Movies Like Desperation Rising

If you liked Desperation Rising (1989), a crime and action movie directed by Jason Holt, here are 20 movies with a similar feel, based on TMDB's recommendations. Each one links to its cast, trailer and where it's streaming.

1
Absolution (2024)
★ 5.9/10Also action and crime
An aging ex-boxer gangster working as muscle for a Boston crime boss receives an upsetting diagnosis. Despite a faltering memory, he attempts to rectify the sins of his past and reconnect with his estranged children…
2
Al Capone (1959)
★ 6.6/10Also action and crime
In this unusually accurate biography, small-time hood Al Capone comes to Chicago at the dawn of Prohibition to be the bodyguard of racketeer Johnny Torrio. Capone's rise in Chicago gangdom is followed through murder…
3
The Substitute (1996)
★ 7/10Also action and crime
When an inner-city Miami schoolteacher gets her knee broken after standing up to the school's gang leader, her mercenary combat specialist boyfriend goes undercover as a substitute teacher to take down the punk. Soon…
4
Black Caesar (1973)
★ 5.9/10Also crime and action
Raised in Harlem, Tommy Gibbs becomes a successful mob boss but he clashes with the rival Mafia and his old enemy, dirty cop McKinney.
5
Run (1991)
★ 6/10Also action
When a law student accidentally kills the son of a mob boss in a fight, he finds himself relentlessly pursued by the mob and the police.
6
Juice (1992)
★ 7.2/10Also crime
Four Harlem friends -- Bishop, Q, Steel and Raheem -- dabble in petty crime, but they decide to go big by knocking off a convenience store. Bishop, the magnetic leader of the group, has the gun. But Q has different…
7
Panic (2000)
★ 6.2/10Also crime
Alex is going through a midlife crisis and it has become a very difficult time for him. His marriage is struggling, he's worried about his son, and his job of killing people for his family has become the most stressful…
8
Wardriver (2026)
★ 7.4/10Also crime
He’s a Wardriver: a hacker who steals from banks, not people—until he’s noticed. Now the money turns violent, and the woman caught in it could save him or kill them both.
9
Fast Charlie (2023)
★ 6.3/10Also action and crime
When his aging mob boss is whacked, Charlie Swift, a loyal friend and hired gun, will stop at nothing to destroy the upcoming crew that took him out.
10
The Protector (1985)
★ 5.9/10Also action and crime
Billy Wong is a New York City cop whose partner is gunned down during a robbery. Billy and his new partner, Danny Garoni, are working security at a fashion show when a wealthy man's daughter, Laura Shapiro, is…
11
Wire Room (2022)
★ 6/10Also action and crime
New recruit Justin Rosa must monitor arms-smuggling cartel member Eddie Flynn — and keep him alive at all costs. When a SWAT team descends on Flynn’s home, Rosa breaks protocol and contacts the gangster directly to…
12
Mobsters (1991)
★ 6.3/10Also action and crime
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...
13
Shade (2003)
★ 6.2/10Also action and crime
Tiffany, Charlie and Vernon are con artists looking to up the ante from their typical scams. They figure a good way of doing this is taking down Dean "The Dean" Stevens, a well-known cardsharp, in a rigged game…
14
Rise of the Footsoldier (2007)
★ 6.4/10Also action and crime
Carlton Leach rises from one of the most feared generals of the football terraces to becoming a member of a notorious gang of criminals who rampaged their way through London and Essex in the late '80s and early '90s.
15
Convict (2014)
★ 6.5/10Also action and crime
Set in the dark and old Parramatta prison built by the original convicts our lead character Ray a war veteran finds himself serving 18 months for manslaughter after defending his fiance. He soon realizes that the…
16
The Shipment (2021)
★ 6.7/10Also action
A former U.S. Navy Seal is forced to become the international criminal he once fought against when a powerful and violent drug cartel kidnaps his wife and daughter.
17
Blood Ties (2013)
★ 6.1/10Also crime
Two brothers, on either side of the law, face off over organized crime in Brooklyn during the 1970s.
18
The Enforcer (2022)
★ 7/10Also action and crime
A noir thriller set in Miami, the film follows an enforcer who discovers his femme fatale boss has branched out into cyber sex trafficking, putting a young runaway he’s befriended at risk. He sacrifices everything to…
19
The System (2022)
★ 7.3/10Also action and crime
When a young soldier, newly returned from war, gets caught up in a drug bust, he is recruited by the authorities to go undercover in a notoriously dangerous prison in order to figure out what is really going on.
20
Frank and Penelope (2022)
★ 7.3/10Also crime
A tale of love and violence when a man on his emotional last legs finds a savior seductively dancing in a run-down strip club. And a life most certainly headed off a cliff suddenly becomes redirected - as everything is…