Movies like Don't Be Bad (2015)
The best movies like Don't Be Bad (2015) are The Ruthless (2019), The Traitor (2019) and Piranhas (2019). If Don't Be Bad 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 ratedOn My Skin (2018)8.0/10 from 1,908 votes
- NewestSicilian Letters (2024)Released 2024
- In ItalianThe Ruthless (2019)Also in Italian
The Ruthless (2019)
Milan, Italy, 1967. Santo Russo, a boy of Calabrian origin, arrives north with his parents and younger brother to find better living conditions. Due to an absurd misunderstanding and his father's contempt, Santo ends up in prison, where he gets a “true education.” In 1978, he and his friends Slim and Mario embark on a 15-year criminal career, a successful and ruthless spiral of robberies, kidnappings, murders and heroin smuggling.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Traitor (2019)
Palermo, Sicily, 1980. Mafia member Tommaso Buscetta decides to move to Brazil with his family fleeing the constant war between the different clans of the criminal organization. But when, after living several misfortunes, he is forced to return to Italy, he makes a bold decision that will change his life and the destiny of Cosa Nostra forever.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPiranhas (2019)
A gang of teenage boys stalk the streets of Naples armed with hand guns and AK-47s to do their mob bosses' bidding – until they decide to be the bosses themselves.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlack Souls (2014)
A former narcotics smuggler, now living peaceably in the Calabrian hills, is drawn back into his family’s drug-trade dynasty by his impetuous teenage son.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGomorrah (2008)
An inside look at Italy's modern-day crime families, the Camorra in Naples and Caserta. Based on a book by Roberto Saviano. Power, money and blood: these are the "values" that the residents of the Province of Naples and Caserta have to face every day. They hardly ever have a choice and are forced to obey the rules of the Camorra. Only a lucky few can even think of leading a normal life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGolden Men (2019)
A group of desperate men, unsatisfied by their lives, decides to attempt a heist to a postal armored truck guard.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBoys Cry (2018)
Mirko and Manolo are best friends and live in the suburbs of Rome. They both live in poor conditions with their single parents, are still in school and struggle with occasional odd jobs to make ends meet. Together they share dreams of women, of sex and money, of a better life to come. Then, after killing a man in a hit-and-run one night, they get involved with the local mafia and their lives change dramatically.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOn My Skin (2018)
The incredible true story behind the most controversial Italian court cases in recent years. Stefano Cucchi was arrested for a minor crime and mysteriously found dead during his detention. In one week's time, a family is changed forever.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisSuburra (2015)
A gangster known as "Samurai" wants to turn the waterfront of Rome into a new Las Vegas. All the local mob bosses have agreed to work for this common goal. But peace is not to last long.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA.C.A.B. - All Cops Are Bastards (2012)
A look at the controversial riot cops unit, told through the stories of three veteran cops and a young recruit.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSicilian Letters (2024)
Loosely based on real events that took place during Matteo Messina Denaro's thirty years on the run. A disgraced politician is gifted a second chance when secret services involve him in an operation to root out an elusive Mafia boss. Using his personal connection as the Boss' godfather, his task is to get him to reveal his hiding place in their secret letters.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCrime Novel (2005)
After serving prison time for a juvenile offense, Freddo gathers his old buddies Libano and Dandi and embarks on a crime spree that makes the trio the most powerful gangsters in Rome. Libano loves their new status, and seeks to spread their influence throughout the underworld, while the other two pursue more fleshly desires. For decades, their gang perpetrates extravagant crimes, until paranoia threatens to split the friends apart.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDogman (2018)
Marcello, a small and gentle dog groomer, finds himself involved in a dangerous relationship of subjugation with Simone, a former violent boxer who terrorizes the entire neighborhood. In an effort to reaffirm his dignity, Marcello will submit to an unexpected act of vengeance.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHuman Capital (2013)
The destinies of two families are irrevocably tied together after a cyclist is hit off the road by a jeep in the night before Christmas Eve.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNostalgia (2022)
Felice returns to his native Rione Sanità in Naples to look after his dying mother, having lived abroad for the last forty years. Here he discovers that his old friend Oreste has become a notorious crimeboss.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Immortal (2019)
After reuniting with his first mentor Bruno and receiving his latest mission, an exiled Ciro is left to fearlessly confront whatever comes his way, navigating a new chapter of gang warfare while grappling with devastating memories of loss and trauma. Weaving between his past as an orphan in Naples' cruel underworld and present as a hardened, cunning assassin with nothing left to lose, Ciro is plunged into the cold, dark depths of a world where immortality is just another form of damnation.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Ciambra (2017)
