Best movies like The Detective
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A private detective is drawn into a complex murder mystery when he is hired to track down a missing young woman.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: neo noir, atmospheric, captivating, tense, suspense, detective, crime drama, rough, serious, realistic
Best tv shows and movies like The Detective (2007):
Similar in 87%
I Come with the Rain (2009)
Plot Summary:
Kline, a former Los Angeles police officer turned private detective, is hired by a powerful pharmaceutical conglomerate boss to investigate in Asia the disappearance of his only son, Shitao, whom he has not seen in person since the boy was ten. Now in his 30s, Shitao has gone missing in the Philippines where he had been helping in an orphanage.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Thriller
Country: France, Hong Kong, Ireland, Spain, UK
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: psychological, neo noir, atmospheric, serious, tense, captivating, suspense, offbeat, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 79%
The Bullet Vanishes (2012)
Plot Summary:
One rainy night in an arms factory near Shanghai, a young female worker accused of stealing a box of bullets from the ruthless Boss Ding (Liu Kai Chi) is violently killed in a game of Russian roulette. Half a month later, a series of inexplicable deaths takes place in the factory, where the victims are shot but no bullets are found. Rumors of a deadly curse begin to spread in the factory, terrorizing the workers there. So, eccentric police inspector Song Donglu (Lau Ching Wan) and his hot-blooded, gunslinging partner Guo Zhui (Nicholas Tse) are sent in to investigate the mystery of the phantom bullets.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: China, Hong Kong
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: tense, rough, serious, suspenseful, stylized, realistic, detective
Similar in 84%
Bitter Flowers (2007)
Plot Summary:
Karsten Aslaksen, chief engineer of a large chemical company, disappears without trace. His married lover, a successful politician named Vibeke Farang, approaches private investigator Varg Veum to track him down discreetly.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Norway, Sweden, Germany
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, suspenseful, suspense, neo noir, mind bending, realistic
Similar in 84%
Hotel Noir (2012)
Plot Summary:
Los Angeles, 1958: a detective holes up in a downtown hotel awaiting killers to come get him. During the course of one night he will meet various occupants of the hotel and the truth of how he came to be in his present situation will be revealed.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: neo noir, atmospheric, realistic, suspenseful, serious, black and white, suspense, detective, stylized, independent film
Similar in 84%
The Spreading Ground (2000)
Plot Summary:
Veteran Detective Ed Delopre (Dennis Hopper) and partner Mike McGivern (Fredric Forrest) have their hands full when they hit the pavement in search of a dangerous killer with five dead bodies already on his record. The mayor, in a rush to see peace restored in her city, makes a deal with the mob instead of waiting for Delopre and McGivern's results. Now that both sides of the law are involved in the killer's capture, the city is turned upside down.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 543
Genere: Crime, Drama, Horror, Thriller
Country: Canada
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, suspenseful, stylized, detective, mind bending, realistic
Similar in 89%
Four Assassins (2011)
Plot Summary:
Four assassins meet in a hotel suite to resolve unfinished business. A tense drama set in the cosmopolitan world of Hong Kong.
IMDB Rating: 3.7
IMDB Votes: 673
Genere: Action, Thriller
Country: Hong Kong, USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, suspenseful, captivating, suspense, crime drama, realistic, contemplative, talky, stylized
Similar in 76%
Hickey & Boggs (1972)
Plot Summary:
Two veteran private eyes trigger a criminal reign of terror with their search for a missing girl.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: neo noir, detective, tense, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, suspense, black cinema, cult film
Similar in 75%
6th Commandment Cross (2012)
Plot Summary:
Meet Leonard, a man who will help you die with a smile on your face. A young attorney meets his client for the first time, a serial killer known as the "Smiley Face Killer", whose victims all died with a smile on their faces.
