Movies like Mr. Sardine (1994)
The best movies like Mr. Sardine (1994) are Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase (2019), Another Thin Man (1939) and The Blue Gardenia (1953). If Mr. Sardine hooked you with its mystery and crime, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedExiled (2006)7.2/10 from 268 votes
- NewestBrothers Under Fire (2026)Released 2026
Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase (2019)
Nancy Drew, a smart high schooler with a penchant for keen observation and deduction, stumbles upon the haunting of a local home. A bit of an outsider struggling to fit into her new surroundings, Nancy and her pals set out to solve the mystery, make new friends, and establish their place in the community
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnother Thin Man (1939)
Nick and Nora Charles are back - and this time, they have a baby, a wealthy new client, and another murder to solve! Retired detective Nick is enjoying family life with Nora and their young son, Nick Jr., when eccentric industrialist Colonel MacFay asks for protection after receiving threatening messages. When MacFay is found dead at his isolated estate, Nick and Nora spring into action, questioning a houseful of suspicious guests and uncovering greed, blackmail, family secrets, and a dangerous inheritance plot. With their trademark wit and sophistication, the glamorous couple balances parenthood, parties, and peril as they race to expose the killer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Blue Gardenia (1953)
Upon waking up to the news that the man she’d gone on a date with the previous night has been murdered, a young woman with only a faint memory of the night’s events begins to suspect that she murdered him while attempting to resist his advances.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Mirror Crack'd (1980)
Jane Marple solves the mystery when a local woman is poisoned and a visiting movie star seems to have been the intended victim.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNight of the Hunted (2023)
When an unsuspecting woman stops at a remote gas station in the dead of night, she's made the plaything of a sociopath sniper with a secret vendetta. To survive, she must not only dodge his bullets and fight for her life, but also figure out who wants her dead and why.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Caveman's Valentine (2001)
Romulus, a misunderstood musician turned recluse hiding from personal demons in a New York City cave, finds the frozen body of a young drifter in a tree. The authorities, including his police officer daughter, claim the death is accidental. Romulus is convinced the man was murdered by a prominent art photographer but how can he prove he's right when everyone thinks he's insane?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisIntruder (1989)
The overnight stock crew of a local supermarket find themselves being stalked and slashed by a mysterious maniac.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRaging Grace (2023)
An undocumented Filipina immigrant lands a job as a careworker for a seemingly terminal old man, securing a better life for her and her daughter. But a dark discovery threatens to destroy everything she’s strived for and holds dear.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisExiled (2006)
A friendship is formed between an ex-gangster, and two groups of hitmen - those who want to protect him and those who were sent to kill him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Vanishing (1993)
The boyfriend of an abducted woman never gives up the search as the abductor looks on.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNocebo (2022)
A fashion designer suffers from a mysterious illness that puzzles her doctors and frustrates her husband until help arrives in the form of a Filipino caregiver who uses traditional folk healing to reveal a horrifying truth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBrothers Under Fire (2026)
Captain Jordan Wright's squadron on leave for a wedding in Mexico encounters a murderous cartel. As Jordan tries to lead survivors to safety, war erupts between his squad and the cartel, forcing him into a battle to save his men.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisMona Lisa and the Blood Moon (2022)
A young woman with psychokinetic powers breaks out of a Louisiana asylum and makes her way to New Orleans, where she falls into the city’s netherworld of misfits and miscreants.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIcefall (2025)
A young Indigenous game warden arrests an infamous poacher only to discover that the poacher knows the location of a plane carrying millions of dollars that has crashed in a frozen lake. When a group of criminals and dirty cops are alerted to the poacher’s whereabouts, the warden and the poacher team up to fight back and escape across the treacherous lake before the ice melts.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKiller Heat (2024)
An expat PI is hired to investigate a suspicious death in Crete, Greece, where jealousies run deep amongst the victim's powerful family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisGarage Sale Mystery: All That Glitters (2014)
When her friend Martin turns up murdered just hours after auctioning off an abandoned storage unit full of unique items to Jennifer, she is immediately pulled on the case as a key eyewitness. Working with Detective Lynwood, Jennifer helps single out a disgruntled customer as the prime suspect, while she and her business partner, Danielle, sift through boxes from the auction.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNight Train to Lisbon (2013)
