Movies like The Tough Guy (1961)
The best movies like The Tough Guy (1961) are The Instigators (2024), Swindle (2014) and 29th Street (1991). If The Tough Guy hooked you with its comedy, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Odd Couple (1968)7.4/10 from 691 votes
- NewestThe Instigators (2024)Released 2024
The Instigators (2024)
Rory and Cobby are unlikely partners thrown together for a heist. But when it goes awry, they team up with an unusual accomplice — Rory's therapist — to outrun police, backward bureaucrats, and a vengeful crime boss.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSwindle (2014)
A boy named Griffin finds a valuable multi-million dollar baseball card. After accidentally selling the card for a million dollar loss, he enlists the help of his best friend Ben and his colleagues to regain the baseball card.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like this29th Street (1991)
After winning $6.2 million in the 1976 New York State Lottery, he is arrested for throwing rocks at a church. He then tells his story at the police station.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSafe Sex (1999)
A satire of life in modern Greece, presented through a series of different stories about sex. There are several couples and their relation with sex in parallel stories that come together in a hilarious way.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTaking Care of Business (1990)
An uptight advertising exec has his entire life in a filofax organizer which mistakenly ends up in the hands of a friendly convict who poses as him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPocket Listing (2016)
A satirical thriller about L.A.'s real estate roller coaster. Double crosses, adultery, murder, mistaken identity, and revenge ensues when a mysterious power player and his sultry wife hire a disgraced Los Angeles property broker to discreetly market and sell their Malibu villa.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTake the Money and Run (1969)
Virgil Starkwell is intent on becoming a notorious bank robber. Unfortunately for Virgil and his not-so-budding career, he is completely incompetent.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Distinguished Gentleman (1992)
A Florida con man uses the recent death of the long time Congressman from his district, who he just happens to share a last name with, to get elected to his version of paradise, the U.S. Congress, where the money flows from lobbyists.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOscar (1991)
Angelo "Snaps" Provolone made his dying father a promise on his deathbed: he would leave the world of crime and become an honest businessman. Despite having no experience in making money in a legal fashion, Snaps sets about to keep his promise.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBrewster's Millions (1985)
Monty Brewster, an aging minor-league baseball player, stands to inherit $300 million if he can successfully spend $30 million in 30 days without anything to show for it, and without telling anyone what he's up to... A task that's a lot harder than it sounds!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)
Con artist Lawrence Jamieson is a longtime resident of a luxurious coastal resort, where he enjoys the lavish fruits of his deceptions -- that is, until a competitor, Freddy Benson, shows up. When the new guy's lowbrow tactics impinge on his own sophisticated work and believing him to be the infamous conman 'The Jackal', Lawrence resolves to get rid of him. Confident of his own duplicitous talents, he challenges Freddy to a winner-takes-all competition: whoever swindles their latest mark, American heiress Janet Colgate, out of $50,000 first can stay, while the other must leave town.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Twelve Chairs (1970)
In 1920s Soviet Russia, a fallen aristocrat, a priest and a con artist search for a treasure of jewels hidden inside one of twelve dining chairs, lost during the revolution.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLegal Eagles (1986)
Assistant District Attorney Tom Logan is set for higher office, at least until he becomes involved with defence lawyer Laura Kelly and her unpredictable client Chelsea Deardon. It seems the least of Chelsea's crimes is the theft of a very valuable painting, but as the women persuade Logan to investigate further and to cut some official corners, a much more sinister scenario starts to emerge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Super (1991)
Louie Kritski is a heartless landlord who has been so negligent in keeping up his ghetto apartment that he is threatened with jail time. The judge gives him another option -- he must live in his rat-infested hell hole until he brings it up to liveable standards.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisFun with Dick and Jane (1977)
When an upwardly mobile couple find themselves unemployed and in debt, they turn to armed robbery in desperation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlank Check (1994)
Bullied by his siblings and nagged by his parents, 11-year-old Preston Waters is fed up with his family — especially their frugality. But he gets his chance to teach them a lesson when a money-laundering criminal nearly bulldozes Preston with his car and compensates the boy with a blank check. Preston makes the check out for $1 million and goes on a spending spree he'll never forget.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Cocoanuts (1929)
