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Killing Them Softly poster

Movies that feel likeKilling Them Softly (2012)

Jackie Cogan is an enforcer hired to restore order after three dumb guys rob a Mob protected card game, causing the local criminal economy to collapse.

If you loved Killing Them Softly, the closest films we have are Legend (2015), Red Rock West (1993) and Layer Cake (2004). All three share Killing Them Softly's gritty and tense feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Hyena (2015).

🍅 74% Rotten Tomatoes★ 6.2 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Andrew Dominikgrittytense
7 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · Amazon Prime Video · Sundance Now

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If Killing Them Softly hit the spot, these will too

Legend poster
Legend
2015 · dir. Brian Helgeland
🍅 60%★ 6.9crime · thriller

Both are built on the same subject: gangster

Suave, charming and volatile, Reggie Kray and his unstable twin brother Ronnie start to leave their mark on the London underworld in the 1960s. Using violence to get what they want, the siblings orchestrate robberies and murders while running nightclubs and protection rackets. With police Detective Leonard "Nipper" Read hot on their heels, the brothers continue their rapid rise to power and achieve tabloid notoriety.

Red Rock West poster
Red Rock West
1993 · dir. John Dahl
🍅 95%★ 7crime · thriller

Two things both keep coming back to: hitman and murder

When a promised job for Texan Michael fails to materialize in Wyoming, Mike is mistaken by Wayne to be the hitman he hired to kill his unfaithful wife, Suzanne. Mike takes full advantage of the situation, collects the money, and runs. During his getaway, things go wrong, and soon get worse when he runs into the real hitman, Lyle.

Layer Cake poster
Layer Cake
2004 · dir. Matthew Vaughn
🍅 81%★ 7.2drama · thriller · crime

Both keep coming back to the same thing: hitman

The difference: Leans harder into drama than Killing Them Softly does

When a seemingly straight-forward drug deal goes awry, XXXX has to break his die-hard rules and turn up the heat, not only to outwit the old regime and come out on top, but to save his own skin...

We Own the Night poster
We Own the Night
2007 · dir. James Gray
🍅 57%★ 6.8drama · crime · thriller

The same preoccupation in both: gangster

A New York nightclub manager tries to save his brother and father from Russian mafia hitmen.

Hyena poster
Hyena
2015 · dir. Gerard Johnson
🍅 78%★ 6.2crime · drama · thriller

Common ground: murder

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?

Phone Booth poster
Phone Booth
2003 · dir. Joel Schumacher
🍅 72%★ 7.1thriller · crimePrime Video

The same mix in both: grit, then tension

A slick New York publicist who picks up a ringing receiver in a phone booth is told that if he hangs up, he'll be killed... and the little red light from a laser rifle sight is proof that the caller isn't kidding.

The Unjust poster
The Unjust
2010 · dir. Ryoo Seung-wan
★ 6.5crime · thrillerNetflix

Gritty crime, and it commits to that

An honest cop has to compromise with his principles when he is told to find a scapegoat for a high-profile serial killer case in exchange for a big promotion.

The Hypnotist poster
The Hypnotist
2012 · dir. Lasse Hallström
★ 5.6crime · drama · thriller

Thriller with a pulse of tension, in both cases

After a young woman and her parents are murdered by a killer determined to wipe out the entire family, Detective Inspector Joona Linna works with a psychiatrist to hypnotize the son who narrowly escaped death in order to find the one surviving daughter before the murderer does.

The Yellow Sea poster
The Yellow Sea
2010 · dir. Na Hong-jin
🍅 88%★ 7.3drama · thriller · crime

Crime built on grit, twice over

A Korean man in China takes an assassination job in South Korea to make money and find his missing wife. But when the job is botched, he is forced to go on the run from the police and the gangsters who paid him.

Easy Money poster
Easy Money
2010 · dir. Daniel Espinosa
🍅 85%★ 6.7drama · thriller · crime

Both lean on tension more than on thriller

When JW becomes a drug runner in order to maintain his double life, his fate becomes tied to two other men: Jorge, a fugitive on the run from both the Serbian mafia and the police, and mafia enforcer Mrado, who is on the hunt for Jorge.

Neighboring Sounds poster
Neighboring Sounds
2012 · dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho
🍅 91%★ 7.1thriller · drama · crime

Cut from the same crime cloth

An independent private security firm arrives at a middle-class neighborhood in Recife, Brazil.

The Silence poster
The Silence
2010 · dir. Baran bo Odar
🍅 87%★ 6.9crime · thriller · drama

Thriller in the same key

13-year-old Sinikka vanishes on a hot summer night. Her bicycle is found in the exact place where a girl was killed 23 years ago. The dramatic present forces those involved in the original case to face their past.

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The best-reviewed films that share Killing Them Softly’s defining feeling.