Best movies like The Gambler
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
New York City English professor Axel Freed outwardly seems like an upstanding citizen. But privately Freed is in the clutches of a severe gambling addiction that threatens to destroy him.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: suspense, tense, clever, intense, neo noir, realistic, serious, suspenseful, cynical, psychological
Best tv shows and movies like The Gambler (1974):
Similar in 90%
Fingers (1978)
Plot Summary:
Keitel plays the lead in this schizophrenic movie in which he is continually pulled by the two conflicting sides of his personality, on the one hand that of a quiet piano virtuoso and on the other a ruthless debt collector for his mobster father. Keitel is introspective as only Keitel can be, really making the audience feel for him and his pained existence.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: neo noir, grim, cult classic, independent film, psychological, tense, serious, realistic, disturbing, gloomy
Similar in 82%
Harvard Man (2001)
Plot Summary:
College has always been a time for experimentation, sexual, cultural and otherwise. "Harvard Man" plays out against a background of love, sex, basketball, crime and experimentation. Action and philosophy in young people's quest to discover their true identity.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Comedy, Crime, Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: sexy, light, intense, tense, humorous, semi serious, independent film, stylized, sexual, talky
Similar in 88%
Cold Deck (2015)
Plot Summary:
When a poker player hits rock bottom he enlists his best friend to pull off a high-stakes heist.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: captivating, cynical, psychological, tense, suspense
Similar in 76%
Phoenix (1998)
Plot Summary:
Gambling fever -- along with a brutal bookie -- leads three crooked cops into a double-dealing scheme that lands them in hot water way over their heads.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: neo noir, detective, independent film, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, contemplative, psychological, tense
Similar in 84%
Poodle Springs (1998)
Plot Summary:
Private eye Philip Marlowe and his bride move to a desert town, where he uncovers a land scheme.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 976
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: neo noir, detective, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 76%
Hard Eight (1996)
Plot Summary:
A stranger mentors a young Reno gambler who weds a hooker and befriends a vulgar casino regular.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 54000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: neo noir, noir, cult classic, independent film, clever, mumblecore, mind blowing, crime thriller, tense, sentimental
Similar in 81%
City of Ghosts (2002)
Plot Summary:
A con man travels to Cambodia (also on the run from law enforcement in the U.S.) to collect his share in an insurance scam, but discovers more than he bargained for.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: intense, stylized, serious, tense, realistic, suspenseful, neo noir, independent film, crying, light
Similar in 77%
Croupier (1998)
Plot Summary:
Jack Manfred is an aspiring writer who to make ends meet, takes a job as a croupier. Jack remains an observer, knowing that everything in life is a gamble and that gamblers are born to lose. Inevitably, he gets sucked into the world of the casino which takes its toll on his relationships and the novel he is writing.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 23000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: UK, Ireland, France, Germany
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: neo noir, tense, clever, noir, serious, realistic, entertaining, atmospheric, surprise ending, twist ending
Similar in 81%
The Gambler (2014)
Plot Summary:
Literature professor Jim Bennett leads a secret life as a high-stakes gambler. Always a risk-taker, Bennett bets it all when he borrows from a gangster and offers his own life as collateral. Staying one step ahead, he pits his creditor against the operator of an illicit gambling ring while garnering the attention of Frank, a paternalistic loan shark. As his relationship with a student deepens, Bennett must risk everything for a second chance.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 73000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: clever, psychological, suspense, suspenseful, serious, tense, rough, realistic, cynical, independent film
Similar in 89%
Owning Mahowny (2003)
Plot Summary:
Dan Mahowny was a rising star at the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. At twenty-four he was assistant manager of a major branch in the heart of Toronto's financial district. To his colleagues he was a workaholic. To his customers, he was astute, decisive and helpful. To his friends, he was a quiet, but humorous man who enjoyed watching sports on television. To his girlfriend, he was shy but engaging. None of them knew the other side of Dan Mahowny--the side that executed the largest single-handed bank fraud in Canadian history, grossing over $10 million in eighteen months to feed his gambling obsession.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Canada, UK
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: psychological, suspense, melancholic, enigmatic, sincere, suspenseful, independent film, thought provoking, serious, realistic
Similar in 79%
Rampart (2011)
Plot Summary:
Follows veteran police officer Dave Brown, the last of the renegade cops, as he struggles to take care of his family, and fights for his own survival.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 25000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: bleak, intense, rough, psychological, neo noir, suspense, harsh, thought provoking, detective, cult classic
Similar in 85%
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)
Plot Summary:
A proud strip club owner is forced to come to terms with himself as a man, when his gambling addiction gets him in hot water with the mob, who offer him only one alternative.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags: neo noir, noir, art house, independent film, atmospheric, cerebral, tense, cynical, crime drama, crime thriller
Similar in 84%
Cement (2000)
Plot Summary:
What's the bond between partners, between brothers, and between spouses? In L.A., Bill Holt handcuffs Sean Rickhart inside a rebar frame for a freeway pillar at a construction site; Bill's going to bury Sean in quick-drying cement. Guided by the narration of Nin, Bill's coke-snorting partner, we go back and forth over the past 48 hours to find out what brings Bill and Sean to this deadly scene. Missing money, cops on the take, Sean's two brothers (one the leader of the mob, the other a camera-carrying simpleton), Bill's wife, dead young police officers, infidelity, and Bill and Nin's partnership make a mix as volatile and unstable as the cement is solid and immobile.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 654
