Best movies like Jailbait
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Randy commits a crime that would normally get him probation and a hefty fine, but in the "three-strikes" world of justice, he finds himself locked up for 25 years. His cellmate Jake is a congenial yet remorseless lifer who casually informs Randy that he slit his wife's throat because she slept with another man just three months after they exchanged vows. Jake recognizes Randy's fear and offers him advice on how to make it in prison. But it soon becomes clear that Jake has much more than mentoring in mind as he takes Randy under his wing. "Jailbait" sets a darkly cerebral tone, juxtaposing brutality with the unattainable ideal of intimacy in the harshest of psychological environments. For these two men so yearning to be anything but who they are and where they are, power is the goal, and it's never clear who truly holds it right up to the last unsettling moment.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 436
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, realistic
Best tv shows and movies like Jailbait (2004):
Similar in 86%
Blind Faith (1998)
Plot Summary:
in 1957 an African-American criminal lawyer (Courtney B. Vance) defends his nephew, who faces the death penalty for murdering a white boy. Charles S. Dutton, Kadeem Hardison, Garland Whitt and Lonette McKee costar in this drama of racial and social tensions.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 662
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, independent film, serious, realistic
Similar in 80%
Man Dancin' (2003)
Plot Summary:
Tough comedy drama set in Glasgow. Former enforcer Jimmy exits jail a changed man, but both his criminal boss and a corrupt copper think he's bluffing.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 226
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, captivating, psychological, rough, suspenseful
Similar in 76%
Animal 2 (2008)
Plot Summary:
Now serving a life sentence for murder, James "Animal" Allen returns to fighting for cash in order to help his troubled son on the outside. However, with his newfound fame as a fighter, Animal uncovers a jailhouse conspiracy that threatens to cause racial tensions to explode.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, hood, crime drama
Similar in 84%
Doing Hard Time (2004)
Plot Summary:
A father's eight year old son is murdered in a gangland shooting. The father (Boris Kodjoe) gets himself thrown into prison to avenge his son's death.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, hood, crime drama
Similar in 77%
Short Eyes (1977)
Plot Summary:
A young man who is charged with child molestation is placed in New York City’s infamous Tombs prison. When the other inmates in his cell block find out what he is charged with, life becomes extremely difficult for him.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: crime drama, grim, cult classic, independent film, tense, rough, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic
Similar in 80%
Buried (2003)
Plot Summary:
Buried is a British television drama series, produced by World Productions for Channel 4 and originally screened in 2003. The programme starred Lennie James as Lee Kingley, who is serving a long prison sentence in order to protect a member of his family from a violent criminal. Critically well-received, the programme won the Best Drama Series category at the British Academy Television Awards in 2004.
IMDB Rating: 8.4
IMDB Votes: 193
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: tense, rough, serious, suspenseful, thought provoking, bleak, captivating, realistic
Similar in 87%
Women of San Quentin (1983)
Plot Summary:
A young female prison guard finds out that her first assignment is to San Quentin, one of the toughest prisons in the country.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 110
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: rough, bleak, serious, realistic
Similar in 83%
K-11 (2012)
Plot Summary:
Raymond Saxx Jr., a powerful record producer, wakes from a drug-induced blackout to find himself locked up and classified "K-11." Plunged into a nightmarish world ruled by a transsexual diva named Mousey, Raymond is truly a fish out of water. Complicating matters are a troubled young transgender named Butterfly, a predatory child molester and the ruthless Sheriff's Deputy, Lt. Johnson. Ray's struggle to contact the outside world and regain his freedom seems impossible, but he must learn to navigate this new power structure if he is ever going survive and be in control of his life again.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: psychological, rough, serious, bleak, tense, realistic, hispanic, queer cinema, sexploitation film
Similar in 81%
The Glass House (1972)
Plot Summary:
Adapted from a story by Truman Capote ("In Cold Blood"), the world of the prison convict is open to the viewer. As the story develops, one thing becomes clear. As in the outside world, there is a "system"; and just as on the outside, there is accommodation, honesty, cynicism, violence and all the other factors that make up our society. The film follows the three newcomers, it records the grim, terrifying, sometimes fascinating events that occur.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 902
