Best movies like Penitentiary
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A hitchhiker named Martel Gordone gets in a fight with two bikers over a prostitute, and one of the bikers is killed. Gordone is arrested and sent to prison, where he joins the prison's boxing team in an effort to secure an early parole and to establish his dominance over the prison's toughest gang.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Sport
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: independent film, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Best tv shows and movies like Penitentiary (1979):
Similar in 86%
Ring of Death (2008)
Plot Summary:
On the inside, there are no rules. See what happens when Prison Officials Profit from Illegal fights.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, suspenseful, realistic
Similar in 82%
The Wild Rebels (1967)
Plot Summary:
A stock car driver goes undercover as the wheel man for a motorcycle gang.
IMDB Rating: 2.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Sport
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, cult classic, independent film, rough, serious, realistic, psychotronic, cult film
Similar in 90%
Penitentiary II (1982)
Plot Summary:
An ex-con, on parole and trying to straighten his life out, decides to resume his boxing career when one of his prison enemies escapes and kills his girlfriend.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 763
Genere: Crime, Drama, Sport
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: independent film, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 80%
Penitentiary III (1987)
Plot Summary:
A man is framed for murder and sent to prison. He is beaten and tortured, then forced to fight the prison's worst killer, a martial-arts fighting midget called Thud.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 568
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Sport
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, psychotronic, independent film, cult film
Similar in 82%
The Ceremony (1963)
Plot Summary:
A man (Robert Walker) has an affair with his condemned brother's (Laurence Harvey) girlfriend (Sarah Miles) while plotting his escape in Tangier.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 241
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Spain, USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: noir, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing, gloomy
Similar in 79%
Another Pair of Aces: Three of a Kind (1991)
Plot Summary:
A gambler, a Texas ranger and an FBI agent are investigating a series of vigilante murders.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 258
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 86%
Hit Man (1972)
Plot Summary:
Bernie Casey portrays Tyrone and Pamela Grier plays a sultry skin-flick star in this first Americanized remake of the iconic Michael Caine action film Get Carter. From Watts to the West Side, from porno parlors to a high-rise, from motel dives to a crime kingpin’s sprawling pleasure dome, from corner hangouts to a wildlife preserve, Tyrone covers a lot of real estate, busts a lot of heads.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: neo noir, psychotronic, grindhouse, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, black cinema
Similar in 78%
The Black Godfather (1974)
Plot Summary:
The heroes in The Black Godfather are members of an African-American criminal organization. Like Brando in The Godfather, they're not averse to robbery and murder, but they do draw the line at narcotics. When the Mafia infiltrates the 'hood with dangerous drugs, the Black Godfather (Rod Perry) orders his minions to put an end to this perfidy.
IMDB Rating: 4.3
IMDB Votes: 555
Genere: Crime
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: independent film, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, cult film
Similar in 77%
Green Street Hooligans 2 (2009)
Plot Summary:
When the top players of the Green Street Elite are imprisoned following a deadly battle with their archenemies Millwall every day becomes a fight for survival. On the inside, rival firms and prison guards will stop at nothing to make their lives a living hell, leaving the lads with no choice but to stand their ground and fight. Find out what happens when the two most fearsome and notorious firms.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 15000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Sport
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: serious, rough, realistic, tense, suspense, hood
Similar in 84%
Jackson County Jail (1976)
Plot Summary:
This is a powerful drama about a young woman who stumbles into a nightmare land of hijacking and humiliation while driving cross-country from California to New York.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, independent film, road movie, tense, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing
Similar in 75%
Undisputed III: Redemption (2010)
Plot Summary:
Russian inmate Boyka, now severely hobbled by the knee injury suffered at the end of Undisputed 2. No longer the feared prison fighter he was, he has declined so far that he is now good only for cleaning toilets. But when a new prison fight tournament begins - an international affair, matching the best fighters from prisons around the globe, enticing them with the promise of freedom for the winner - Boyka must reclaim his dignity and fight for his position in the tournament.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 44000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Sport
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, saga, cult classic, extraordinary, cult film
Similar in 84%
La Fuga (2001)
Plot Summary:
In the summer of 1928, several inmates from the National Penitentiary in Buenos Aires managed to escape. The film narrates the fate of each of these runaways in search of their destiny - tough men with their own ethical codes and ready to do anything not to return to prison. Some of them will suffer violent deaths, while others manage de disappear. Sordid and moving stories, not excluding tenderness and love, mercy or horror sealed with a pact of prison love that will remain in the heart of Buenos Aires, as witness of the yearned-for freedom.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 834
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Spain, Argentina
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, captivating, suspenseful, realistic, adaptation directed by original author
Similar in 86%
Black Mama White Mama (1973)
