Best movies like White Lightning
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
An ex con teams up with federal agents to help them with breaking up a moonshine ring.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, neo noir, colorful, serious, realistic, suspenseful, surprise ending, black comedy, double entendre, southern gothic
Best tv shows and movies like White Lightning (1973):
Similar in 89%
A Small Town in Texas (1976)
Plot Summary:
A crooked sheriff in a small Southern town frames an ex-convict in a drug bust and takes his girlfriend.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 446
Genere: Action, Adventure, Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, independent film, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 77%
Gator (1976)
Plot Summary:
After his release from prison, notorious ex-con and moonshine distiller Gator McKlusky moves in with his father in a cabin in the Okefenokee Swamp. His bootlegging plans are cut short, however, when a federal agent tells McKlusky that he will lose custody of his 9-year-old daughter unless he helps bring down local crime lord Bama McCall. McKlusky enlists the help of reporter Aggie Maybank and a few local eccentrics to bring down McCall's empire.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: neo noir, tense, serious, realistic, suspenseful, surprise ending, dark comedy, poliziottesco, exciting, romantic
Similar in 89%
Report to the Commissioner (1975)
Plot Summary:
Police officer Patty Butler, alias "Chicklet," is the live-in girlfriend of Thomas 'Stick' Henderson to gather evidence. Detective Bo Lockley is instructed to try to find her, not knowing she's also a cop.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: neo noir, detective, grim, tense, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, suspense
Similar in 78%
Street People (1976)
Plot Summary:
A Mafia boss is enraged when he is suspected of smuggling a heroin shipment into San Francisco. He dispatches his nephew, a hotshot Anglo-Sicilian lawyer, to identify the real culprit. The lawyer also enlists the aid of his best friend, a grand prix driver with an adventurous streak.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 930
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, neo noir, independent film, poliziottesco
Similar in 75%
Convoy (1978)
Plot Summary:
Truckers form a mile long "convoy" in support of a trucker's vendetta with an abusive sheriff...Based on the country song of same title by C.W. McCall.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 18000
Genere: Action, Drama
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: road movie, surprise ending, exciting, feel good, humorous, semi serious, psychotronic, black comedy, dark comedy, light
Similar in 77%
Last Man Standing (1995)
Plot Summary:
A gang of bank robbers, led by the ultra-violent Snake Underwood, pull off a daring mid-day heist that leaves dozens of burning police cars and scores of innocent victims in its wake. Heading the investigation into the gang is the equally violent detective Kurt Bellmore and going by the book just isn't going to be enough.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 520
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: independent film, serious, realistic, suspenseful, neo noir, detective
Similar in 86%
A Force of One (1979)
Plot Summary:
Karate champion Matt Logan is enlisted by the police to train officers in self-defense after narcotics agents are killed by an assailant using the martial arts.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: independent film, christmas horror, cult classic, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, fast, neo noir, suspense
Similar in 89%
Sharky's Machine (1981)
Plot Summary:
Sharky gets busted back to working vice, where he happens upon a scandalous conspiracy involving a local politician. Accompanied by an all-star jazz soundtrack, Sharky's new "machine" gathers evidence while Sharky falls in love with a woman he has never met.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, neo noir, tense, sexy, suspense, detective, terrifying, rough, serious, realistic
Similar in 79%
Brannigan (1975)
Plot Summary:
Jim Brannigan is sent to London to bring back an American mobster who is being held for extradition but when he arrives he has been kidnapped which was set up by his lawyer. Brannigan in his American Irish way brings American law to the people of Scotland Yard in order to recapture this mobster with both a price tag on his head and a stuffy old London cop to contend with.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Action, Comedy, Crime, Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: detective, black comedy, rough, humorous, realistic, suspenseful, semi serious, fast, buddy comedy, dark comedy
Similar in 86%
Hit! (1973)
Plot Summary:
A federal agent whose daughter dies of a heroin overdose is determined to destroy the drug ring that supplied her. He recruits various people whose lives have been torn apart by the drug trade and trains them. Then they all leave for France to track down and destroy the ring.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 829
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 134 min
Plot tags: action thriller, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, surprise ending, neo noir, suspense, detective, grindhouse
Similar in 87%
