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Sexy Beast poster

Movies that feel likeSexy Beast (2001)

Ex-safecracker Gal Dove has served his time behind bars and is blissfully retired to a Spanish villa paradise with a wife he adores. The idyll is shattered by the arrival of his nemesis Don Logan, intent on persuading Gal to return to London for one last big job.

If you loved Sexy Beast, the closest films we have are One False Move (1992), Bound (1996) and The Aura (2005). All three share Sexy Beast's tense and contemplative feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Odds Against Tomorrow (1959).

🍅 87% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.3 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Jonathan Glazergrittytensecontemplativeplayfulatmospheric
8 of 12 streaming nowHBO Max · Amazon Prime Video

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If Sexy Beast hit the spot, these will too

One False Move poster
One False Move
1992 · dir. Carl Franklin
🍅 93%★ 7.1crime · drama · thriller

Both are working the same pair: psychopath, criminal

The difference: Trades the play of Sexy Beast for an angle of its own

Following a series of drug deals and murders, three criminals -- Fantasia, Ray Malcolm and Pluto -- travel from Los Angeles to Houston, finally arriving in a small Arkansas town to go into hiding. Two detectives from the LAPD, who are already on the case, contact the town's sheriff, Dale Dixon, to alert him of the fugitives' presence in the area. Underestimating Dixon, the criminals have no idea what they are about to face.

Bound poster
Bound
1996 · dir. Lana Wachowski
🍅 86%★ 7.3drama · thriller · crime

The same two preoccupations: heist, and neo-noir

Corky, a tough female ex-convict working on an apartment renovation in a Chicago building, meets a couple living next door, Caesar, a paranoid mobster, and Violet, his seductive girlfriend, who is immediately attracted to her.

The Aura poster
The Aura
2005 · dir. Fabián Bielinsky
🍅 88%★ 7.1drama · thriller

Common ground: murder

A quiet, epileptic taxidermist plans the perfect crime. All he needs is the right opportunity. An accident, perhaps…

Widows poster
Widows
2018 · dir. Steve McQueen
🍅 91%★ 6.8drama · crime · thriller

Both are built on the same subject: money

A police shootout leaves four thieves dead during an explosive armed robbery attempt in Chicago. Their widows have nothing in common except a debt left behind by their spouses' criminal activities. Hoping to forge a future on their own terms, they join forces to pull off a heist.

Jackie Brown poster
Jackie Brown
1997 · dir. Quentin Tarantino
🍅 88%★ 7.5crime · drama · thriller

Both keep coming back to the same thing: heist

Jackie Brown is a flight attendant who gets caught in the middle of smuggling cash into the country for her gunrunner boss. When the cops try to use Jackie to get to her boss, she hatches a plan — with help from a bail bondsman — to keep the money for herself.

SPL: Kill Zone poster
SPL: Kill Zone
2005 · dir. Wilson Yip
🍅 80%★ 6.9action · crime · dramaPrime Video

The same preoccupation in both: neo-noir

The difference: Leans harder into action than Sexy Beast does

Chan, an articulate senior detective nearing the end of his career, is taking care of the daughter of a witness killed by ruthless crime lord Po. Martial arts expert Ma is set to take over as head of the crime unit, replacing Chan who wants an early retirement.

White Heat poster
White Heat
1949 · dir. Raoul Walsh
🍅 94%★ 8.1crime · drama · thriller

One thread runs through both: gangster

The difference: 52 years apart, and the 1940s show

A psychopathic criminal with a mother complex makes a daring break from prison and then leads his old gang in a chemical plant payroll heist. After the heist, events take a crazy turn.

The Long Good Friday poster
The Long Good Friday
1980 · dir. John Mackenzie
🍅 97%★ 7.5crime · thriller · dramaMax

The same preoccupation in both: gangster

In the late 1970s, Cockney crime boss Harold Shand, a gangster trying to become a legitimate property mogul, has big plans to get the American Mafia to bankroll his transformation of a derelict area of London into the possible venue for a future Olympic Games. However, a series of bombings targets his empire on the very weekend the Americans are in town. Shand is convinced there is a traitor in his organization, and sets out to eliminate the rat in typically ruthless fashion.

The Grifters poster
The Grifters
1990 · dir. Stephen Frears
🍅 92%★ 6.8crime · drama

Gritty where it counts, contemplative underneath

A small-time conman has his loyalties torn between his estranged mother and his new girlfriend, both of whom are high-stakes grifters with their own angles to play.

Odds Against Tomorrow poster
Odds Against Tomorrow
1959 · dir. Robert Wise
🍅 88%★ 7.4crime · drama · thriller

The same mix in both: tension, then play

An old-time crook plans a heist. When one of his two partners is found out to be a black man tensions flare.

New World poster
New World
2013 · dir. Park Hoon-jung
🍅 63%★ 7.5thriller · crime · drama

Crime built on atmosphere, twice over

An undercover cop has his loyalties tested when the boss of the corporate gang he's spent years infiltrating dies.

Night Moves poster
Night Moves
1975 · dir. Arthur Penn
🍅 78%★ 7.1thriller · crime · drama

Gritty thriller, and it commits to that

Private detective and former football player Harry Moseby gets hired on to what seems a standard missing person case - a former Hollywood actress wants Moseby to find and return her daughter. Harry travels to Florida to find her, but he begins to see a connection between the runaway girl, the world of Hollywood stuntmen, and a suspicious mechanic when an unsolved murder comes to light.

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