
Plot Summary:
Seagal plays a man with a dark and violent past, who seeks revenge for the murder of his son.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: rough, suspenseful, exciting, serious, realistic, suspense, bloody, cult classic, bleak, fast
Similar in 85%
Boiling Point (1993)
Plot Summary:
Red is an aging scam-artist who's just been released from prison together with Ronnie, a young and not-so-bright hoodlum who is easily manipulated. Their new business is to organize fake-money sales and then kill the buyer to take his money; but when Ronnie kills an undercover secret service agent, his partner Jimmy Mercer vows revenge and is given one week to catch the killers before being transferred. Written by Giancarlo Cairella.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: suspense, exciting, neo noir, suspenseful, tense, intense, rough, serious, realistic, action thriller
Similar in 83%
Year of the Dragon (1985)
Plot Summary:
In New York, racist Capt. Stanley White becomes obsessed with destroying a Chinese-American drug ring run by Joey Tai, an up-and-coming young gangster as ambitious as he is ruthless. While pursuing an unauthorized investigation, White grows increasingly willing to violate police protocol, resorting to progressively violent measures -- even as his concerned wife, Connie, and his superiors beg him to consider the consequences of his actions.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 17000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 134 min
Plot tags: neo noir, controversial, brutal, suspense, intense, serious, realistic, suspenseful, exciting, detective
Similar in 80%
Brooklyn's Finest (2009)
Plot Summary:
Enforcing the law within the notoriously rough Brownsville section of the city and especially within the Van Dyke housing projects is the NYPD's sixty-fifth precinct. Three police officers struggle with the sometimes fine line between right and wrong.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 66000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 132 min
Plot tags: tense, realistic, suspense, neo noir, hood, depressing, stylized, detective, bleak, rough
Similar in 81%
Dead Presidents (1995)
Plot Summary:
Depicts a heist of old bills, retired from circulation and destined by the government to be "money to burn". However, more broadly, it addresses the issues of Black Americans' involvement in the Vietnam War and their subsequent disillusionment with progress in social issues and civil rights back home in the United States, during the 1960s.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 24000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller, War
Country: USA
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: realistic, suspense, disturbing, intense, neo noir, tense, rough, serious, suspenseful, cult classic
Similar in 81%
Hard to Kill (1990)
Plot Summary:
Mason Storm, a 'go it alone' cop, is gunned down at home. The intruders kill his wife, and think they've killed both Mason and his son too. Mason is secretly taken to a hospital where he spends several years in a coma. His son meanwhile is growing up thinking his father is dead. When Mason wakes up, everyone is in danger - himself, his son, his best friend, his nurse - but most of all those who arranged for his death.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 32000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: suspense, exciting, serious, suspenseful, perverse, cult classic, action adventure, rough, realistic, fast
Similar in 83%
Maximum Force (1992)
Plot Summary:
Three renegade cops team up to take on the corrupt chief of police and a crime lords hatchet-man.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 392
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: suspense, independent film, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, surprise ending, neo noir, detective
Similar in 88%
Deadly Target (1994)
Plot Summary:
A Chinese gangster in Los Angeles escapes on the eve of his deportation to Hong Kong. A martial-arts master detective and his ragtag team get caught up in the action as they track down this ruthless killer.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 334
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: suspense, crime drama, independent film, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, surprise ending, detective
Similar in 88%
Shaft (2000)
Plot Summary:
New York police detective John Shaft arrests Walter Wade Jr. for a racially motivated slaying. But the only eyewitness disappears, and Wade jumps bail for Switzerland. Two years later Wade returns to face trial, confident his money and influence will get him acquitted -- especially since he's paid a drug kingpin to kill the witness.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 80000
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: Germany, USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: stylized, suspense, intense, hood, rough, realistic, exciting, serious, suspenseful, action packed
Similar in 82%
Marked for Death (1990)
Plot Summary:
Just retired from the Drug Enforcement Agency, John Hatcher returns to his hometown and quickly discovers that drugs have infiltrated his old neighborhood. Determined to drive the dealers out, Hatcher crosses paths with a ferocious Jamaican drug lord who vows that Hatcher and his family are now marked for death.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 24000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: suspense, exciting, serious, suspenseful, rough, realistic, grindhouse, intense, hood, cult classic
Similar in 86%
Payback (1999)
Plot Summary:
