Best movies like The Cynic, the Rat and the Fist
Last updated March 2024
Looking for movies like The Cynic, the Rat and the Fist? Contribute your insights to steer others toward tv series and movies you've viewed before that may also consume them. Help enlarge the circle of people referring videos between each other. We welcome your engagement!
Plot Summary:
This is probably the best example of a 70's Italian crime movie, though not the "best" movie of the genre (does that make sense?). It has, besides Saxon, an entirely Italian cast but most of them are pretty recognizable regulars in very amusing roles. Maurizio Merli is best as the role he was born to play, that of yet another ticked off Police commissioner. His very charismatic, yet level-headed performance is the one thing that keeps this movie moving along so well, and it is notable that of Lenzi's crime movies, this is probably the one that entrusts Merli with the most screentime.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: Italy
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: poliziottesco, cult classic, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, cult film
Best tv shows and movies like The Cynic, the Rat and the Fist (1977):
Similar in 76%
Convoy Busters (1978)
Plot Summary:
In Rome, a vagrant finds the body of a teen girl, her throat professional slashed. Police inspector Olmi uses his brutal and violent methods to follow a trail that leads him toward high government officials. When his methods leave an innocent bystander dead, the corrupt officials have an excuse to get Olmi transferred to a coastal town where the pace is slow and he has time for a romantic dalliance. Soon, Olmi discovers that fishing isn't the only local occupation, and out comes his gun and his ruthless tactics of investigation.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 441
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: Italy
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: poliziottesco
Similar in 85%
A Special Cop in Action (1976)
Plot Summary:
A school bus with young children being kidnapped. Commissario Betti will solve the case. High action is promised, including hostage, bank robberies, car chases, prison scenes and mafia bosses!.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 577
Genere: Thriller, Action, Crime
Country: Italy
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: poliziottesco, surprise ending
Similar in 83%
Street War (1976)
Plot Summary:
The film focuses on Murri; the token maverick cop. He is called in after a bunch of criminals pull off a successful prison break and spend the night picking off various informers and people they don't like. Murri investigates; hooking up with one of the criminal's nieces along the way. He uses his own methods; which mostly involve breaking all the rules, and thus comes under a lot of scrutiny from his superiors who don't take too kindly to the cop's way of working.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 311
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: poliziottesco, psychotronic, cult film
Similar in 80%
Emergency Squad (1974)
Plot Summary:
A ruthless Interpol agent goes after the man who killed his wife in Stelvio Massi's crime thriller. A gutsy robber named Marseilles pulls off a tricky heist, but he's no match for agent Ravelli, a maverick who can't control his bloodlust. And this time, it's personal: Years earlier, the daring thief murdered the operative's wife in cold blood.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 550
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: Italy
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: poliziottesco
Similar in 88%
Violent City (1975)
Plot Summary:
A detective sick and tired of the rampant crime and violence in his city, and constantly at odds with his superiors, is finally kicked out of the department for a "questionable" shooting of a vicious criminal. However, he is soon approached by a representative for a group of citizens who themselves are fed up with what they see as criminals going unpunished, and they make him an offer he may very well not refuse.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 682
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Italy
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: poliziottesco, neo noir
Similar in 78%
Manhunt in the City (1975)
Plot Summary:
When a crook gets framed as a drug kingpin, the mob decide to "off" his wife. Revenge is the name of the game, and the manhunt is on!.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 344
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: Italy
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: poliziottesco, psychotronic, cult film
Similar in 80%
Street Law (1974)
Plot Summary:
Carlo Antonelli, an engineer from Genoa, gets mugged and decides to take justice into his own hands. At first the muggers seem to get the upper hand, but then he's helped by Tommy, a young robber who takes his side.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Thriller
Country: Italy
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: poliziottesco, grindhouse, cult classic, action thriller, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, psychotronic
Similar in 79%
The Heroin Busters (1977)
Plot Summary:
Drug use in the city of Rome is at an all-time high. Children score from dealers in front of their schools, mules waltz straight through airport security, and Interpol's main man, Mike Hamilton (David Hemmings), is at his wits' end. Fed up to the back teeth with the local police force's incompetence, his only hope is to rely on one of his own men, Fabio (Fabio Testi), an officer so deep undercover that no-one but Hamilton knows who he really is. Even as Fabio gains the trust of cartel leader Gianni (John Loffredo), however, the dealers are edging ever closer to the truth, and when his cover is blown, the hunter becomes the hunted as Fabio finds himself alone in a desperate fight to survive.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 910
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: Italy
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: poliziottesco, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, fast, neo noir, psychotronic, cult film
Similar in 77%
The Family (1970)
Plot Summary:
