Movies like The Unknown Policeman (1941)
The best movies like The Unknown Policeman (1941) are Things Change (1988), Zero Effect (1998) and After the Sunset (2004). If The Unknown Policeman hooked you with its comedy and crime, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedWhat's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)7.7/10 from 4,443 votes
- NewestRed Notice (2021)Released 2021
- In SpanishTorrente: The Dumb Arm of the Law (1998)Also in Spanish
Things Change (1988)
Jerry, a misfit Mafia henchman, is assigned the low-level job of keeping an eye on Gino, a shoe repairman fingered by the Mob to confess to a murder he didn't commit. But Gino's mistaken for a Mafia boss, and the two are suddenly catapulted to the highest levels of mobster status. Only friendship will see them through this dangerous adventure alive!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisZero Effect (1998)
Daryl Zero is a private investigator and—along with his assistant, Steve Arlo—he solves impossible crimes and puzzles. Although Daryl's a master investigator, he doesn't know what to do with himself when he's not working; he has no social skills, writes bad music and drives Steve crazy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAfter the Sunset (2004)
An FBI agent is suspicious of two master thieves, quietly enjoying their retirement near what may - or may not - be the biggest score of their careers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 · both crime & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhere the Money Is (2000)
Henry Manning has come up with a new way to break out of prison: fake a stroke and get transferred to a nursing home. It's a perfect plan, except for one thing: the woman assigned to take care of him at the nursing home, Carol Ann McKay, has a plan of her own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976)
Charles Dreyfus, who has finally cracked over inspector Clouseau's antics, escapes from a mental institution and launches an elaborate plan to get rid of Clouseau once and for all.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWinged Creatures (2009)
A psychotic man opens fire in a diner, murdering numerous people before killing himself. The survivors struggle in different ways following this horrendous event: a doctor doubts his own instincts and elects to use an experimental medical procedure on his wife, while a gambler believes he's on a lucky streak. A waitress begins engaging in promiscuous sex, and a young girl whose father is among the dead gains unexpected fame.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisBig Momma's House (2000)
When a street-smart FBI agent is sent to Georgia to protect a beautiful single mother and her son from an escaped convict, he is forced to impersonate a crass Southern granny known as Big Momma in order to remain incognito.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisKing Creole (1958)
Delinquent Danny Fisher flunks out of high school, quits his job as a nightclub busboy, and one night gets the chance to perform. Success is imminent and local crime boss Maxie Fields wants to hire him to perform at The Blue Shade. Danny declines, but Fields won't take no for an answer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Cheap Detective (1978)
A spoof of the entire 1940s detective genre. San Francisco private detective, Lou Pekinpaugh is accused of murdering his partner at the instigation of his mistress—his partner's wife.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJohnny Dangerously (1984)
An honest, goodhearted man is forced to turn to a life of crime to finance his neurotic mother's skyrocketing medical bills.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Blue Heaven (1990)
FBI agent Barney Coopersmith is assigned to protect former Mafia figure turned informant Vincent Antonelli. In the witness protection program one is supposed to keep a low profile, but that is something that Antonelli has trouble doing. Coopersmith certainly has his hands full keeping Antonelli away from the Mafia hitmen who want to stop him testifying, not to mention the nightclubs...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Parts You Lose (2019)
An unlikely friendship unfolds between a young deaf boy, Wesley, and a fugitive criminal who takes refuge in an abandoned barn on the family’s rural North Dakota farm.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSmall Time Crooks (2000)
A loser of a crook and his wife strike it rich when a botched bank job's cover business becomes a spectacular success.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHow to Rob a Bank (2007)
Caught in the middle of a bank robbery, a slacker and a bank employee become the ones who arbitrate the intense situation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Asphalt Jungle (1950)
Recently paroled from prison, legendary burglar "Doc" Riedenschneider, with funding from Alonzo Emmerich, a crooked lawyer, gathers a small group of veteran criminals together in the Midwest for a big jewel heist.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSee Spot Run (2001)
A drug sniffing agent canine is a target for an assassin boss so the FBI calls Witness Protection to send him somewhere else. Meanwhile a single Mom puts her 6 year old boy James in the care of her irresponsible, mailman, neighbor, Gordon, when the babysitter bails on her. Meanwhile, an assassin mob boss hires 2 goons to kill Agent 11. But when 11 escapes from the van when they tried to kill him, he hides in Gordon's Mailtruck that James is in too. And guess what they name him. Spot.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRed Notice (2021)
