Movies like Dirty (2005)
The best movies like Dirty (2005) are Down for Life (2010), Narc (2002) and Slow Burn (2005). If Dirty hooked you with its crime and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedTraining Day (2001)7.5/10 from 6,997 votes
- NewestJunction (2024)Released 2024
Down for Life (2010)
Based on a New York Times article depicting a single dramatic day in the life of a Latina gang leader in South Central L.A.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Narc (2002)
Narcotics Sergeant Nick Tellis, on leave after a trauma, is called back to investigate the murder of fellow undercover operative Michael Calvess, joined by the victim's unpredictable and brutal ex-partner, Henry Oak. Working together in the back alleys of Detroit, Tellis and Oak delve into a dark investigation that leads them to uncover shocking secrets and question the corruption and morality within the department, encountering unorthodox methods and a brutal truth about Calvess's death.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSlow Burn (2005)
A district attorney is involved in a 24-hour showdown with a gang leader and is, at the same time, being manipulated by an attractive assistant district attorney and a cryptic stranger.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisDark Blue (2002)
Set during the Rodney King riots, a robbery homicide investigation triggers a series of events that will cause a corrupt LAPD officer to question his tactics.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBrooklyn's Finest (2010)
Enforcing the law within the notoriously rough Brownsville section of the city and especially within the Van Dyke housing projects is the NYPD's sixty-fifth precinct. Three police officers struggle with the sometimes fine line between right and wrong.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWe Own the Night (2007)
A New York nightclub manager tries to save his brother and father from Russian mafia hitmen.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStreet Kings (2008)
Tom Ludlow is a disillusioned L.A. Police Officer, rarely playing by the rules and haunted by the death of his wife. When evidence implicates him in the execution of a fellow officer, he is forced to go up against the cop culture he's been a part of his entire career, ultimately leading him to question the loyalties of everyone around him.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPride and Glory (2008)
A saga centered on the Tierneys, a multi-generational family of New York City Police officers. The family's moral codes are tested when Ray Tierney investigates a case that reveals an incendiary police corruption scandal involving his own brother-in-law. For Ray, the truth is revelatory, a Pandora's Box that threatens to upend not only the Tierney legacy but the entire NYPD.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCivil Brand (2002)
Forced to work under slave-like conditions in a "prison for profit" program, the inmates of a mostly-African-American female prison, Whitehead Correctional, try to take over the institution.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Vice (2008)
Max Walker, a down-and-out cop, becomes the target of a bloodthirsty drug cartel after he leads a narcotics bust to intercept a large shipment of heroin. When someone starts picking off his team members - and the drugs seized in the raid suddenly disappear - Walker pairs up with one of his detectives to uncover a conspiracy that may go straight up the chain of command.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & crime
Bordertown (2007)
American corporations are using the North American Free Trade Agreement by opening large maquiladoras right across the United States–Mexico border. The maquiladoras hire mostly Mexican women to work long hours for little money in order to produce mass quantity products. Lauren Adrian, an impassioned American news reporter for the Chicago Sentinel wants to be assigned to the Iraq front-lines to cover the war. Instead, her editor George Morgan assigns her to investigate a series of slayings involving young maquiladora factory women in a Mexican bordertown.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTraffic (2000)
An exploration of the United States of America's war on drugs from multiple perspectives. For the new head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the war becomes personal when he discovers his well-educated daughter is abusing cocaine within their comfortable suburban home. In Mexico, a flawed, but noble policeman agrees to testify against a powerful general in league with a cartel, and in San Diego, a drug kingpin's sheltered trophy wife must learn her husband's ruthless business after he is arrested, endangering her luxurious lifestyle.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRigged (2008)
In the seedy underground of illegal prizefighting, a corrupt boxing promoter is embroiled in a dangerous fight-fixing scheme with his female prizefighter.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Street Kings 2: Motor City (2011)
Detroit detective Marty Kingston (Liotta) is the leader of an undercover narcotics team, whose members are being systematically murdered one by one. To solve the brutal killings, Kingston joins forces with a cocky, young homicide detective. But neither of them is prepared for the shocking corruption their investigation will uncover — stunning secrets that will set both men on a violent collision course with betrayal and vengeance.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisBroken City (2013)