A hitman is double-crossed by his girlfriend and barely escapes a murder attempt. He then sets out to take his revenge on the woman and the gang boss who put her up to it.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: Italy, France, USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: poliziottesco, action thriller, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 85%
Heroic Duo (2003)
Plot Summary:
Tough cop Ken Li (Cheng) is at the top of his game, but he's going to need some help to solve a grisly crime that the offender, a respected police officer, doesn't even remember committing. He seeks out Jack Lai (Lai), a former psychologist now in disgrace and behind bars, who has an uncanny ability to bend people to his will. Making an uneasy truce, this unconventional pair set out on a mission to find the man responsible, a master of hypnotism who will stop at nothing to get his revenge!.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 880
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, stylized, heroic
Similar in 83%
Long Arm of the Law: Part 2 (1987)
Plot Summary:
This sequel to the critically-acclaimed box-office winner Long Arm of the Law maintains the same stark realism of the original. In Saga Two, the Royal Hong Kong Police put into operation a new plan to counteract the problem of increasing violent crimes committed by new arrivals from across the border in China. In agreement with Chinese authorities, three Hong Kong detectives go undercover as illegal immigrants in order to infiltrate the powerful gang that is organizing the crime wave. The action is tough and graphic, reminiscent of The French Connection, Hong Kong style.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 284
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: heroic, crime drama, exciting, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, fast, poliziottesco
Similar in 75%
The Big Racket (1976)
Plot Summary:
Nico Palmieri is a police inspector who battles against hoodlums terrorising a sleepy Italian village, extorting cash from the locals.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Italy
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: poliziottesco, cult classic, grindhouse, cult film
Similar in 89%
Gambling City (1975)
Plot Summary:
Luca Altieri is a gambler. He likes cards and he is a master in playing poker. He is a cardsharper too. He begins working for "The President", who has many gambling houses and everything seems to go well until Luca falls for Maria Luisa. Unfortunately for them, she is the girl of Corrado, the son of "The President".
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 362
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Italy
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: poliziottesco, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 86%
The Tough Ones (1976)
Plot Summary:
A tough, violent cop who doesn't mind bending the law goes after a machine-gun-carrying, hunchbacked psychotic killer.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Italy
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: poliziottesco, cult classic, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, surprise ending, tragic ending, cult film
Similar in 88%
Syndicate Sadists (1975)
Plot Summary:
A biker's brother is killed while investigating the kidnapping of a young boy, the byproduct of a war between two crime families. The biker vows to get revenge by finding the kidnapped boy and destroying the two families.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 937
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Italy
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: poliziottesco, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, fast, cult film
Similar in 85%
The Violent Professionals (1973)
Plot Summary:
With or without help from law enforcement officers, a lone individual decides to crack down on the syndicate.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 967
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Italy
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: poliziottesco, grindhouse, noir, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, cult film
Similar in 76%
Violent Naples (1976)
Plot Summary:
Inspector Betti (Maurizio Merli) is transferred to Naples and immediately after his arrival receives a warm welcome from The Commandante (Barry Sullivan), the city's crime lord. Betti then goes on a personal mission against corruption and organized crime, and tries to force the syndicate out of town with any means necessary.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: poliziottesco, cult classic, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, psychotronic, cult film
Similar in 78%
Caliber 9 (1972)
Plot Summary:
Just out of prison, ex-con Ugo Piazza meets his former employer, a psychopathic gangster Rocco who enjoys sick violence and torture. Both the gangsters and the police believe Ugo has hidden $300,000 that should have gone to an American drug syndicate boss.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: Italy
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: poliziottesco, grindhouse, slasher, cult classic, action thriller, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 83%
The Italian Connection (1972)
Plot Summary:
When a shipment of heroin disappears between Italy and New York, a small-time pimp in Milan is framed for the theft. Two professional hitmen are dispatched from New York to find him, but the real thieves want to get rid of him before the New York killers get to him to eliminate any chance of them finding out he's the wrong man. When the pimp's wife and daughter are murdered in the course of the "manhunt", he swears revenge on everyone who had anything to do with it.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: Italy, West Germany
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: poliziottesco, grindhouse, erotic, cult classic, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, neo noir, black comedy
Similar in 88%
Contraband (1980)
Plot Summary:
Cigarette smugglers in Naples run into problems with cocaine operations being set up by a rival smuggler. Full of violence, including a women's face being burned off with a blow torch and a graphic rape scene.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Italy
