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Kickboxer poster

Movies that feel likeKickboxer (1989)

If your enemy refuses to be humbled... Destroy him. Accompanied by his brother Kurt, American kickboxing champion Eric Sloane, arrives in Thailand to defeat the Eastern warriors at their own sport. His opponent: ruthless fighter and Thai champion, Tong Po. Tong not only defeats Eric, he paralyzes him for life. Crazed with anger, Kurt vows revenge.

If you loved Kickboxer, the closest films we have are Police Story 2 (1988), Ong-Bak (2003) and In the Line of Duty 4 (1989). All three share Kickboxer's kinetic and tense feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Ninja: Shadow of a Tear (2013).

🍅 36% Rotten Tomatoes★ 6.4 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. David Worthkinetictensegritty
10 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · HBO Max · Amazon Prime Video

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If Kickboxer hit the spot, these will too

Police Story 2 poster
Police Story 2
1988 · dir. Jackie Chan
🍅 84%★ 7action · crime · thrillerMax

The same two preoccupations: martial arts, and showdown

The difference: Critics rated this one higher still

The Hong Kong super-cop must stop a group of blackmailing bombers at the same time that the villains of the first Police Story are out for revenge.

Ong-Bak poster
Ong-Bak
2003 · dir. Prachya Pinkaew
🍅 85%★ 7.2action · crime · thrillerPrime Video

Two things both keep coming back to: thailand and muay thai

The difference: Leans harder into crime than Kickboxer does

When the head of a statue sacred to a village is stolen, a young martial artist goes to the big city and finds himself taking on the underworld to retrieve it.

In the Line of Duty 4 poster
In the Line of Duty 4
1989 · dir. Yuen Woo-ping
★ 7.1action · crime · thriller

One thread runs through both: martial arts

Two detectives who are up to their necks in trouble and in each other's face, as they try to shut down a drug-trafficking scheme that could be connected with international ties to organized crime. But in the midst of their investigation, innocent immigrant dock worker Luk Wan-Ting gets caught up in the mix when he witnesses the murder of an intelligence operative and is framed for the crime.

Hard Target poster
Hard Target
1993 · dir. John Woo
🍅 63%★ 6.2action · thriller · crimePrime Video

Both are built on the same subject: showdown

When a woman's father goes missing, she enlists a local to aid in her search. The pair soon discover that her father has died at the hands of a wealthy sportsman who hunts homeless men as a form of recreation.

Hard Boiled poster
Hard Boiled
1992 · dir. John Woo
🍅 92%★ 7.7action · thriller · crimeRent or buy

Kinetic where it counts, tense underneath

A cop who loses his partner in a shoot-out with gun smugglers goes on a mission to catch them. In order to get closer to the leaders of the ring he joins forces with an undercover cop who's working as a gangster hitman. They use all means of excessive force to find them.

El Mariachi poster
El Mariachi
1993 · dir. Robert Rodriguez
🍅 91%★ 6.8action · crime · thriller

Both lean on grit more than on action

El Mariachi just wants to play his guitar and carry on the family tradition. Unfortunately, the town he tries to find work in has another visitor, a killer who carries his guns in a guitar case. The drug lord and his henchmen mistake el Mariachi for the killer, Azul, and chase him around town trying to kill him and get his guitar case.

Lethal Weapon 4 poster
Lethal Weapon 4
1998 · dir. Richard Donner
🍅 54%★ 6.6action · crime · thriller

Kinetic thriller in both cases

With personal crises and age weighing in on them, LAPD officers Riggs and Murtaugh must contend with a deadly Chinese crime lord trying to get his brother out of prison.

Ninja: Shadow of a Tear poster
Ninja: Shadow of a Tear
2013 · dir. Isaac Florentine
🍅 100%★ 6.2action · crime · thrillerPrime Video

Action built on tension, twice over

The difference: 24 years apart, and the 2010s show

Fight everyone and trust no one: it's the code of survival practiced by martial-arts master Casey Bowman after his life of domestic bliss is shattered by a savage act of violence. Vowing revenge, the fearless American stealthily tracks the killer from Osaka to Bangkok to Rangoon with the help of a wise and crafty sensei. His only clues: a series of victims whose necks bear the distinctive mark of strangulation by barbed wire. Fighting to avenge as well as to survive, Casey must sharpen his razor-like responses and take his battle skills to the next level, even using deep meditation to fake his own death. His target: the sinister drug lord Goro, who is flooding the streets with deadly meth cooked at his remote jungle factory. To prepare for his ultimate confrontation, Casey must finally become an invisible warrior worthy of the name Ninja. But just when his prey is cornered, an unexpected twist shows Casey that his battle is only beginning: he truly can trust no one.

Assault on Precinct 13 poster
Assault on Precinct 13
1976 · dir. John Carpenter
🍅 94%★ 7.3thriller · action · crimePrime Video

Gritty thriller, and it commits to that

A highway patrol officer, two criminals, and a station secretary form an unlikely alliance to defend a defunct Los Angeles precinct against a siege by a bloodthirsty street gang.

Infernal Affairs II poster
Infernal Affairs II
2003 · dir. Andrew Lau Wai-Keung
🍅 75%★ 7.2action · thriller · crimeMax

Action with a pulse of momentum, in both cases

In this prequel to the original, a bloody power struggle among the Triads coincides with the 1997 handover of Hong Kong, setting up the events of the first film.

Undisputed III: Redemption poster
Undisputed III: Redemption
2010 · dir. Isaac Florentine
★ 7.4action · thriller · crime

Both keep coming back to the same thing: fight

Russian inmate Boyka, now severely hobbled by the knee injury suffered at the end of Undisputed 2. No longer the feared prison fighter he was, he has declined so far that he is now good only for cleaning toilets. But when a new prison fight tournament begins - an international affair, matching the best fighters from prisons around the globe, enticing them with the promise of freedom for the winner - Boyka must reclaim his dignity and fight for his position in the tournament.

Spy Game poster
Spy Game
2001 · dir. Tony Scott
🍅 64%★ 7.1action · crime · thrillerNetflix

Thriller with a pulse of tension, in both cases

On the day of his retirement, a veteran CIA agent learns that his former protégé has been arrested in China, is sentenced to die the next morning in Beijing, and that the CIA is considering letting that happen to avoid an international scandal.

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The best-reviewed films that share Kickboxer’s defining feeling.