Slaughter (1972)
Plot Summary:
Slaughter, a former Green Beret, avenges the killing of loved ones by the Mob, and in so doing is coerced by the Feds into traveling to Mexico to finish off surviving mobsters.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: USA, Mexico
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: neo noir, grindhouse, cult classic, independent film, tense, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, surprise ending
Similar in 88%
Mr. Majestyk (1974)
Plot Summary:
Watermelon farmer Vince Majestyk (Charles Bronson) goes after the Mob, when they try to strong arm him to use their melon picking crew.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: neo noir, suspense, talky, suspenseful, grindhouse, cult classic, disturbing, retro, serious, realistic
Similar in 75%
Trouble Man (1972)
Plot Summary:
It seems that masked men are knocking over the floating crap games of Chalky and Pete. Chalky and Pete hire the cool, loose, elegant Mr. T to fix things. Then, the masked manipulators set up the death of a collector for a rival gang lord. It looks like it's up to T to hold a gang war from breaking out, keep the police off his back, and earn his fee from Chalky and Pete.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: neo noir, crime drama, cult classic, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, surprise ending, suspense
Similar in 75%
The Hunter (1980)
Plot Summary:
During his long career, bounty hunter Ralph "Papa" Thorson has caught over 5,000 criminals. Now, while he is working on apprehending fugitives in Illinois, Texas and Nebraska, he himself is being hunted by a psychotic killer.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Action, Biography, Comedy, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: cult classic, black comedy, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, independent film, freeze frame, dark comedy
Similar in 90%
White Sands (1992)
Plot Summary:
A small southwestern town sheriff finds a body in the desert with a suitcase and $500,000. He impersonates the man and stumbles into an FBI investigation.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: neo noir, suspense, harsh, stylized, rough, serious, suspenseful, exciting, realistic, road movie
Similar in 88%
Malone (1987)
Plot Summary:
Erstwhile C.I.A. assassin Richard Malone hopes for a tranquil retirement in the placid Pacific Northwest, but what he gets is a rumble with a right-wing extremist plotting a secret revolution. Adapted from the novel "Shotgun," by William Wingate.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: rough, realistic, suspenseful, serious, cult classic, neo noir, perverse, visually stunning, surprise ending, psychotronic
Similar in 88%
Dragon Eyes (2012)
Plot Summary:
In St. Jude, drug dealers and corrupt cops have destroyed an urban neighborhood. But newcomer, Hong, has the fighting skills and moral vision to save this town from itself.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, rough, realistic, dark, cult classic, action packed, independent film, exciting, suspenseful
Similar in 88%
Walking Tall (1973)
Plot Summary:
Buford Pusser's a wrestler, whose wife wants him to settle down, so they go to his home town in Tennessee, where he plans to get into business with his father. But he is shocked to discover all sorts of graft and corruption going on. And when he is a victim of it and decides to strike back by running against the corrupt sheriff. And he wins and wages his own little war against them.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Action, Biography, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: tense, rough, realistic, suspenseful, exciting, serious, grindhouse, neo noir, hood, cult classic
Similar in 87%
McQ (1974)
Plot Summary:
Police Lieutenant Lon McQ investigates the killing of his best friend and uncovers corrupt elements of the police department dealing in confiscated drugs.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: serious, suspense, exciting, captivating, neo noir, detective, rough, realistic, suspenseful, fast
Similar in 85%
Fear Is the Key (1972)
Plot Summary:
After his family are killed in a plane crash, a man plots an elaborate revenge scheme on those responsible. He sets himself up as a criminal in order to get close to a tycoon who has been approached by the culprits to help them retrieve the cargo of the lost plane.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: neo noir, independent film, exciting, tense, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, surprise ending, suspense
Similar in 84%
Street Knight (1993)
Plot Summary:
A former cop returns to challenge a plot to escalate gang violence in the streets of Los Angeles.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 873
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, independent film, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, surprise ending, neo noir, detective
Similar in 85%
Point Blank (1998)
Plot Summary:
Convicted corporate criminal Howard engineers a prison break as he and a number of fellow inmates are being transferred to a new facility. The escapees storm a shopping mall and take a group of shoppers hostage (after killing many more of them) before making their demands. Only Rudy, a former mercenary and brother of one of the fugitives, can take out the criminals before more of the hostages die.
