Best movies like The Palermo Connection
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Carmine Bonavia wins election as the mayor of New York on a promise to legalize drugs. After the election, he marries Carrie and goes to his ancestral home of Sicily for their honeymoon. In his hotel, he meets Il Principe, a Sicilian prince who has spent years confined to the hotel because he crossed the Mafia. Amid the beauties of Sicily Carmine discovers that men of power will stop at nothing to prevent the legalization of drugs, which threatens their business.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 555
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Best tv shows and movies like The Palermo Connection (1990):
Similar in 75%
The Amateur (1981)
Plot Summary:
A researcher for the CIA who convinces his superiors to send him to the eastern bloc in order to avenge the murder of his wife by enemy agents discovers a web of deception underneath his wife's death.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 889
Genere: Crime, Thriller
Country: Canada
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: political thriller, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, surprise ending, suspense
Similar in 83%
Illustrious Corpses (1976)
Plot Summary:
A detective (inspector Rogas) is assigned to investigate the mysterious murders of some Supreme Court judges. During the investigation he discovers a complot that involves the Italian Communist Party. (IMDb).
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: poliziottesco, detective, gloomy, tense, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing, suspense
Similar in 82%
Action Man (1967)
Plot Summary:
An American (Robert Stack) talks a retired French crook (Jean Gabin) into robbing a bank, but kidnappers demand the loot as ransom.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 724
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: France, Italy
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, cynical, nostalgic
Similar in 80%
We Still Kill the Old Way (1967)
Plot Summary:
A leftist professor wants the truth about two men killed during a hunting party; but the mafia, the Church and corrupt politicians don't want him to learn it.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: Italy
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: poliziottesco, neo noir, tense, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, stylized
Similar in 89%
The Listening (2006)
Plot Summary:
Estranged by the degree of corporate influence within the largest U.S. listening station in the world, an aging NSA officer defects and mounts a clandestine counter-listening station high in the Italian alps.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Italy
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: tense, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, independent film
Similar in 85%
Diamond 13 (2009)
Plot Summary:
A cop goes up against his lifelong friend, who has become one of the city's biggest drug traffickers.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: France, Belgium, Luxembourg
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, exciting, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 90%
The Bodyguards (1993)
Plot Summary:
The film shows the difficulties of an honest, imperiled judge and his bodyguard of four men, trying to clean up a Sicilian town. Corrupt local politicians, working hand-in-hand with the Mafia, will stop at nothing to prevent exposure of their rackets.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 944
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Italy
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, tension, suspense
Similar in 86%
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%
Blood Ties (1986)
Plot Summary:
An innocent American engineer is blackmailed by gangsters into a plot to assassinate his cousin, who is a judge in Sicily fighting the Mafia.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 138
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Italy, USA
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, poliziottesco
Similar in 78%
The Fighter (1983)
Plot Summary:
Jacques Darnay has served 8 years for robbing a jeweller. Now he is out of prison and looking for his loot worth 6 million francs.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: France
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: neo noir, exciting, tense, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, stylized, poliziottesco, suspense
Similar in 88%
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 90%
Ready 2 Die (2014)
Plot Summary:
After a violent bank robbery, the trio of hoods make their way across East L.A. carrying a blood-soaked bag of money. When word gets out, they must fend off gangs and crooked cops alike as they strive to keep the loot and stay alive.
IMDB Rating: 4.1
IMDB Votes: 851
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, suspenseful, exciting, realistic, crime drama, independent film
Similar in 87%
Enemies Among Us (2010)
Plot Summary:
It's not politics as usual, or is it? The governor of Louisiana is about to become the vice-presidential candidate for his party but a murder and an international web spanning from South Africa to Pakistan and North Korea might just get in the way.
IMDB Rating: 2.4
IMDB Votes: 589
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 76 min
Plot tags: serious, suspenseful, tense, captivating, psychological, rough, realistic
Similar in 88%
Open Doors (1990)
Plot Summary:
Tommaso Scalia is a man who commits three murders: he killed his superior who sacked him, he kills the man who replaced him, and he kills his own wife. He wants a quick trial and an early execution, but an earnest, principled assistant judge looks for a way to save the murderer from being shot, because he does not belive in capital punishment. Although he manages to save the man initially, he will pay a high price for it.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 983
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: serious, suspenseful, disturbing, suspense, political, rough, thought provoking, realistic, political drama
Similar in 83%
Charlie Valentine (2009)
Plot Summary:
The film chronicles the exploits of the title character, Charlie, played by Raymond J. Barry (Training Day) a career criminal intent on scoring one last big pay day. When his "perfect crime" goes bad, Charlie flees to Los Angeles to hide out with his estranged son, Danny, played by Michael Weatherly. What ensues reveals the true nature of some of the most unsavory of characters.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 691
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, independent film
Similar in 83%
F.I.S.T. (1978)
Plot Summary:
Johnny Kovak joins the Teamsters trade-union in a local chapter in the 1930s and works his way up in the organization. As he climbs higher and higher his methods become more ruthless and finally senator Madison starts a campaign to find the truth about the alleged connections with the Mob.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 145 min
Plot tags: realistic, disturbing, rough, serious, cult classic, psychological, thought provoking, bleak
Similar in 88%
Manuscripts Don't Burn (2013)
Plot Summary:
Khosrow and Morteza set out on a mission to kill someone. The assassination ought to be arranged as a suicide. At the last minute however, they are obliged to change their initial plans….