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: tense, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing, tension, suspense
Similar in 87%
Through the Valley (2008)
Plot Summary:
An innocent man framed for murder, and the system that just wants another minority conviction.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 74
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, crime drama, independent film
Similar in 83%
Brides (2014)
Plot Summary:
Nutsa, a young mother, lives with her two children in a suburbs of Tblissi in Georgia. Her partner Goga is in prison. They get married, so she gains the right to talk to him once a month in the visiting room on the other side of the glass. The ceremony is quick with a strange ambiance. Goga in prison, Nutsa with children outside, a routine sets in.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 151
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Georgia
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, realistic, disturbing
Similar in 83%
Lockdown (2000)
Plot Summary:
Avery (Jones) returns to college as a competitive swimmer after getting his life back on track. But his life takes another unexpected turn when he and his two friends (Bonds, Casseus) are wrongly accused of murder and end up in prison.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: disturbing, rough, serious, realistic, hood, crime drama, bleak, independent film
Similar in 89%
The Exonerated (2005)
Plot Summary:
Six people tell their stories on a single subject - how they got wrongfully convicted to death penalty, but later got exonerated.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 463
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, disturbing, suspenseful, mockumentary
Similar in 86%
Whitewash: The Clarence Brandley Story (2002)
Plot Summary:
Based on the true story of Clarence Brandley, a black man wrongly accused in 1980 of the murder of a 16-year-old white high school girl named Cheryl Ferguson. Brandley worked at Conroe High School, where Ferguson was visiting as a member of the Belleville High School volleyball team. Three days after her body was discovered, Brandley was arrested as the murderer. Jew Don Boney, a popular activist and Houston city council member, leads the fight to uncover the truth about the Ferguson murder. Mike DeGeurin, a Texas attorney, is brought in to act as the head defense attorney for Brandley, and is joined by a former minister, Jim McCloskey. The lawyers discover that not only is there a complete lack of evidence against Brandley, but the District Attorney, James Keeshan, has been strategizing with the presiding judge. After nine years in prison, three trials and a stay of execution that saved Brandley's life, justice finally prevails as Brandley is granted his freedom.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 165
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: disturbing, emotional, realistic, suspenseful, tense, serious
Similar in 76%
The Pursuit of Happiness (1971)
Plot Summary:
William Popper is the son of a stockbroker and is thoroughly disenchanted with "the system." So much so that even though he can prove that he ran over a woman in his car entirely by accident, he accepts a sentence for manslaughter.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 430
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: psychological, thought provoking, bleak, serious, realistic
Similar in 85%
Black and White (2002)
Plot Summary:
Australia, 1958. When a nine year old white girl is found murdered, police are quick to arrest illiterate Aborigine, Max Stuart. Under interrogation Max admits to the killing and signs a statement that will send him to the gallows. With no Court of Appeal established in the country, and with a legal system compromised by intimidation tactics and the stain of institutional racism, the skills of his two gifted but naive defense lawyers are put to the test. Based on a true story.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 861
Genere: Drama
Country: Australia, UK
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, realistic
Similar in 85%
Slam (1998)
Plot Summary:
Slam tells the story of Ray Joshua, an original, gifted young MC trapped in a war-zone housing project known as Dodge City. Unable to find a job, Ray copes with the despair and poverty of his neighborhood by using his wits and verbal talent. Written by Offline Publicist Young Ray Joshua lives in the Washington, DC, district known as Dodge City, which is dominated by gang wars. One day he is arrested when his drug dealer is gunned down while talking to him. He is put to prison where two rival gangs, Thug Life and the Union, want to recruit him as a member.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: independent film, hood, psychological, talky, uplifting, tense, sincere, bleak, serious, realistic
Similar in 79%
Wild Seven (2006)
Plot Summary:
In this darkly karmic vision of Arizona, a man who breathes nothing but ill will begins a noxious domino effect as quickly as an uncontrollable virus kills. As he exits Arizona State Penn after twenty-one long years, Wilson has only one thing on the brain, leveling the score with career criminal, Mackey Willis.
