Best movies like Thicker Than Water
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
In Los Angeles, two rival gang leaders are also trying to be music producers. When DJ's equipment shorts out and Lonzo is cut out of the action by a record producer, the two join forces, which also requires a tentative peace between gangs. With backing from Gator, a smooth New Orleans drug king, DJ and Lonzo start dealing, organizing their gangs into pushers. Just as their finances are looking up, one of Gator's team pulls a double cross and two of DJ and Lonzo's gang bangers start a shooting war. Can the erstwhile music producers salvage anything of their bond or their plans?.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 689
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: hood, crime drama, independent film, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, cynical, surprise ending
Best tv shows and movies like Thicker Than Water (1999):
Similar in 85%
Always Outnumbered (1998)
Plot Summary:
An ex-con moves to L.A. to find work and creates a disturbance by fighting for a position. More importantly he touches the lives of many of his neighbors including an older man dying of cancer, a young married couple whose husband is too proud to accept a lesser position which causes strife with his wife, and a young boy on the verge of getting in trouble with street gangs.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: hood, crime drama, rough, serious, realistic
Similar in 79%
Slam (1998)
Plot Summary:
Slam tells the story of Ray Joshua, an original, gifted young MC trapped in a war-zone housing project known as Dodge City. Unable to find a job, Ray copes with the despair and poverty of his neighborhood by using his wits and verbal talent. Written by Offline Publicist Young Ray Joshua lives in the Washington, DC, district known as Dodge City, which is dominated by gang wars. One day he is arrested when his drug dealer is gunned down while talking to him. He is put to prison where two rival gangs, Thug Life and the Union, want to recruit him as a member.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: independent film, hood, psychological, talky, uplifting, tense, sincere, bleak, serious, realistic
Similar in 79%
I'm Bout It (1997)
Plot Summary:
I'm Bout It is a 1997 film by rapper Master P. The plot details his life in a New Orleans uptown ghetto. Master P wrote, directed and acted in the film.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 354
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: hood, independent film, tense, rough, serious, realistic
Similar in 84%
Baby Boy (2001)
Plot Summary:
The story of Jody, a misguided, 20-year-old African-American who is really just a baby boy finally forced-kicking and screaming to face the commitments of real life. Streetwise and jobless, he has not only fathered two children by two different women-Yvette and Peanut but still lives with his own mother. He can't seem to strike a balance or find direction in his chaotic life.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 16000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: hood, light, emotional, melancholic, stylized, intense, sincere, serious, realistic, talky
Similar in 83%
The Stick Up Kids (2008)
Plot Summary:
People always told Santos he was something special. His Uncle told him to get a skill, so he became a hustler and with his three,they became "The Stick Up Kids" Harlem would never be the same. They thought they had it all... Money, cars, the lifestyle and the lingo. The only two words They didn't know were JURISDICTION AND GENTRIFICATION but in their world it was all for one and one for all until an unexpected, mysterious death, forced "The Stick Up Kids"to change their focus from doing crime to stopping the "North Manhattan Project". Now it was up to Santos to pull off one last sting before it destroyed them all. Watch out America. 'The Stick Up Kids" are coming to your town!.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 104
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, psychological, captivating, crime drama, independent film, rough, suspenseful
Similar in 87%
True Friends (1998)
Plot Summary:
New York, The Bronx, 1980. Two Italian boys Joey Esposito and Louie Mazerino jump to the defence of a smaller Puerto Rican boy, J.J. Lopez, when J.J. is threatened by six schoolyard bullies. The three boys soon become best friends, and they always look out for each other. However, their innocence is shattered when they witness Big Tony, the local Mob boss kill a man. The three boys vow to each other to keep it a secret. Fifteen years later, the three boys, now in their late twenties are still the best of friends and still living in The Bronx. They dream of opening their own bar. Desperate to better themselves, Joey devises a scheme to steal money from Big Tony and open their own Joint.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 202
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: independent film, serious, realistic
Similar in 84%
Caught Up (1998)
Plot Summary:
Daryl gets out of jail after 5 years. His mother has died, his girlfriend is married, and he can't find a job. His new girlfriend Vanessa, whom he meets when a gunman opens fire on them, gets him a job as a car driver. Hitmen are still after them, and Vanessa tells Daryl that this is her former lover Ahmad who wants revenge.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: hood, rough, realistic, serious, suspenseful, neo noir, independent film, fast, cult film
Similar in 79%
The Wrecking Crew (2000)
Plot Summary:
A high-level government hit squad is sent into the streets in order to complete a deadly mission.