With friends like these, who needs enemies? That's the question bad guy Porter is left asking after his wife and partner steal his heist money and leave him for dead -- or so they think. Five months and an endless reservoir of bitterness later, Porter's partners and the crooked cops on his tail learn how bad payback can be.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 143000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: neo noir, suspense, black comedy, exciting, rough, suspenseful, bloody, entertaining, action packed, clever
Similar in 77%
The Boondock Saints (1999)
Plot Summary:
With a God-inspired moral obligation to act against evil, twin brothers Conner and Murphy set out to rid Boston of criminals. However, rather than working within the system, these Irish Americans decide to take swift retribution into their own hands.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 247000
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: suspense, neo noir, entertaining, independent film, stylized, cult classic, bloody, grindhouse, action packed, dark comedy
Similar in 86%
State of Grace (1990)
Plot Summary:
Terry Noonan returns home to New York's Hells Kitchen after a ten year absence. He soon hooks up with childhood pal Jackie who is involved in the Irish mob run by his brother Frankie. Terry also rekindles an old flame with Jackie's sister Kathleen. Soon, however, Terry is torn between his loyalty to his friends and his loyalties to others.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 24000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 134 min
Plot tags: neo noir, suspense, tense, psychological, atmospheric, intense, serious, captivating, suspenseful, dark
Similar in 77%
Street Kings (2008)
Plot Summary:
Tom Ludlow is a disillusioned L.A. Police Officer, rarely playing by the rules and haunted by the death of his wife. When evidence implicates him in the execution of a fellow officer, he is forced to go up against the cop culture he's been a part of his entire career, ultimately leading him to question the loyalties of everyone around him.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 119000
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: suspense, neo noir, detective, hood, harsh, tense, brutal, serious, entertaining, crime drama
Similar in 77%
We Own the Night (2007)
Plot Summary:
A New York nightclub manager tries to save his brother and father from Russian mafia hitmen.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 92000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: suspense, harsh, stylized, rough, serious, captivating, tense, realistic, suspenseful, dark
Similar in 78%
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 78%
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
Similar in 83%
American Gangster (2007)
Plot Summary:
Following the death of his employer and mentor, Bumpy Johnson, Frank Lucas establishes himself as the number one importer of heroin in the Harlem district of Manhattan. He does so by buying heroin directly from the source in South East Asia and he comes up with a unique way of importing the drugs into the United States. Based on a true story.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 446000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 157 min
Plot tags: serious, tense, realistic, suspense, harsh, hood, clever, detective, suspenseful, entertaining
Similar in 80%
Renegades (1989)
Plot Summary:
Buster McHenry (Sutherland) is as an undercover agent for the police. His mission involves him in a robbery. Buster gets shot but Hank Storm (Phillips), an Indian, helps Buster. Since Hank wants a spear in the possession of the criminals that Buster is after, they team up.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: detective, suspense, intense, rough, serious, retro, cult classic, action thriller, neo noir, black comedy
Similar in 86%
Triple 9 (2016)
Plot Summary:
A gang of criminals and corrupt cops plan the murder of a police officer in order to pull off their biggest heist yet across town.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 76000
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: tense, exciting, suspense, suspenseful, stylized, intense, neo noir, detective, independent film, crime thriller
Similar in 79%
Live by Night (2016)
Plot Summary:
A story set in the Prohibition Era and centered around a group of individuals and their dealings in the world of organized crime.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 59000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 129 min
Plot tags: neo noir, stylized, period piece, exciting, tense, captivating, suspense, art house, cult classic, teen
Similar in 85%
End of Watch (2012)
Plot Summary:
Two young officers are marked for death after confiscating a small cache of money and firearms from the members of a notorious cartel during a routine traffic stop.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 264000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: emotional, tense, suspense, independent film, realistic, harsh, brutal, hood, captivating, heroic
Similar in 85%
The Godfather (1972)
Plot Summary:
Spanning the years 1945 to 1955, a chronicle of the fictional Italian-American Corleone crime family. When organized crime family patriarch, Vito Corleone barely survives an attempt on his life, his youngest son, Michael steps in to take care of the would-be killers, launching a campaign of bloody revenge.
IMDB Rating: 9.2
IMDB Votes: 20000000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 175 min
Plot tags: serious, epic, atmospheric, dramatic, captivating, rough, realistic, family saga, entertaining, breathtaking