Plot Summary:
When two troublemaking female prisoners (one a revolutionary, the other a former harem-girl) can't seem to get along, they are chained together and extradited for safekeeping. The women, still chained together, stumble, stab, and cat-fight their way across the wilderness, igniting a bloody shootout between gangsters and a group of revolutionaries.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Philippines, USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, realistic, rough, serious, psychotronic, psychological, slasher, cult classic, independent film, exciting
Similar in 82%
Letters from a Killer (1998)
Plot Summary:
A man is falsely convicted of the murder of his wife. During his time in jail, he finds comfort from four women with whom he corresponds. After his second court appearance, he is finally freed from prison only to be framed for yet 2 more murders which he did not commit. With the help of his former prison guard, he once again sets out to clear his name.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: psychological thriller, independent film, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, surprise ending, suspense
Similar in 85%
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 80%
Marked Man (1996)
Plot Summary:
A jailed auto mechanic must run for his life after he witnesses the murder of a fellow inmate by two prison guards.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 351
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Canada
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: independent film, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, campy
Similar in 81%
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 89%
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 81%
Undisputed II: Last Man Standing (2006)
Plot Summary:
Sequel to the 2002 film. This time, Heavyweight Champ George "Iceman" Chambers (White) is sent to a Russian jail on trumped-up drug charges. In order to win his freedom he must fight against the jailhouse fighting champ Uri Boyka (Adkins) in a battle to the death. This time he is not fighting for a title, he is fighting for his life!.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 39000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Sport
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, serious, realistic, exciting, rough, saga, cult classic, unusual plot structure, extraordinary, weird
Similar in 88%
Body and Soul (1981)
Plot Summary:
A young man struggles to become a boxing champ, but success blinds him. It is only through the love of his girlfriend that he is brought back to reality.
IMDB Rating: 4.5
IMDB Votes: 386
Genere: Drama, Sport
Country: USA
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: neo noir, grindhouse, independent film, sincere, rough, serious, realistic, eighties
Similar in 77%
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 84%
Breaking Point (1976)
Plot Summary:
The Mafia tries to take revenge against a man who testified against them in court.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 340
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 76%
Undisputed (2002)
Plot Summary:
Monroe Hutchens is the heavyweight champion of Sweetwater, a maximum security prison. He was convicted to a life sentence due to a passionate crime. Iceman Chambers is the heavyweight champion, who lost his title due to a rape conviction to ten years in Sweetwater. WHen these two giants collide in the same prison, they fight against each other disputing who is the real champion.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 34000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Sport
Country: USA, Germany, Japan
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: suspense, talky, stylized, intense, exciting, tense, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 79%
El padrino (2004)
Plot Summary:
In the streets of East Los Angeles, Manny is a formidable drug dealer. Impressed by his extravagant lifestyle and prowess, his young son, Kilo, yearns to follow in his footsteps. Kilo resolves to learn how to prosper in the drug world, and his new life as a dealer begins. In a world where a man wants everything, he may end up with nothing.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 762
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, exciting
Similar in 81%
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 89%
The Mack (1973)
Plot Summary:
Goldie returns from five years at the state pen and winds up king of the pimping game. Trouble comes in the form of two corrupt white cops and a crime lord who wants him to return to the small time.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, hood, funny, cult classic, independent film, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, stylized
Similar in 90%
The Escapist (2002)
Plot Summary:
Denis Hopkins, a pilot, lives with his pregnant wife Valerie and has a comfortable lifestyle. When a gang of criminals led by the sadistic Ricky Barnes breaks into his home, he offers whatever the criminals want to protect his wife and unborn child, but the evil Ricky kills Valerie anyway. Their baby is saved, and later Barnes is arrested and sentenced to life in the maximum security prison, Sullen Voe. Denis fakes his own suicide, then assaults a police car in order to get himself arrested and sent to prison with the intention of tracking down and killing Ricky Barnes. He does not reveal his true name and is called John "What" by the prisoners and guards. Denis escapes from successive prisons, forcing his eventual transfer to Sullen Voe. When he reaches his objective, Ricky Barnes schedules a confrontation, but things do not quite turn out the way Denis had expected.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: realistic, suspenseful, tense, serious, rough
Similar in 86%
Jailbait (2004)
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
Similar in 75%
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 89%
New Jersey Drive (1995)
Plot Summary:
New Jersey Drive is a 1995 film about black youths in Newark, New Jersey, the unofficial "car theft capital of the world". Their favorite pastime is that of everybody in their neighborhood: stealing cars and joyriding. The trouble starts when they steal a police car and the cops launch a violent offensive that involves beating and even shooting suspects.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: realistic, hood, brutal, melancholic, rough, serious, suspenseful, disturbing, cult classic, independent film