IMDB Rating: 4.3
IMDB Votes: 104
Genere: Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, psychological, captivating, exciting, rough, realistic, suspenseful, slasher
Similar in 84%
Blind Detective (2013)
Plot Summary:
A blind detective, former cop, teams up with a policewoman who admires him to solve the disappearance of a girl friend of hers, years ago. Besides, he helps her to improve her skills as an investigator.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Action, Comedy, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Hong Kong, China
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: serious, suspenseful, detective, tense, captivating, suspense, rough, offbeat, humorous, realistic
Similar in 82%
Headshot (2011)
Plot Summary:
A hitman named Tul is shot in the head during an assignment. When he wakes up from a two month coma Tul discovers that he literally sees everything upside down.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Thailand, France
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: neo noir, tense, rough, serious, suspenseful, exciting, atmospheric, realistic, erotic, sexy
Similar in 75%
The Missing Person (2009)
Plot Summary:
Private detective John Rosow is hired to tail a man on a train from Chicago to Los Angeles. Rosow gradually uncovers the man's identity as a missing person; one of the thousands presumed dead after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Persuaded by a large reward, Rosow is charged with bringing the missing person back to his wife in New York City.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: neo noir, serious, realistic, suspenseful, stylized, detective, thrilling, clever
Similar in 77%
Varg Veum - Yours 'till Death (2008)
Plot Summary:
Private eye Varg Veum is on a routine mission searching for his client Jonas Andresen's stolen car. The car is found having been used in a brutal robbery and not long after that the client himself turns up dead.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Norway, Denmark
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, tense, realistic, neo noir, detective, serious
Similar in 79%
The Falls (2003)
Plot Summary:
In a smoke-filled dive in Buffalo, NY, David Marx tells us his tale of obsession, betrayal, and murder - leading him to an uncertain fate "underneath Niagara Falls." David tells us how his beautiful redheaded ex-girlfriend, Jennifer Barnes, has disappeared and how he ended up the guardian of the 2.5 million dollars that "was supposed to have bought Jen's safety.".
IMDB Rating: 4.1
IMDB Votes: 117
Genere: Thriller, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: neo noir, tense, serious, realistic, suspenseful, independent film, surprise ending
Similar in 76%
Quo Vadis, Baby? (2005)
Plot Summary:
A private detective investigates her sister's suicide 16 years earlier.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Italy
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, realistic, suspenseful, neo noir, detective
Similar in 80%
Good Chemistry (2008)
Plot Summary:
After picking up an alluring woman,Toby, a gifted chemist slumming as a high school teacher, is kidnapped by her violent boyfriend and ordered to use his skills to create methamphetamine for a group of drug traffickers. When Toby refuses, his nightmare only worsens.
IMDB Rating: 3.0
IMDB Votes: 160
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: serious, tense, rough, realistic, suspenseful, suspense
Similar in 90%
Soo: Revenge for a Twisted Fate (2007)
Plot Summary:
Tae-soo tries to steal from a gang. The gang catches Tae-Soo's brother, Tae-Jin, instead. The incident causes the brothers to separate. Tae-Soo becomes a mob fixer and an assassin. Tae-Jin becomes a police detective. When a call brings the brothers together, they get ready for brotherly bonding, but Tae-Jin gets killed. Tae-Soo decides to get revenge on his brother's killer.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 416
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller
Country: South Korea
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: exciting, tense, captivating, suspense, crime drama, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 85%
A Little Trip to Heaven (2005)
Plot Summary:
Insurance investigator Abraham Holt travels to a tiny town in rural Minnesota to look into a particularly unusual insurance claim stemming from a horrific car accident. As Holt examines the scene of the wreck, it all seems a bit too perfect. And when he interviews Isold Mcbride and her shifty husband, Fred -- the impoverished beneficiaries of the massive, recently initiated life-insurance policy -- he begins to suspect that something is amiss.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: Iceland, USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: serious, suspenseful, suspense, neo noir, clever, realistic, surprise ending
Similar in 90%
The Mortician (2011)
Plot Summary:
Alienated and cold, The Mortician (Method Man) processes the corpses with steely disregard. He is lonely and isolated. He is introduced to his new employee, Noah, (EJ Bonilla) by the morgue boss (Edward Furlong). Noah is a volatile youth working as part of his parole.Noah brings the notorious gangster, Carver (Dash Mihok), and his crew to the mortuary door. The Mortician's attention is pricked by the tattoo of Botticelli's 'Birth of Venus' inked on the body of a murdered woman (Judy Marte), that arrives at the morgue, triggering a series of haunting dreams from his childhood. Discovering a scared child, Kane (Cruz Santiago), fleeing the morgue, he's forced to act. They become reluctant allies, struggling for redemption as they run. Through his awkward heroism, the Mortician reconnects with his long forgotten past, and finds the answers he's been searching for. He find redemption and peace.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: neo noir, psychological, tense, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 84%
Clean Break (2008)
Plot Summary:
A dramatic thriller about a couple who own an advertising agency. The husband apparently commits suicide, but the police and the insurance company decide to investigate his death.
