Movies like Cops! Who Needs Them? (1973)
The best movies like Cops! Who Needs Them? (1973) are Rise of the Footsoldier (2007), Wrong Cops (2013) and Icefall (2025). If Cops! Who Needs Them? hooked you, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Substitute (1996)7.0/10 from 621 votes
- NewestIcefall (2025)Released 2025
Rise of the Footsoldier (2007)
Carlton Leach rises from one of the most feared generals of the football terraces to becoming a member of a notorious gang of criminals who rampaged their way through London and Essex in the late '80s and early '90s.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWrong Cops (2013)
A group of bad cops look to dispose of a body that one of them accidentally shot.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe System (2022)
When a young soldier, newly returned from war, gets caught up in a drug bust, he is recruited by the authorities to go undercover in a notoriously dangerous prison in order to figure out what is really going on.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGoing in Style (1979)
Three kindly old men decide to light up the dimming twilight of their lives with a last blaze of glory – by sticking up a Manhattan bank in broad daylight.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFoxy Brown (1974)
A voluptuous black woman takes a job as a high-class prostitute in order to get revenge on the mobsters who murdered her boyfriend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Poker House (2008)
Agnes and her two sisters struggle through a day in a home overrun by gamblers, thieves, and johns.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFedora (1978)
Down-on-his-luck Hollywood producer Barry 'Dutch' Detweiler attempts to lure Fedora, a famous but reclusive film actress, out of retirement, only to discover the horrifying truth behind her success.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnother Day in Paradise (1998)
In the hope of a big score, two junkie couples team up to commit various drug robberies which go disastrously wrong, leading to dissent, violence, and murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Substitute (1996)
When an inner-city Miami schoolteacher gets her knee broken after standing up to the school's gang leader, her mercenary combat specialist boyfriend goes undercover as a substitute teacher to take down the punk. Soon he discovers a conspiracy of criminals at work, and must reassemble his team from his last jungle raid to stop them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisExit Wounds (2001)
Maverick cop Orin Boyd always brings down the domestic terrorists he tracks, but he ruffles feathers with his unorthodox techniques -- and soon finds himself reassigned to the toughest district in Detroit. When he discovers a group of detectives secretly operating a drug ring, Boyd joins forces with an unlikely ally -- gangster Latrell Walker -- to bring down the rotten cops.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Longshots (2008)
The true story of Jasmine Plummer who, at the age of eleven, became the first female to play in Pop Warner football tournament in its 56-year history.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRemo Williams: The Adventure Begins (1985)
Tough Brooklyn street cop Sam Makin is unwillingly recruited as an assassin for a secret United States organization known as CURE, who fake his death and give him a new identity: Remo Williams. With his appearance surgically altered, Williams is trained to be a human killing machine by his aged, derisive and impassive Korean martial arts master Chiun.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Air Up There (1994)
Jimmy Dolan is a college basketball coach who wants a big promotion. To get it, he needs to make a dramatic find. He ends up deep in Africa, hoping to recruit Saleh, a huge basketball prodigy Jimmy glimpsed in a home movie. But Saleh is the chief's son and has responsibilities at home, since the tribe's land is threatened by a mining company with its own hotshot basketball team.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDear Zoe (2022)
Tess enlists her biological father – a lovable slacker from the wrong side of the tracks – and the charming juvenile delinquent next door to help her come to grips with the death of her little sister.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHooper (1978)
Legendary stunt man Sonny Hooper remains one of the top men in his field, but due to too many stressful impacts to the spine and the need to pop painkillers several times a day, he knows he should get out of the industry before he ends up permanently disabled.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlack Caesar (1973)
Raised in Harlem, Tommy Gibbs becomes a successful mob boss but he clashes with the rival Mafia and his old enemy, dirty cop McKinney.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe 355 (2022)
A group of top female agents from American, British, Chinese, Colombian, and German government agencies are drawn together to try and stop an organization from acquiring a deadly weapon to send the world into chaos.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAcross 110th Street (1972)
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?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCartoon All-Stars to the Rescue (1990)
The plot chronicles the exploits of Michael, a teenager who is using marijuana and stealing his father's beer. His younger sister, Corey, is worried about him because he started acting differently. When her piggy bank goes missing, her cartoon tie-in toys come to life to help her find it. After discovering it in Michael's room along with his stash of drugs, the various cartoon characters proceed to work together and take him on a fantasy journey to teach him the risks and consequences a life of drug-use can bring and save the world.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHassles and Hangups (1973)
Emphasizes positive attitudes and constructive solutions to help individuals deal with problems related to sex, drugs, self-image and interpersonal relationships.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Wild at the Wheel (1973)
This short film looks at the importance of maintaining safe driving practices and heeding traffic rules. A traffic cop investigates a serious car crash and attempts to understand the cause.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Health for the Americas: Cleanliness Brings Health (1945)
The comparison of two rural families to demonstrate the need for proper hygiene and the consequences of its neglect.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Never Rest: A Drama About Farm Safety for Children (1993)
A ghost story about a modern English farm haunted by the ghost of its former owner. It's rumoured that he murdered four children, but it is slowly revealed that they were child labourers who died in various accidents exacerbated by his carelessness.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Dr. Wise on Influenza (1919)
A hard-hitting public information film made at the height of the Great Influenza 1918-18.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Check Fraud: Paper and Persuasion (1980)
Presents a check-passer describing the tricks of his trade. Explains how a conscientious check-out clerk can easily trip him up.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
North American House Hippo (1999)
The house hippo is a fictitious species of hippopotamus, and the subject of a Canadian television public service announcement produced by Concerned Children's Advertisers.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
The Story of Menstruation (1946)
A basic explanation of the purpose and process of menstruation, told largely with diagrams.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Health for the Americas: Hookworm (1945)
Non-theatrical government - war short Produced for Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs
Why it matches: Similar story and style
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Cops! Who Needs Them??
The closest matches to Cops! Who Needs Them? are Rise of the Footsoldier (2007), Wrong Cops (2013) and Icefall (2025). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Cops! Who Needs Them??
Start with Rise of the Footsoldier (2007), the closest match to Cops! Who Needs Them?.
What is the highest-rated movie like Cops! Who Needs Them??
The Substitute (1996), rated 7.0/10 by 621 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Cops! Who Needs Them??
Icefall (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Cops! Who Needs Them??
Yes: Rise of the Footsoldier (2007), Wrong Cops (2013) and Icefall (2025).
How are movies similar to Cops! Who Needs Them? chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Cops! Who Needs Them?, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.