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Now You See Me poster

Movies that feel likeNow You See Me (2013)

An FBI agent and an Interpol detective track a team of illusionists who pull off bank heists during their performances and reward their audiences with the money.

If you loved Now You See Me, the closest films we have are The Lincoln Lawyer (2011), Donnie Brasco (1997) and Snowden (2016). All three share Now You See Me's tense and gritty feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008).

🍅 51% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.2 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Louis Leterriertensegrittyparanoidplayful
9 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · HBO Max · Amazon Prime Video

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If Now You See Me hit the spot, these will too

Looking for the series itself? Also in this series: Now You See Me 2 (2016)

The Lincoln Lawyer poster
The Lincoln Lawyer
2011 · dir. Brad Furman
🍅 83%★ 7.3crime · drama · thriller

A slick operator staying one move ahead of a system out to trap him

The difference: Courtroom grind instead of spectacle — no tricks, just leverage

Mick Haller is a charismatic defense attorney who does business out of his Lincoln Continental sedan. Mick spends most of his time defending petty crooks and other bottom-feeders, so it comes as quite a surprise when he lands the case of a lifetime: defending a Beverly Hills playboy who is accused of attempted murder. However, what Mick initially thinks is an open-and-shut case with a big monetary reward develops into something more sinister.

Donnie Brasco poster
Donnie Brasco
1997 · dir. Mike Newell
🍅 88%★ 7.7crime · drama · thrillerNetflix

Never knowing who is performing and who is telling the truth

The difference: Slow, sad and dangerous — here the cost is completely real

An FBI undercover agent infiltrates the mob and identifies more with the mafia life at the expense of his regular one.

Snowden poster
Snowden
2016 · dir. Oliver Stone
🍅 61%★ 7.3drama · history · crimeNetflixStarz

Watching a nobody outwit the world's biggest surveillance machine

The difference: A sober true story — paranoia without the stage-show payoff

CIA employee Edward Snowden leaks thousands of classified documents to the press.

The Negotiator poster
The Negotiator
1998 · dir. F. Gary Gray
★ 7.3action · crime · drama

A framed expert using his own tradecraft to outplay the authorities

The difference: One tense building, no glitter — talk and standoffs do the work

The police try to arrest expert hostage negotiator Danny Roman, who insists he's being framed for his partner's murder in what he believes is an elaborate conspiracy. Thinking there's evidence in the Internal Affairs offices that might clear him, he takes everyone in the office hostage and demands that another well-known negotiator be brought in to handle the situation and secretly investigate the conspiracy.

Fast Five poster
Fast Five
2011 · dir. Justin Lin
🍅 77%★ 7.3action · thriller · crimeNetflix

A big loud caper where the crew's showboating is half the fun

The difference: Muscle and mayhem — nothing sleight-of-hand about any of it

Former cop Brian O'Conner partners with ex-con Dom Toretto on the opposite side of the law. Since Brian and Mia Toretto broke Dom out of custody, they've blown across many borders to elude authorities. Now backed into a corner in Rio de Janeiro, they must pull one last job in order to gain their freedom.

Ocean's Eleven poster
Ocean's Eleven
2001 · dir. Steven Soderbergh
🍅 83%★ 7.7thriller · crimeMaxStarz

Cool crew mechanics and the pleasure of a plan clicking together

The difference: No stage magic or spectacle — smooth craft at a low pulse

Less than 24 hours into his parole, charismatic thief Danny Ocean is already rolling out his next plan: In one night, Danny's hand-picked crew of specialists will attempt to steal more than $150 million from three Las Vegas casinos. But to score the cash, Danny risks his chances of reconciling with ex-wife, Tess.

The Little Things poster
The Little Things
2021 · dir. John Lee Hancock
🍅 44%★ 6.3drama · crime · thrillerRent or buy

Investigators chasing a quarry who always seems a step ahead

The difference: Grim and mournful — a slow serial-killer hunt with no showmanship

Deputy Sheriff Joe "Deke" Deacon joins forces with Sgt. Jim Baxter to search for a serial killer who's terrorizing Los Angeles. As they track the culprit, Baxter is unaware that the investigation is dredging up echoes of Deke's past, uncovering disturbing secrets that could threaten more than his case.

Transporter 2 poster
Transporter 2
2005 · dir. Louis Leterrier
★ 6.3action · thriller · crime

Professional competence staged as clean, showy set pieces

The difference: Blunt action nonsense with nothing to figure out

Professional driver, and former Special Forces officer, Frank Martin is living in Miami, where he is temporarily filling in for a friend as the chauffeur for a government narcotics control policy director and his family. The young boy in the family is targeted for kidnapping, and Frank immediately becomes involved in protecting the child and exposing the kidnappers.

Den of Thieves poster
Den of Thieves
2018 · dir. Christian Gudegast
🍅 42%★ 7crime · thriller · action

Cops and an impossible bank job circling each other toward a sting

The difference: Sweaty and macho where yours is showy — muscle replaces magic

A gritty crime saga which follows the lives of an elite unit of the LA County Sheriff's Dept. and the state's most successful bank robbery crew as the outlaws plan a seemingly impossible heist on the Federal Reserve Bank.

Inside Man poster
Inside Man
2006 · dir. Spike Lee
🍅 86%★ 7.6crime · drama · thriller

A robbery designed as a puzzle, the real trick hidden in plain sight

The difference: Cooler and more procedural, patience where this one wants flash

When an armed, masked gang enter a Manhattan bank, lock the doors and take hostages, the detective assigned to effect their release enters negotiations preoccupied with corruption charges he is facing.

The Baader Meinhof Complex poster
The Baader Meinhof Complex
2008 · dir. Uli Edel
🍅 85%★ 7.3action · crime · dramaPrime Video

The same mix in both: tension, then grit

The difference: Critics rated this one higher still

When German police viciously quell a protest against the shah of Iran, popular journalist Ulrike Meinhof rebels against her dishonest marriage, walks away from her children and joins radical anarchist Andreas Baader. Together with Baader's girlfriend, Gudrun Ensslin, they form the violent Red Faction Army, and together perpetrate a slew of terrorist attacks as a way of disrupting the fabric of what they see as an increasingly fascist state.

The French Connection poster
The French Connection
1971 · dir. William Friedkin
🍅 97%★ 7.7action · crime · thriller

Both rooted in New York City

The difference: Trades the play of Now You See Me for an angle of its own

Tough narcotics detective 'Popeye' Doyle is in hot pursuit of a suave French drug dealer who may be the key to a huge heroin-smuggling operation.

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The best-reviewed films that share Now You See Me’s defining feeling.