IMDB Rating: 3.9
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: serious, suspenseful, captivating, suspense, realistic
Similar in 77%
Return to Innocence (2001)
Plot Summary:
Director Rocky Costanzo's searing legal drama centers on a highly credentialed child psychologist named Glen Erskine (Richard Meese) whose life is shattered when he's accused of sexually assaulting a young boy he's been treating. Based on the novel of the same name by Gary M. Frazier, this poignant tale also stars Andrew Martin, Steve De Forest, Jeff Harman and Brett Chukerman.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 823
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: psychological, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing, serious, art house, bleak, independent film
Similar in 77%
The End of Innocence (1990)
Plot Summary:
Seemingly autobiographical story of a woman overwhelmed with trying to please everyone except herself, and not finding any answers until she's admitted to a rehab center by her parents. Eventually here is where she finds her answers.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 233
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, psychological, serious, emotional, contemplative, gloomy, independent film
Similar in 86%
Everyday (2012)
Plot Summary:
This film charts the relationship between a man imprisoned for drug smuggling and his wife and is being shot over the course of five years, a few weeks at a time.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 834
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, psychological, captivating, independent film, sincere, touching
Similar in 84%
One Angry Juror (2010)
Plot Summary:
Based on the true story of Sarah Walsh, a tough New Orleans attorney who serves on a murder trial jury and does some investigating of her own.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 279
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, captivating, realistic, tense, independent film
Similar in 77%
An Innocent Man (1989)
Plot Summary:
Jimmie Rainwood was minding his own business when two corrupt police officers (getting an address wrong) burst into his house, expecting to find a major drug dealer. Rainwood is shot, and the officers frame him as a drug dealer. Rainwood is convicted of drug dealing, based on the perjured evidence of a police informant. Thrown into a seedy jail, fighting to prove his innocence is diffucult when he has to deal with the realities of prison life, where everyone claims they were framed.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: tense, psychological, suspense, intense, suspenseful, disturbing, rough, serious, realistic, scary
Similar in 86%
Terrorist on Trial: The United States vs. Salim Ajami (1988)
Plot Summary:
There is no question that the Arab terrorist portrayed by Robert Davi is guilty of killing five US citizens in Barcelona. Even his lawyers have zero respect for the rabidly sociopathic Davi. But Jewish defence attorney Ron Leibman is obsessed with the concept of Due Process, and has vowed that Davi will receive a scrupulously fair trial when the terrorist is extradited to America. The defence mounted by Leibman confounds and aggravates government prosecutor Sam Waterston--but he, like Leibman, remains a man of judiciary integrity.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 156
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 134 min
Plot tags: independent film, tense, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 76%
Bas-fonds (2010)
Plot Summary:
On the outskirts of civilisation, three young women, Magalie, Marie-Steph and Barbara live a desperate life together. Drowning in alcohol, they both lust for and hate one another, coupling like animals. Yet gradually they become enmeshed in a complex game of love and domination. Magalie, the ringleader, subjugates through her male power, and bestial charisma. Simple Marie-Steph, her younger sister, remains in the background, and Barbara, unaware of her own prettiness, has joined the pack because she loves Magalie. One day, at Magalie’s instigation, and almost out of boredom, they hold up a bakery and kill the baker with a buckshot gun. Life gradually resumes, but nothing is the same.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 80
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 68 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, serious, disturbing, surreal, offbeat, captivating, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 89%
Attica (1980)
Plot Summary:
A behind the scenes look of the 1971 prisoners revolt at the Attica prison.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 526
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: political, rough, thought provoking, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing, tension, suspense
Similar in 84%
Mean Dog Blues (1978)
Plot Summary:
Former TV documentary filmmaker Mel Stuart tries to inject an acceptable degree of verisimilitude in Mean Dog Blues. A victim of circumstance, country and western musician Paul Ramsey (Gregg Henry) finds himself on a Southern chain gang. Captain Omar Kinsman (George Kennedy) snarls a lot as the obligatory sadistic prison guard, but the film's real villains are Victor and Donna Lacey (William Windom and Tina Louise) as the Bonnie-and-Clyde couple who get Henry into trouble. Listed as editor is Housley Stevenson, the son of the late Hollywood character-actor Onslow Stevens.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 289
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, independent film, tense, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 76%
Tangier (2006)
Plot Summary:
In August 1996, bus drivers Marcel Van Loock and Wim Moreels are apprehended by the Moroccan Customs for drug trafficking. Inside their bus, hidden behind a false compartment, they have discovered 700 pounds of hashish. Although the owner of the bus company is arrested as well and makes a full confession clearly indicating that both drivers were unaware of the hidden drugs, the Moroccan judge sentences both men to 5 years in the Moroccan prison of Tangiers. Nothing could have prepared the two men for life inside a Moroccan prison. Without food, clothes or medical care, they must learn how to take care of themselves to survive their stay in prison. Corrupt guards, corrupt lawyers and judges, a consul who doesn't care and frequent beatings are only part of the terrible prison. Meanwhile their families at home are left without any information, any help or any hope - finding out that their own government doesn't care for Belgian people in prisons abroad.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Belgium
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, suspenseful, disturbing, tense, bleak, realistic
Similar in 79%
Black August (2007)
Plot Summary:
The last 14 months of George Jackson's life was an existence under subjective and objective conditions in California's industrial prison complex. George Jackson would spend 11 years in jail (7 of which were in solitary confinement) for a $70 gas station robbery crime in 1960. He was 18 years of age when the sentence of one year-to-life was handed down to him.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 302
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: rough, thought provoking, serious, realistic, political
Similar in 88%
Oxen (1991)
Plot Summary:
In desperation brought on by near-starvation, Helge Roos kills his master's ox and feeds it to his wife and baby daughter. No-one suspects anything until the meat is finished and Helge tries to sell the hide at a local market. He is spotted by the local vicar and, wracked with guilt, confesses. The vicar assures him that if he gives himself up, he'll be treated leniently, but Helge's sentence is far harsher than anyone predicted.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 979
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden, Norway, Denmark
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: psychological, atmospheric, bleak, serious, realistic