In a broken city rife with injustice, ex-cop Billy Taggart seeks redemption and revenge after being double-crossed and then framed by its most powerful figure, the mayor. Billy's relentless pursuit of justice, matched only by his streetwise toughness, makes him an unstoppable force - and the mayor's worst nightmare.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like this100 Kilos (2001)
The rise and fall of the Freeway Boyz, These group of young men sold millions of dollars of drugs in the streets of South Central Los Angeles, and inadvertently financed a CIA private war in Nicaragua.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Rampart (2011)
The story follows veteran police officer Dave Brown, the last of the renegade cops, as he struggles to take care of his family, and fights for his own survival.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisTraining Day (2001)
On his first day on the job as a narcotics officer, a rookie cop works with a rogue detective who isn't what he appears.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBelly (1998)
Tommy Bundy and Sincere are best friends as well as infamous and ruthless criminals and shot-callers in the hood. Respected by many but feared by all. As the police are closing in on them and new players are looking for a come up, will their reign last?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFresh (1994)
Death and violence anger twelve year old drug courier Fresh, who sets his rival employers against each other.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHarsh Times (2005)
Jim Davis is an ex-Army Ranger who finds himself slipping back into his old life of petty crime after a job offer from the LAPD evaporates. His best friend is pressured by his girlfriend Sylvia to find a job, but Jim is more interested in hanging out and making cash from small heists, while trying to get a law enforcement job so he can marry his Mexican girlfriend.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSabotage (2014)
John 'Breacher' Wharton leads an elite DEA task force that takes on the world's deadliest drug cartels. When the team successfully executes a high-stakes raid on a cartel safe house, they think their work is done – until, one-by-one, the team members mysteriously start to be eliminated. As the body count rises, everyone is a suspect.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Glass Shield (1994)
J.J. is a rookie in the Sheriff's Department and the first black officer at that station. Racial tensions run high in the department as some of J.J.'s fellow officers resent his presence. His only real friend is the other new trooper, the first female officer to work there, who also suffers similar discrimination in the otherwise all-white male work environment. When J.J. becomes increasingly aware of police corruption during the murder trial of Teddy Woods, whom he helped to arrest, he faces difficult decisions and puts himself into grave personal danger in the service of justice.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisEdison (2005)
In the troubled city of Edison, a young journalist, his jaded editor, and an honest investigator from the district attorney's office join forces to gather evidence against corrupt members of an elite police unit.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisJunction (2024)
Junction addresses the modern day opioid crisis in America, and asks how did this happen, from three different points of view. The CEO of a pharmaceutical company, a doctor, and a patient.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Menace II Society (1993)
A young street hustler attempts to escape the rigors and temptations of the ghetto in a quest for a better life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Corruptor (1999)
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.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHard to Kill (1990)
Mason Storm, a 'go it alone' cop, is gunned down at home. The intruders kill his wife, and think they've killed both Mason and his son too. Mason is secretly taken to a hospital where he spends several years in a coma. His son meanwhile is growing up thinking his father is dead. When Mason wakes up, everyone is in danger - himself, his son, his best friend, his nurse - but most of all those who arranged for his death
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNew Jack City (1991)
A gangster, Nino, is in the Cash Money Brothers, making a million dollars every week selling crack. A cop, Scotty, discovers that the only way to infiltrate the gang is to become a dealer himself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWe Die Young (2019)
Lucas, a 14-year-old boy inducted into the gang life in Washington D.C., is determined that his 10-year-old brother won't follow the same path. When an Afghanistan war veteran comes into the neighborhood, an opportunity arises.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Dirty?
The closest matches to Dirty are Down for Life (2010), Narc (2002) and Slow Burn (2005). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Dirty?
People who watched Dirty most often go on to Down for Life (2010), Narc (2002) and Slow Burn (2005).
What is the highest-rated movie like Dirty?
Training Day (2001), rated 7.5/10 by 6,997 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Dirty?
Junction (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Dirty?
Yes: Down for Life (2010), Narc (2002) and Slow Burn (2005).
How are movies similar to Dirty chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Dirty, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.