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: Iran
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: realistic, suspenseful, tense, rough, serious, political, controversial
Similar in 84%
What the Eye Doesn't See (2003)
Plot Summary:
Through out six different and yet parallel stories that take place during the corrupted goverment during the 90s in Peru, Lombardi tells the moral decomposition that ran through all classes and generations of the peruvian society.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 287
Genere: Crime, Thriller, Drama
Country: Peru
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, realistic, suspenseful, mind bending, independent film
Similar in 84%
Able Danger (2008)
Plot Summary:
Tom Flynn, the idealist owner of a left-leaning radical café/bookstore and the quixotic publisher of a hard hitting 911 conspiracy expose, finds himself entangled with a mysterious Eastern European beauty, Kasia, who is on the run from strong hand of a global 911 cover up. In this contemporary take on film noir. When Tom is implicated in the murder of his friend and employee, he is forced to unravel Kasia's complex web of lies. As it turns out, Kasia possesses the smoking gun that proves the identities and methods of the real architects of 911, and Tom Flynn is willing to die to expose the truth. Written by Dave Herman.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 129
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: neo noir, serious, realistic, suspenseful, black and white, independent film, political thriller
Similar in 83%
The Bankers of God: The Calvi Affair (2002)
Plot Summary:
A reconstruction of the bankruptcy of the Banco Ambrosiano bank and its liaisons with the Vatican and the Masonry through its president Roberto Calvi, notoriously found dead under the Blackfriars Bridge in London in June 1982.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 487
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama, History, Thriller
Country: Italy
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: captivating, serious, realistic, suspenseful, bleak, controversial
Similar in 80%
Hyena (2014)
Plot Summary:
Good policing doesn't necessarily mean doing everything by the book. But as the business of crime in London turns to favour the Albanians and Turks, how does a "good" policeman survive?.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: tense, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, hood
Similar in 87%
Blood Ties (2013)
Plot Summary:
Two brothers, on either side of the law, face off over organized crime in Brooklyn during the 1970s.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 21000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: France, USA
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, suspenseful, stylized, rough, neo noir, dark, hood, crime drama, cult classic
Similar in 78%
Tycoon (2002)
Plot Summary:
During the Gorbachev years, Platon Makovski and his four buddies are university students who jump on the private capitalism movement. Fast-forward 20 years, Platon finds himself the richest man in Russia, having sacrificed his friends to get to the top. But with this cynical rise, comes a brutal fall.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Russia, France, Germany
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: serious, cynical, realistic, suspenseful, political thriller, suspense, biting, clever
Similar in 85%
Badge 373 (1973)
Plot Summary:
When his partner is killed, tough Irish detective Eddie Ryan (Robert Duvall) vows to avenge the death, whatever the cost. As he begins unraveling clues, his behavior becomes so outrageous that he's obliged to turn in his badge, but the experience only emboldens him. Ryan eventually learns that his partner was caught up in a Puerto Rican gun-running scheme masterminded by a crook named Sweet Willie (Henry Darrow), who wants to foment revolutionary war.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 884
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: grim, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, weird
Similar in 80%
The Sicilian (1987)
Plot Summary:
Egocentric bandit Salvatore Guiliano fights the Church, the Mafia, and the landed gentry while leading a populist movement for Sicilian independence.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: intense, serious, realistic, suspense, spiritual, exciting, rough, suspenseful, independent film, romantic
Similar in 90%
Bonded by Blood (2010)
Plot Summary:
In 1995, drug suppliers and career criminals Tony Tucker, Patrick Tate and Craig Rolfe were blasted to death by a shot gun whilst waiting in a Range Rover in Rettendon, Essex. The film charts their rise to become the most prolific dealers and feared criminals in the south of England, maintaining the hold on their empire with fear and violence until their untimely death.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: tense, rough, serious, suspenseful, realistic
Similar in 79%
Excellent Cadavers (1999)
Plot Summary:
Fact based story about the political battle that was waged against the Mafia in Sicily during the late 1980's and early 1990's. Chazz Palminteri plays Giovanni Falcone, a crusading prosecutor who tried to use money trails as a way to attack the mobsters. He is aided by a former mobster (F. Murray Abraham) who volunteers to turn state's evidence after his sons are killed by a renegade mob chief. Wi.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Italy, USA
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: suspense, independent film, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 81%
The Professor (1986)
Plot Summary:
Vaguely inspired to the real story of boss of the Camorra's bosses Raffaele Cutolo, this is the story of the criminal career of "Il professore" (the professor). He is in prison, and by there he is able to build, step by step, an empire founded on murders and drugs. He starts a war to destroy all the old Camorra bosses and becoming the new "boss of the bosses". With his sister's help he manages to evade from prison and escape in New York. Here he starts immediately a new relationship with "Cosa Nostra" (Italian American Mafia). He is going to seat on the peak of the most powerful criminal organization, and the Italian authorities are almost impotent.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 171 min
Plot tags: poliziottesco, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 86%
Romanzo Criminale (2005)
Plot Summary:
The Lebanese has a dream: to conquer the underworld of Rome. To carry out this feat without precedent he puts together a ruthless and highly organized gang. Their progress and changes in leadership take place over 25 years, from the 1970s into the 90s, and are inseparably intertwined with the dark history of modern Italy: terrorism, kidnappings and corruption at the highest levels of government.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Italy, France, UK
Duration: 152 min
Plot tags: serious, stylized, rough, captivating, realistic, erotic, hood, poliziottesco, neo noir, bleak
Similar in 87%
The Preacher (2004)
Plot Summary:
Different solution new movie ;-) The Preacher tells the story about the rise and fall off a dutch mafiaboss. The movie is based on the story of Klaas Bruinsma.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Netherlands
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, tense, bleak, controversial