IMDB Rating: 4.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: serious, rough, realistic, tense, suspense, exciting, independent film, suspenseful, fast, surprise ending
Similar in 83%
Point of Impact (1993)
Plot Summary:
Jack Davis is a tough, outspoken cop who finds himself wrongly accused for the death of a fellow agent by the depraved and power hungry chief of Miami Customs, Martin Cullen. Disgraced and dismissed, Jack swears revenge and goes to work for Roberto Largo, a rich, evil Cuban crime boss, as bodyguard for his smoldering wife, Eva. Jack knows Largo is connected to his old boss Cullen and is determined to learn the secret that will bring him down. Trapped in a deadly game of cat and mouse, held captive by his passionate affair with Eva, Jack must figure out the significance of the mysterious Spanish Rose to survive.
IMDB Rating: 3.5
IMDB Votes: 744
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: suspense, erotic, independent film, rough, serious, realistic, surprise ending, neo noir, double entendre, cult film
Similar in 77%
Boiling Point (1993)
Plot Summary:
Red is an aging scam-artist who's just been released from prison together with Ronnie, a young and not-so-bright hoodlum who is easily manipulated. Their new business is to organize fake-money sales and then kill the buyer to take his money; but when Ronnie kills an undercover secret service agent, his partner Jimmy Mercer vows revenge and is given one week to catch the killers before being transferred. Written by Giancarlo Cairella.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: suspense, exciting, neo noir, suspenseful, tense, intense, rough, serious, realistic, action thriller
Similar in 90%
Code of Silence (1985)
Plot Summary:
A Chicago cop is caught in a middle of a gang war while his own comrades shun him because he wants to take an irresponsible cop down.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: exciting, cult classic, suspense, detective, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, neo noir, independent film
Similar in 80%
Hard to Kill (1990)
Plot Summary:
Mason Storm, a 'go it alone' cop, is gunned down at home. The intruders kill his wife, and think they've killed both Mason and his son too. Mason is secretly taken to a hospital where he spends several years in a coma. His son meanwhile is growing up thinking his father is dead. When Mason wakes up, everyone is in danger - himself, his son, his best friend, his nurse - but most of all those who arranged for his death.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 32000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: suspense, exciting, serious, suspenseful, perverse, cult classic, action adventure, rough, realistic, fast
Similar in 86%
Maximum Force (1992)
Plot Summary:
Three renegade cops team up to take on the corrupt chief of police and a crime lords hatchet-man.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 392
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: suspense, independent film, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, surprise ending, neo noir, detective
Similar in 83%
Point Blank (2019)
Plot Summary:
A nurse is forced to spring a wounded murder suspect from the hospital when the man’s brother kidnaps his pregnant wife and wants to make a trade.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 15000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: France, USA
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: tense, bleak, captivating, brutal, action thriller, surprise ending, neo noir, independent film, detective, black comedy
Similar in 78%
Faster (2010)
Plot Summary:
Driver (Dwayne Johnson) has spent the last 10 years in prison planning revenge for the murder of his brother. Now that Driver is free to carry out his deadly plan only two men stand in his way- Billy Bob Thornton plays a veteran cop and Oliver Jackson-Cohen, a crazy hitman. With those two close on his trail, Driver races to carry out his mission as the mystery surrounding his brothers murder deepens.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 111000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: stylized, brutal, intense, talky, rough, realistic, serious, suspenseful, bloody, action packed
Similar in 84%
Renegades (1989)
Plot Summary:
Buster McHenry (Sutherland) is as an undercover agent for the police. His mission involves him in a robbery. Buster gets shot but Hank Storm (Phillips), an Indian, helps Buster. Since Hank wants a spear in the possession of the criminals that Buster is after, they team up.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: detective, suspense, intense, rough, serious, retro, cult classic, action thriller, neo noir, black comedy