IMDB Rating: 2.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: rough, realistic, suspenseful, serious, stylized, hood, crime drama, independent film
Similar in 83%
Bobby G. Can't Swim (1999)
Plot Summary:
Bobby G. lives life on the edge in this real, raw New York street drama. Bobby is a small-time coke dealer, always on the hustle but rarely successful. He lives in Hell's Kitchen with his Puerto Rican girlfriend Lucy, who makes ends meet as a prostitute. A typical day finds Bobby selling $20 bags to neighborhood locals and passing cars. A yuppie kid looking to score a kilo of coke approaches him to broker a deal and Bobby sees the opportunity of a lifetime to make some real money. His rough days may just be over. With the tidy profit he could even leave the business. Playing out of his league, Bobby arranges to get the kilo from Astro, a fearsome, high-level drug dealer. Though Lucy announces that she's decided to go back to Puerto Rico and pleads with him to make a fresh start too, Bobby is sticking to his deal and isn't going anywhere now, convinced he'll be 'livin' large in a matter a' days.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 393
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: independent film, psychological, tense, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 80%
Strapped (1993)
Plot Summary:
Ex-con attempting to go straight runs across serious problems. His girlfriend gets arrested for dealing crack to an undercover police officer. In a desperate attempt to get the charges dropped against his woman, he strikes deal with weapons cop to turn in local gun dealers. How ever, the D.A. is not satisfied with the results, resulting in some serious game playing and double crossing.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: hood, crime drama, grim, rough, bleak, serious, realistic
Similar in 76%
My Crazy Life (1993)
Plot Summary:
Mousie and Sad Girl are childhood best friends in a contemporary Los Angeles poor Hispanic neighborhood. But when Sad Girl becomes pregnant by Mousie's boyfriend, a drug dealer named Ernesto, the two become bitter enemies. While their dispute escalates towards violence, the violence of the world around them soon also impacts their lives.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: realistic, talky, serious, hood, cult classic, independent film, bleak, hispanic, crime drama, sincere
Similar in 78%
Riot (1996)
Plot Summary:
In April 1992, following the notorious Rodney King verdict, the streets of Los Angeles became a battlefield, the backdrop to four personal intertwined stories.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 395
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: independent film, anthology, tense, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing
Similar in 75%
State Property (2002)
Plot Summary:
Frustrated with being broke, Beans decides that the only way to grasp the American Dream is to take it.
IMDB Rating: 4.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Crime, Action
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: hood, rough, serious, suspenseful, tense, bleak, realistic
Similar in 89%
Corrupt (1999)
Plot Summary:
After decades of terror, two deadly street gangs reach a delicate truce and young MJ (Silkk the Shocker) sees a way out of the hood once and for all. Only Corrupt (Ice-T) stands in MJ's way, resulting into a violent and brutal roller coaster ride of action!.
IMDB Rating: 2.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 69 min
Plot tags: hood, independent film, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 76%
Straight Out of Brooklyn (1991)
Plot Summary:
A Special Jury Award winner at the Sundance Film Festival, this drama stars a then-19-year-old Matty Rich (who also wrote and directed it). Rich plays Larry, a troubled teen living in the rough Red Hook section of Brooklyn who decides he wants out and turns to crime to fund his escape. But his plan involves scamming the neighborhood's biggest drug kingpin, a heist that's dangerous at best.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 659
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: hood, independent film, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 87%
Hot Boyz (2000)
Plot Summary:
Injustice begets a criminal. Kool is an artist without prospects, a black belt in karate, and in love with LaShawna, poised and college bound. One night she witnesses a stabbing and discovers the victim is a cop as he dies in her arms. She's jailed for murder by the infamous Ramparts Division of the LAPD. Kool wants to prove her innocence, and Tully, the cynical detective in charge, ignores LaShawna's case but uses Kool to break up an incipient crime operation. She's in danger because the guilty parties fear that the officer talked before he died. While in jail awaiting a hearing and legal help, she's beaten to death by a rogue cop. Kool vows revenge: the Hot Boyz are born.
IMDB Rating: 4.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: hood, realistic, suspenseful, rough, serious, crime drama, independent film, bleak
Similar in 76%
State Property: Blood on the Streets (2005)
Plot Summary:
Three gangsters vie for control of the streets of Philadelphia.
