If You Liked Shaft, Watch These Next
Finished Shaft (1971) and want more of the same? These 20 movies are what its fans watched next, ranked by how often people who liked it also liked these. Like Shaft, most of them are crime, thriller, drama.
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20 titles · updated 2nd October 2026
1.Black Caesar(1973)
5.9ActionCrimeDramaAlso action and crime
Raised in Harlem, Tommy Gibbs becomes a successful mob boss but he clashes with the rival Mafia and his old enemy, dirty cop McKinney.
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2.Foxy Brown(1974)
6.3ActionCrimeThrillerAlso action and crime
A voluptuous black woman takes a job as a high-class prostitute in order to get revenge on the mobsters who murdered her boyfriend.
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3.Across 110th Street(1972)
6.7CrimeDramaThrillerAlso crime and drama
In a daring robbery, some $300,000 is taken from the Italian mob. Several mafiosi are killed, as are two policemen. Lt. Pope and Capt. Mattelli are two New York City cops trying to break the case. Three small-time criminals are on the run with the money. Will the mafia catch them first, or will the police?
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4.Paid in Full(2002)
6.9ActionCrimeDramaAlso action and crime
Ace is an impressionable young man working for a dry cleaning business. His friend, drug dealer Mitch, goes to prison. In an unrelated incident, he finds some cocaine in a pants pocket. Soon, Ace finds himself dealing cocaine for Lulu. Via lucky breaks and solid interpersonal skills, Ace moves to the top of the…
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5.Dead Man Down(2013)
6.2ThrillerActionCrimeAlso thriller and action
In New York City, a crime lord's right-hand man is seduced by a woman seeking retribution.
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7.Gangster Squad(2013)
6.4CrimeDramaActionAlso crime and drama
Los Angeles, 1949. Ruthless, Brooklyn-born mob king Mickey Cohen runs the show in this town, reaping the ill-gotten gains from the drugs, the guns, the prostitutes and — if he has his way — every wire bet placed west of Chicago. And he does it all with the protection of not only his own paid goons, but also the…
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8.In Cold Light(2026)
5.9ThrillerCrimeAlso thriller and crime
Fresh out of prison, Ava's attempt to reclaim her drug operation collapses when she witnesses a brutal crime, forcing her to flee into a nightmarish underworld where allies are scarce and enemies multiply by the minute.
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9.Al Capone(1959)
6.6ActionAdventureCrimeAlso 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, extortion, and political fraud. He becomes head of Chicago's biggest "business," but moves inexorably…
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10.Code of Silence(1985)
5.9ActionCrimeDramaAlso action and crime
A Chicago cop is caught in the middle of a gang war while his own comrades shun him because he wants to take an irresponsible cop down.
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13.The Enforcer(2022)
7.0ActionCrimeDramaAlso 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 save the young girl from the deadly organization he’s spent his life building.
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14.The Protector(1985)
5.9ActionCrimeAlso 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 kidnapped. The Federal authorities suspect that Laura's father is involved with Mr. Ko, a Hong Kong drug…
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15.The Corruptor(1999)
6.1ActionCrimeThrillerAlso action and crime
Danny is a young cop partnered with Nick, a seasoned but ethically tainted veteran. As the two try to stop a gang war in Chinatown, Danny relies on Nick but grows increasingly uncomfortable with the way Nick gets things done.
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16.A Thousand and One(2023)
6.6DramaCrimeAlso drama and crime
Struggling but unapologetically living on her own terms, Inez is moving from shelter to shelter in mid-1990s New York City. With her 6-year-old son Terry in foster care and unable to leave him again, she kidnaps him so they can build their life together. As the years go by, their family grows and Terry becomes a…
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17.Legend(2015)
7.0CrimeThrillerAlso crime and thriller
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"…
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18.The Godfather Part III(1990)
7.4CrimeDramaThrillerAlso crime and drama
In the midst of trying to legitimize his business dealings in 1979 New York and Italy, aging mafia don, Michael Corleone seeks forgiveness for his sins while taking a young protege under his wing.
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19.Absolution(2024)
5.9ActionCrimeThrillerAlso 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. He is determined to leave a positive legacy for his grandson, but the criminal underworld isn’t done…
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20.Red Right Hand(2024)
6.6CrimeActionThrillerAlso crime and action
Cash is trying to live a quiet, honest life in a small Appalachian town. When a vicious crime boss forces him back into her services, he soon learns he's capable of anything -- even killing -- to protect his family and his home.
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