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: neo noir, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing, dark, independent film, tense
Similar in 88%
Uncut Gems (2019)
Plot Summary:
Howard Ratner, a charismatic New York City jeweler always on the lookout for the next big score, makes a series of high-stakes bets that could lead to the windfall of a lifetime.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 309000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags: neo noir, tense, suspense, independent film, dark comedy, uplifting, black comedy, crime thriller, tragic ending, psychological thriller
Similar in 87%
The Funeral (1996)
Plot Summary:
The story concerns the funeral of one of three brothers in a family of gangsters that lived in New York in 1930s. Details of the past of the brothers and their families are shown through a series of flashbacks.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: neo noir, surprise ending, independent film, philosophical, hood, tense, rough, clever, serious, captivating
Similar in 89%
Rounders (1998)
Plot Summary:
A young man is a reformed gambler who must return to playing big stakes poker to help a friend pay off loan sharks.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 158000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: neo noir, clever, suspense, psychological, serious, talky, rough, feel good, independent film, inspirational
Similar in 88%
The Runner (1999)
Plot Summary:
A compulsive gambler finds his new family's safety seriously threatened by a ruthless gambling boss.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, realistic, suspenseful, independent film
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Similar in 75%
Even Money (2006)
Plot Summary:
Gambling addiction bring the stories of three otherwise unconnected people together as it destroys each of their lives.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA, Germany
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, disturbing, suspenseful, suspense, gloomy
Similar in 90%
Two for the Money (2005)
Plot Summary:
A former college athlete joins forces with a sports consultant to handicap football games for high-rolling gamblers.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 48000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Sport
Country: USA
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: intense, tense, serious, suspenseful, stylized, inspirational, light, neo noir, cult classic, realistic
Similar in 78%
21 (2008)
Plot Summary:
Ben Campbell is a young, highly intelligent, student at M.I.T. in Boston who strives to succeed. Wanting a scholarship to transfer to Harvard School of Medicine with the desire to become a doctor, Ben learns that he cannot afford the $300,000 for the four to five years of schooling as he comes from a poor, working-class background. But one evening, Ben is introduced by his unorthodox math professor Micky Rosa into a small but secretive club of five. Students Jill, Choi, Kianna, and Fisher, who are being trained by Professor Rosa of the skill of card counting at blackjack.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 264000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: surprise ending, intellectual, suspense, inspirational, clever, exciting, entertaining, teen, spectacular, intense
Similar in 83%
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%
Thief (1981)
Plot Summary:
Frank is an expert professional safecracker, specialized in high-profile diamond heists. He plans to use his ill-gotten income to retire from crime and build a nice life for himself complete with a home, wife and kids. To accelerate the process, he signs on with a top gangster for a big score.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 37000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: neo noir, atmospheric, cerebral, cult classic, retro, tense, realistic, stylized, crime drama, suspense
Similar in 84%
Light Sleeper (1992)
Plot Summary:
A drug dealer with upscale clientele is having moral problems going about his daily deliveries. A reformed addict, he has never gotten over the wife that left him, and the couple that use him for deliveries worry about his mental well-being and his effectiveness at his job. Meanwhile someone is killing women in apparently drug-related incidents.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: realistic, suspenseful, psychological, serious, neo noir, entertaining, social, existential, sincere, captivating
Similar in 83%
Bugsy (1991)
Plot Summary:
New York gangster Ben 'Bugsy' Siegel takes a brief business trip to Los Angeles. A sharp-dressing womanizer with a foul temper, Siegel doesn't hesitate to kill or maim anyone crossing him. In L.A. the life, the movies, and most of all strong-willed Virginia Hill detain him while his family wait back home. Then a trip to a run-down gambling joint at a spot in the desert known as Las Vegas gives him his big idea.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 31000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 136 min
Plot tags: realistic, stylized, intense, suspense, talky, tense, serious, captivating, period piece, neo noir
Similar in 79%
Mean Streets (1973)
Plot Summary:
A small-time hood must choose from among love, friendship and the chance to rise within the mob.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 117000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: neo noir, tense, atmospheric, realistic, bleak, independent film, serious, rough, suspenseful, dark
Similar in 80%
Mobsters (1991)
Plot Summary:
The story of a group of friends in turn of the century New York, from their early days as street hoods to their rise in the world of organized crime.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: suspense, talky, intense, realistic, suspenseful, rough, serious, stylized, hood, exciting
Similar in 77%
Donnie Brasco (1997)
Plot Summary:
An FBI undercover agent infilitrates the mob and finds himself identifying more with the mafia life at the expense of his regular one.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 326000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: neo noir, tense, realistic, clever, suspense, serious, suspenseful, rough, talky, atmospheric
Similar in 81%
American Hustle (2013)
Plot Summary:
A con man, Irving Rosenfeld, along with his seductive partner Sydney Prosser, is forced to work for a wild FBI agent, Richie DiMaso, who pushes them into a world of Jersey powerbrokers and mafia.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 496000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA, China
Duration: 138 min
Plot tags: clever, tense, period piece, suspense, intense, cynical, tricky, semi serious, cerebral, realistic
Similar in 81%
Casino (1995)
Plot Summary:
The life of the gambling paradise – Las Vegas – and its dark mafia underbelly.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 552000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA, France
Duration: 178 min
Plot tags: realistic, clever, rough, suspense, neo noir, captivating, brutal, stylized, intense, tense
Similar in 87%
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