IMDB Rating: 4.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Musical, Action, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: hood, tense, serious, realistic, suspenseful, bleak, rough
Similar in 85%
Imperial Dreams (2014)
Plot Summary:
A 21-year-old reformed gangster's devotion to his family and his future is put to the test when he is released from prison and returns to his old stomping grounds in Watts, Los Angeles.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: uplifting, touching, rough, serious, hood, inspirational, feel good, social, crime drama, realistic
Similar in 87%
First Time Felon (1997)
Plot Summary:
Inspired by the true story of Greg Yance. In the film, Yance (Epps) is a hood who goes to jail for possession of drugs. He is given a choice: 5 years in jail or a couple of months in boot camp. He chooses boot camp and finds out it is tougher than he thought it would be. He braves it through and comes home a better man. He then has to deal with the real world, and never gives up no matter what the odds.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: hood, inspirational, tense, rough, serious, realistic, black cinema
Similar in 89%
Sugar Hill (1993)
Plot Summary:
In the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, the Mafia steps in when a drug dealer quits his partner brother to lead a straight life with his girlfriend.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: hood, serious, suspenseful, tense, realistic, crime drama, independent film, black cinema
Similar in 80%
Blue Hill Avenue (2001)
Plot Summary:
A child of a middle class home with solid moral values is lured into a world of crime and corruption.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: hood, rough, bleak, realistic, serious, crime drama, beautiful
Similar in 86%
Squeeze (1997)
Plot Summary:
Ty, Hector, and Bao are close friends in a tough section of Boston, where they're called "the PG-13 crew." They're 14, decent kids with few skills who've bailed out of school. A small gang of older tough guys, led by Marcus and Tommy, menace them, and when the PG-13s fight back and rob one of the gang, Marcus and Tommy vow to kill them. They seek protection from Derick, a drug dealer, who agrees to help if they'll sell drugs. Meanwhile, Ty is recruited to work at a community center by J.J., its quiet leader. Ty and his friends are in a squeeze: surrounded by violence, drugs, and no opportunities, is there any way out?.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 344
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: crime drama, independent film, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 79%
A Day In The Life (2009)
Plot Summary:
Onyx rapper Sticky Fingaz directs and stars in this hip-hop musical about a gangster who becomes caught up in a bloody war between two feuding crime families while struggling to leave the streets behind. When Black's family raids one of Stick's drug houses and kills two of his men, Stick is forced to choose between leaving it all behind or seeking revenge and feeding the cycle of violence.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 679
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Music, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: hood, serious, tense, captivating, suspense, crime drama, rough, offbeat, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 78%
Gang Tapes (2001)
Plot Summary:
When a brutal carjacking yields a videocamera, a teenage boy decides to document his life and the lives of his fellow gangbangers.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, hood, tense, suspense, crime drama, realistic
Similar in 76%
Bullet Boy (2004)
Plot Summary:
Ricky is just out of a young offenders institute, heading home to Hackney and determined to go straight. Instead, he heads straight for trouble when he becomes involved in a street confrontation, siding with his best friend Wisdom against a local rude boy. The trouble escalates into a series of tit-for-tat incidents that threaten to spiral out of control. Ricky's 12-year-old brother Curtis, hero-worships Ricky, though he appears smart enough to know he doesn't want to follow his example. Yet, despite the stern warnings from his mother and support from her friends in the community, might Ricky's bad boy allure be too attractive for Curtis to resist?.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: psychological, rough, serious, realistic, hood, bleak, gloomy
Similar in 77%
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
Similar in 86%
Turn It Up (2000)
Plot Summary:
Trying to bootstrap his way out of Brooklyn's mean streets is Diamond, a rap musician. With his long-time pal Gage acting as his manager, he's trying to lay down a demo tape with cut-rate studio time. To pay the bills, he and Gage run drugs for "Mr. B." Inside a week, Diamond's beloved mother dies suddenly, his father appears after an absence of 12 years and wants a relationship, and his girlfriend Kia tells him she's pregnant, asking him if he's ready to be a father. Gage steals $100,000 in a multiple-felony robbery so that Diamond can record a full album, not knowing it's Mr. B's money he's taken. B wants his money, Diamond wants his music, Tia wants an answer.
IMDB Rating: 4.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Action, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: disturbing, rough, serious, realistic, hood, crime drama
Similar in 84%
Belly (1998)
Plot Summary:
Tommy Brown and Sincere are best friends as well as infamous and ruthless criminals and shot-callers in the hood. Respected by many but feared by all. As the police are closing in on them and new players are looking for a come up, will their reign last?.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: hood, independent film, stylized, crime drama, bleak, serious, realistic, gloomy, fairy tale, neorealism
Similar in 78%
South Central (1992)
Plot Summary:
A man is put to prison for 10 years. Coming out of prison he wants to live a normal life and stop with crime but his son has yet followed the criminal path of his father.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: hood, captivating, social, sexual, crime drama, tense, rough, serious, realistic, independent film
Similar in 87%
Sucker Free City (2004)
Plot Summary:
The film follows three young men as they are drawn into lives of crime. Nick (Crowley) uses his entry-level corporate job to commit credit card fraud and deals drugs on the side. K-Luv (Mackie) is a member of the "V-Dubs", an African-American street gang. Lincoln (Leung) is a rising figure in the Chinese mafia. Gentrification forces Nick's family to move out of their home in the Mission District into Hunter's Point where they are harassed by the V-Dubs. K-Luv's side business of selling bootleg compact discs leads him to enlist Nick's help to bootleg CDs and to negotiate a truce with Lincoln. Lincoln conducts an affair with his boss' daughter Angela (Carpio), a Stanford student engaged to a medical student classmate.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, tense, bleak, crime drama