Pio Amato, a 14 year-old member of a small Romani community in southern Italian town of Gioia Tauro in Calabria, is in a hurry to grow up. Pio follows his older brother Cosimo everywhere and from him he learns how to hustle and how to navigate the streets of his hometown. One night Pio sets out to prove to his brother that he is as good or better than him but, when things go wrong, a series of events will forever change the way he sees the world.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSalvatore Giuliano (1962)
Sicilian bandit Salvatore Giuliano's bullet-riddled corpse is found facedown in a courtyard in Castelvetrano, a handgun and rifle by his side. Local and international press descend upon the scene, hoping to crack open the true story behind the death of this young man, who, at the age of twenty-seven, had already become Italy’s most wanted criminal and celebrated hero.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAdagio (2023)
Tangled up with blackmail and crooked cops, the son of a former gangster seeks out his father's old friends, who risk everything to save him.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Scent of the Night (1998)
A former policeman turns full-time robber and goes on a downward spiral of crime in 1970s Rome.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Eight Mountains (2022)
An epic journey of friendship and self-discovery set in the breathtaking Italian Alps, The Eight Mountains follows over four decades the profound, complex relationship between Pietro and Bruno.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStreet People (1976)
A Mafia boss is enraged when he is suspected of smuggling a heroin shipment into San Francisco. He dispatches his nephew, a hotshot Anglo-Sicilian lawyer, to identify the real culprit. The lawyer also enlists the aid of his best friend, a grand prix driver with an adventurous streak.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Human Capital (2020)
Ian begins a relationship with Drew's daughter, who works in the financial sector. The couple gets involved in a tragic accident that will change their lives forever. At the same time, the accident has a major impact on both their families who, despite the class difference, cross paths.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisSaturn in Opposition (2007)
This film focuses on contemporary 30- and 40-somethings trying to make sense of their lives in an age in which the old certainties have disappeared. Lorenzo and Davide make their lives together within a circle that includes Antonio and Angelica, married with children; Nerval and her policeman husband.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIl Divo (2008)
Italy, early '90s. Calm, clever and inscrutable, politician Giulio Andreotti has been synonymous with power for decades. He has survived everything: electoral battles, terrorist massacres, loss of friends, slanderous accusations; but now certain repentant mobsters implicate him in the crimes of Cosa Nostra.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDiaz - Don't Clean Up This Blood (2012)
On July 19–21, 2001, over 200,000 people took to the streets of Genoa to protest against the ongoing G8 summit. Anti-globalization activists clashed with the police, with 23-year-old protester Carlo Giuliani shot dead after confronting a police vehicle. In the aftermath, the police organized a night raid on the Diaz high school, where around a hundred people between unarmed protesters—mostly students—and independent reporters who documented the police brutality during the protests had took shelter. What happened next was called by Amnesty International "the most serious breach of civil liberties in a democratic Western country since World War II."
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisForgive Us Our Debts (2018)
Threatened by creditors, a newly unemployed man agrees to work for a debt collector, but soon discovers his deal with the devil has unexpected costs.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Place (2017)
The fates of an apparently random group of strangers who each come into contact with a mysterious figure who they believe possesses the power to grant any wish, in return for which they must carry out a task he assigns them.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRobbing Mussolini (2022)
Near the end of WWII, a young bootlegger and his nightclub-singing girlfriend assemble a ragtag team for an dangerous heist: to steal Mussolini's treasure right from his headquarters.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisItalian Race (2016)
Giulia De Martino is a pilot. At seventeen she participates in the GT Championship, under the guidance of her father Mario. But one day everything changes and Giulia has to face alone both the track and her own life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Don't Be Bad?
The closest matches to Don't Be Bad are The Ruthless (2019), The Traitor (2019) and Piranhas (2019). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Don't Be Bad?
People who watched Don't Be Bad most often go on to The Ruthless (2019), The Traitor (2019) and Piranhas (2019).
What is the highest-rated movie like Don't Be Bad?
On My Skin (2018), rated 8.0/10 by 1,908 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Don't Be Bad?
Sicilian Letters (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Italian movies like Don't Be Bad?
Yes: The Ruthless (2019), The Traitor (2019) and Piranhas (2019).
How are movies similar to Don't Be Bad chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Don't Be Bad, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.