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: poliziottesco, realistic, suspenseful, rough, serious, cult classic, bloody, disturbing, controversial, action thriller
Similar in 85%
The Outsider (1983)
Plot Summary:
In another typical Jean-Paul Belmondo vehicle, the French action hero plays a policeman prone to advancing the cause of justice by any means necessary. On his agenda is a powerful drug cartel working out of Paris and Marseilles, with a drug lord (Henry Silva) who is essentially inaccessible -- but not immortal. Stunts (performed by Belmondo) and chase scenes on land and water enliven the story, but the scenes with Belmondo's love interest are rather marginal themselves.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: France
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, hood, exciting
Similar in 75%
Gang War in Milan (1973)
Plot Summary:
A Milan pimp faces off against a ruthless and greedy French gangster whom wants to unite organized crime in Italy.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 714
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Italy
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: poliziottesco, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, cult film
Similar in 88%
The Boss (1973)
Plot Summary:
A bomb attack in a cinema in Palermo kills all the fellows of Attardi's clan a part from Cocchi. He immediately understands that the author of the bomb attack is Daniello from Don Corrasco's clan. Cocchi is determined to revenge. His actions, including the Corrasco's daughter kidnap, in a Palermo in which also the police is corrupted, will soon destroy the old equilibrium giving the way to an escalation of violence that won't save anyone. If Cocchi will survive to the mafia war he will be the new boss for sure.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: Italy
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, poliziottesco, noir, perverse, cult classic, action thriller, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 87%
Big Bullet (1996)
Plot Summary:
Hotheaded cop Bill Zhu (Lau Ching-wan) gets relegated to the Emergency Unit after a dustup with his inept boss. When the mob kills Zhu's pal and ex-colleague (Francis Ng) during a turf-war hit, he rounds up his motley department cohorts and embarks on a mission of revenge against the gangsters. The pursuit of the baddies culminates in a hair-raising showdown atop a hijacked transport plane in this action thriller.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 998
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: neo noir, bloody, heroic, crime drama, exciting, tense, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 80%
Triad Wars (2008)
Plot Summary:
In the midst of a violent gang war, a series of misfortunes threaten the fate of a gang boss and his mob.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: exciting, rough, serious, suspenseful, realistic, bloody, heroic, crime drama, slasher, fast
Similar in 83%
Rulers of the City (1976)
Plot Summary:
Tony, a mob loan collector, is dissatisfied with his station in life. Though he dreams of one day being rich, he is stuck with the dead-end job of beating up borrowers who fall behind in their payments. After meeting up with Napoli, another mob enforcer who's just been fired from his job, the two hatch a plan. Together, they will con mob boss Manzari out of a fortune, after which they can retire and live in luxury. Manzari, however, is not about to let them go so easily.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Crime, Thriller
Country: Italy, West Germany
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: poliziottesco, cult classic, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, black comedy, dark comedy, cult film
Similar in 89%
Flash Point (2007)
Plot Summary:
Detective Sergeant Ma Jun, known for dispensing his own brand of justice during arrests, teams up with an undercover cop, Wilson, to try and bring down three merciless Vietnamese brothers running a smuggling ring in the months before mainland China's takeover of Hong Kong. Jun pursues the gang tirelessly, sometimes ignoring police protocols. A showdown is inevitable!.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: Hong Kong, China
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: exciting, tense, captivating, suspense, cliffhanger, crime drama, cult classic, non stop action, aesthetic, rough
Similar in 87%
Long Arm of the Law (1984)
Plot Summary:
An ultra-violent and ultra-gritty tale of desperate Chinese would-be jewel thieves hoping to make a quick, effortless score in Hong Kong. Naturally, things go afoul, and the gang must hide out until the heat dies down, besmirched with the blood of an undercover cop. A progenitor of sorts of both "City on Fire" and "Reservoir Dogs," but lacking the romantic melodrama of the former and the hipster staginess of the latter. Winner of Hong Kong Film Awards for both Best Film and Best Director. Spawned a franchise with three sequels.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 859
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: heroic, crime drama, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, poliziottesco, cult film
Similar in 82%
Tiger Cage (1988)
Plot Summary:
Something fishy is going on in the anti-Drug Trafficking Unit of the HK Police, and only a few honest cops know that the corruption goes all the way to the top. However, they must prove their case quickly, and by unconventional means, after they are framed for murder and drug-trafficking themselves. Dodging bullets from cops and criminals alike, the race is on to clear their names, protect their loved ones, and bring their corrupt colleagues to justice.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: bloody, heroic, cult classic, exciting, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, fast
Similar in 90%
Almost Human (1974)
Plot Summary:
A psychotic small-time criminal realizes that the everyday robberies, rapes and murders he commits aren't profitable enough, so he figures to hit the big time by kidnapping the daughter of a rich man.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Italy
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: poliziottesco, tense, rough, serious, suspenseful, slasher, grindhouse, action thriller, terrifying, realistic