IMDB Rating: 4.2
IMDB Votes: 764
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, psychological, suspense, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 86%
The Detective 2 (2011)
Plot Summary:
Mysteries keep revolving around Tam’s life.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 582
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: realistic, atmospheric, serious, suspenseful, stylized, tense, rough
Similar in 79%
Heart of Stone (2001)
Plot Summary:
A beautiful woman doesn't know if the killer is her lover ... or her husband ... or someone else!.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 239
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sexy, suspenseful, suspense, independent film, tense, serious, realistic, sexual, erotic
Similar in 84%
PTU: Police Tactical Unit (2003)
Plot Summary:
Over the course of one night, a team of cops frantically search for their colleague's missing gun.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: neo noir, serious, suspenseful, exciting, realistic, heroic, contemplative, detective
Similar in 82%
Wo Hu (2006)
Plot Summary:
The Hong Kong Police placed 1000 undercover officers in the various Triad groups in their efforts to bring down the criminal organization in Hong Kong. After one undercover officer's identity is discovered and he is killed, the pressure is put on one gang, suspicious of each other and everyone around them. Betrayal, deceit and murder bring this group of 'brothers' into a collision with the law, and each other.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 356
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, suspense, psychological, heroic, crime drama, exciting, rough, serious, realistic
Similar in 86%
Confession of Pain (2006)
Plot Summary:
A detective helps a friend investigate the mysterious death of his father.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Hong Kong, China, Japan
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, suspenseful, rough, realistic, neo noir, crime drama, twisted, detective
Similar in 79%
West 32nd (2007)
Plot Summary:
When John Kim, an ambitious young lawyer, takes on a pro bono case to exonerate a fourteen-year-old boy from a first degree murder charge, he finds a world he never knew existed in the underbelly of Manhattan - the Korean underworld.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 534
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: South Korea, USA
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: tense, atmospheric, captivating, psychological, suspense, crime drama, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 79%
Colour of the Truth (2003)
Plot Summary:
A man becomes a cop in order to take down the police superintendent who may have killed his father, and that of a vengeful Triad boss.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 678
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: exciting, captivating, suspense, tense, crime drama, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 78%
Diary (2006)
Plot Summary:
Winnie Leung becomes more disturbed and depressed after her boyfriend Seth Lau breaks up with her and she turns schizophrenic - imagining events which never occurred, and often living in her own world- until one day she meets a guy named Ray, bearing a close resemblance to Seth. Seeing this, her best friend Yvonne encourages her to go out with Hou so she can forget her misery and start over. As time passes, Winnie realises that the relationship with Ray is so alike her previous relationship with Seth, and when things seem to be running smoothly, the relationship begins to sours, just like with Seth. She begins to doubt his feelings and the lines between reality and fantasy start blurring again for her, leading her to question: did this all exist in the first place?.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 807
Genere: Drama, Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: tense, psychological, suspense, captivating, psychological thriller, atmospheric, mind bending, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 82%
Perez. (2014)
Plot Summary:
Demetrio Perez is a tough prosecutor torn between the corruption inherent in his job and the desire to do right by his family. But when opportunity presents itself and his daughter Thea falls in love with a Mafioso’s son, Perez has to cut through the morality of his law-abiding roots and become as dirty as the dangerous criminals he represents.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 756
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Italy
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, psychological, captivating, suspense, neo noir, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 78%
Election 2 (2006)
Plot Summary:
As election time nears, current Triad chairman Lok (Simon Yam) faces competition from his godsons. At the same time, Jimmy (Louis Koo) looks to increase his business relations with mainland China.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: serious, suspenseful, tense, rough, captivating, realistic, suspense, neo noir, bloody, stylized
Similar in 88%
The Call (2013)
Plot Summary:
Jordan Turner is an experienced 911 operator but when she makes an error in judgment and a call ends badly, Jordan is rattled and unsure if she can continue. But when teenager Casey Welson is abducted in the back of a man's car and calls 911, Jordan is the one called upon to use all of her experience, insights and quick thinking to help Casey escape, and not just to save her, but to make sure the man is brought to justice.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 129000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: suspense, suspenseful, surprise ending, psychological, tense, twist ending, realistic, serious, intense, teen