During the Florida land boom, the Marx Brothers run a hotel, auction off some land and thwart a jewel robbery.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Ladykillers (1955)
Five oddball criminals planning a bank robbery rent rooms on a cul-de-sac from an octogenarian widow under the pretext that they are classical musicians.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWelcome to Collinwood (2002)
Five hapless inner-city low-lifes attempt to burgle a pawnbroker's safe, but end up being plagued by bad luck.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTower Heist (2011)
A luxury condo manager leads a staff of workers to seek payback on the Wall Street swindler who defrauded them. With only days until the billionaire gets away with the perfect crime, the unlikely crew of amateur thieves enlists the help of petty crook Slide to steal the $20 million they’re sure is hidden in the penthouse.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Odd Couple (1968)
In New York, Felix, a neurotic news writer who just broke up with his wife, is urged by his chaotic friend Oscar, a sports journalist, to move in with him, but their lifestyles are as different as night and day are, so Felix's ideas about housekeeping soon begin to irritate Oscar.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Exchange Student (1967)
Monsieur Bosquier, the owner of a private school, is far from pleased when his eldest son, Philippe, fails his end of year exams. He decides to send his wayward offspring to England to improve his English. In exchange, Philippe’s host, a wealthy whisky distiller, Mac Farrel, will send his daughter, Shirley, to live with the Bosquiers in France. However, Philippe has already decided to spend the summer holidays on a yacht with his friends, so he sends a fellow student, Michonnet, to England in his place. The deception is soon discovered but things go from bad to worse when Philippe and Shirley fall in love and fly to Scotland to get married...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSmiles of a Summer Night (1955)
Early in the 20th century, middle-aged lawyer Fredrik Egerman and his young wife, Anne, have still not consummated their marriage, while Fredrik's son finds himself increasingly attracted to his new stepmother. To make matters worse, Fredrik's old flame Desiree makes a public bet that she can seduce him at a romantic weekend retreat where four couples convene, swapping partners and pairing off in unexpected ways.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAir America (1990)
Air America was the CIA's private airline operating in Laos during the Vietnam War, running anything and everything from soldiers to foodstuffs for local villagers. After losing his pilot's license, Billy Covington is recruited, and ends up in the middle of a bunch of lunatic pilots, gun-running by his friend Gene Ryack, and opium smuggling by his own superiors.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisMiracle on 34th Street (1947)
Kris Kringle, seemingly the embodiment of Santa Claus, is asked to portray the jolly old fellow at Macy's following his performance in the Thanksgiving Day parade. His portrayal is so complete that many begin to question if he truly is Santa Claus, while others question his sanity.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIntolerable Cruelty (2003)
A revenge-seeking gold digger marries a womanizing Beverly Hills lawyer with the intention of making a killing in the divorce.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMamma Mia! (2008)
A spirited young bride-to-be living with her single mother on a small Greek island secretly invites three of her mother's ex-boyfriends in hope of finding her biological father to walk her down the aisle.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisArgylle (2024)
When the plots of reclusive author Elly Conway's fictional espionage novels begin to mirror the covert actions of a real-life spy organization, quiet evenings at home become a thing of the past. Accompanied by her cat Alfie and Aidan, a cat-allergic spy, Elly races across the world to stay one step ahead of the killers as the line between Conway's fictional world and her real one begins to blur.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Serious Man (2009)
It is 1967, and Larry Gopnik, a physics professor at a quiet Midwestern university, has just been informed by his wife Judith that she is leaving him. He scrambles to find a semblance of meaning as he loses control of nearly every aspect of his life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOne Night in Heaven (1951)
Ms. Byzantiou is a passionate writer who stays at the hotel “Paradise” together with other eccentric tenants. When the friend of a hotel boy, who is planning to marry a young tenant, arrives at the same time with a couple of newlyweds, Ms. Byzantiou is inspired to write about a dramatic love affair.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Tough Guy?
The closest matches to The Tough Guy are The Instigators (2024), Swindle (2014) and 29th Street (1991). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Tough Guy?
Start with The Instigators (2024), the closest match to The Tough Guy.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Tough Guy?
The Odd Couple (1968), rated 7.4/10 by 691 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Tough Guy?
The Instigators (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to The Tough Guy chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Tough Guy, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.