An Interpol-issued Red Notice is a global alert to hunt and capture the world's most wanted. But when a daring heist brings together the FBI's top profiler and two rival criminals, there's no telling what will happen.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhite Chicks (2004)
Two FBI agent brothers, Marcus and Kevin Copeland, accidentally foil a drug bust. To avoid being fired they accept a mission escorting a pair of socialites to the Hamptons--but when the girls are disfigured in a car accident, they refuse to go. Left without options, Marcus and Kevin decide to pose as the sisters, transforming themselves from black men into rich white women.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBlue Streak (1999)
Miles Logan is a jewel thief who just hit the big time by stealing a huge diamond. However, after two years in jail, he comes to find out that he hid the diamond in a police building that was being built at the time of the robbery. In an attempt to regain his diamond, he poses as an LAPD detective.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisB.T.S. (Better Than Sex) (2002)
A web of connected stories on crime, sex, and love in Taiwan, including a 17 y.o. boy with a porn obsession, three hoodlums, and a self-righteous police officer.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & crime
Lonely Hearts (2006)
In the late 1940s, a murderous couple known as the 'The Lonely Hearts Killers' kills close to a dozen people. Two detectives try to nab the duo who find their targets via the personals in the paper.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTorrente: The Dumb Arm of the Law (1998)
A former policeman enlists his nerdy friend to help bust drug traffickers moving heroin through a Chinese restaurant.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMoonstruck (1987)
37-year-old Italian-American widow Loretta Castorini believes she is unlucky in love, and so accepts a marriage proposal from her boyfriend Johnny, even though she doesn't love him. When she meets his estranged younger brother Ronny, an emotional and passionate man, she finds herself drawn to him. She tries to resist, but Ronny, who blames his brother for the loss of his hand, has no scruples about aggressively pursuing her while Johnny is out of the country. As Loretta falls for Ronny, she learns that she's not the only one in her family with a secret romance.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAs Good as It Gets (1997)
A misanthropic author, a single mother and waitress, and a gay artist form an unlikely friendship after the artist is assaulted in a robbery.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNo Reservations (2007)
Master chef Kate Armstrong runs her life and her kitchen with intimidating intensity. However, a recipe for disaster may be in the works when she becomes the guardian of her young niece while crossing forks with the brash sous-chef who just joined her staff. Though romance blooms in the face of rivalry, Kate needs to look outside the kitchen to find true happiness.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMostly Martha (2001)
Martha is a single woman who lives for one passion: cooking. The head chef at a chic restaurant, Martha has no time for anything - or anyone - else. But Martha's solitary life is shaken when a fateful accident brings her sister's eight-year-old daughter, Lina, to her doorstep.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSamaritan Girl (2004)
Jae-Young is an amateur prostitute who sleeps with men while her best friend Yeo-Jin "manages" her, fixing dates, taking care of the money, and making sure the coast is clear. When Jae-Young falls in love with one of those men, she suppresses her feelings towards him in respect of her friend who's jealous.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLammbock (2001)
Stefan and Kai run a thriving business: a home-grown cannabis trade disguised as a pizza delivery service. For now they just have to fight aphids.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhat's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)
Gilbert Grape is a small-town young man with a lot of responsibility. Chief among his concerns are his mother, who is so overweight that she can't leave the house, and his mentally impaired younger brother, Arnie, who has a knack for finding trouble. Settled into a job at a grocery store and an ongoing affair with local woman Betty Carver, Gilbert finally has his life shaken up by the free-spirited Becky.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Unknown Policeman?
The closest matches to The Unknown Policeman are Things Change (1988), Zero Effect (1998) and After the Sunset (2004). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Unknown Policeman?
Start with Things Change (1988), the closest match to The Unknown Policeman.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Unknown Policeman?
What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), rated 7.7/10 by 4,443 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Unknown Policeman?
Red Notice (2021) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Spanish movies like The Unknown Policeman?
Yes: Torrente: The Dumb Arm of the Law (1998).
How are movies similar to The Unknown Policeman chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Unknown Policeman, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.