Raimund Gregorius, having saved a beautiful Portuguese woman from leaping to her death, stumbles upon a mesmerizing book by a Portuguese author, which compels him to suddenly abandon the boring life he has led for years and to embark on an enthralling adventure. In search of the author, Gregorius acts as detective, pulling together pieces of a puzzle that involves political and emotional intrigue and the highest possible stakes. His voyage is one that transcends time and space, delving into the realms of history, medicine and love, all in search of true meaning to his life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisYoung and Dangerous 2 (1996)
Chicken is back in exile. Hung Hing, a triad, is trying to ally with Chicken's new group, the Taiwanese triad San Luen. A contest is on in Hong Kong. The winner will head the Causeway Bay branch.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Ritual Killer (2023)
Unable to process the death of his daughter, Detective Boyd embarks on a hunt for a serial killer who murders according to a brutal tribal ritual: Muti. The only person who can help Boyd is Professor Mackles, an anthropologist who hides an unspeakable secret. The line between sanity and madness thins as Boyd goes deeper into the killer’s world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisBody Cam (2020)
As a police officer investigates the gruesome murder of her colleague, she discovers that a mysterious supernatural force is behind it.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCatch Cathy (2026)
Competitive classmates Callie (Lily Friberg) and Connie (Camryn Anderson) race to win a high-stakes game: catch someone named Cathy, bake a cake with them, and prove whose creation is best before the final bell rings. What could possibly go wrong?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
Suddenly (1954)
The tranquility of a small town is marred only by sheriff Tod Shaw's unsuccessful courtship of widow Ellen Benson, a pacifist who can't abide guns and those who use them. But violence descends on Ellen's household willy-nilly when the U.S. President passes through town... and slightly psycho hired assassin John Baron finds the Benson home ideal for an ambush.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGo (1999)
A supermarket clerk decides to step in for an absent drug dealer, setting off an explosive, comedic chain of events.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDog Eat Dog (2016)
Ex-cons Troy, Mad Dog, and Diesel are hired by an eccentric mob boss to kidnap a baby and hold it for a large ransom. When the abduction goes awry, the men find themselves on the run from the mob and the cops. Vowing to stay out of prison at all costs, getting away with the crime is a matter of life and death.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisBeasts: Special Offer (1976)
A misfit teenage checkout operator has an unrequited crush on her supermarket manager. At the same shop's cuddly cartoon mascot seems to have come alive and is causing havoc. Created as an episode of Nigel Kneale’s “Beasts” horror anthology miniseries.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
Whackers (TBA)
Thad, an unarmed grocery store security guard, becomes a tyrant obsessed with absolute authority to the dismay of Rose, a regular customer and Thad’s only ally. Meanwhile, separated father Wally becomes engrossed in a fringe conspiracy theory and begins a legal battle to regain his freedom and custody of his children. As both men descend into increasingly dangerous behavior, a slow night at work becomes a battleground for life, liberty, and the pursuit of power.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
The Wrath Within Mercy (2023)
In the early days of a now lawless, post-apocalyptic world, a small group sheltering in a remote cabin must navigate a harrowing choice that will define who they are as their unforgiving new reality tests them with the ultimate moral dilemma: to act as judge, jury, and possibly executioner.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
Prepper (2016)
Life is normal for James. He works out at the gym, commutes to work, teaches school, picks up groceries, returns to his suburban home, eats dinner with his wife, and wakes up the next morning to do it all over again. Everything is as it should be. His world is peaceful, calm and happy. Or is it? Never one to think much about the future, James begins to take note of the warning signs all around him that seem to point to impending doom and the collapse of society. After considering all the awful things that could happen, James decides to prepare for the worst. But there is just one problem... he has no idea where to start. Enlisting the help of his wife Sarah, James embarks on a quest to be ready for anything without spending all his money, losing the respect of his friends, or becoming a survivalist freak.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
The Decline (2020)
Anticipating a disaster, Antoine, a father, attends a survivalist training given by Alain in his autonomous hideout. In fear of a natural, economic or social crisis, the group trains to face the different possible apocalyptic scenarios. But the disaster they will experience will not be the one they predicted.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTime Line (2019)
The story of an unassuming man’s surreal encounter with the past while waiting in line to check out at the grocery store.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Mr. Sardine?
The closest matches to Mr. Sardine are Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase (2019), Another Thin Man (1939) and The Blue Gardenia (1953). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Mr. Sardine?
Start with Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase (2019), the closest match to Mr. Sardine.
What is the highest-rated movie like Mr. Sardine?
Exiled (2006), rated 7.2/10 by 268 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Mr. Sardine?
Brothers Under Fire (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Mr. Sardine chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Mr. Sardine, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.