Movies like El Polaquito (2003)
The best movies like El Polaquito (2003) are Sky High (2020), The Enforcer (2022) and Straight from the Barrio (2008). If El Polaquito hooked you with its drama and action, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedFacing El Chapo (2026)8.7/10 from 990 votes
- NewestFacing El Chapo (2026)Released 2026
- In SpanishSky High (2020)Also in Spanish
Sky High (2020)
A commentary on Spanish society dressed as a thriller about the misadventures of a gang of young petty criminals after the real estate crash.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Enforcer (2022)
A noir thriller set in Miami, the film follows an enforcer who discovers his femme fatale boss has branched out into cyber sex trafficking, putting a young runaway he’s befriended at risk. He sacrifices everything to save the young girl from the deadly organization he’s spent his life building.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStraight from the Barrio (2008)
A young drug dealer falls in love while facing disruption among the men in his gang, and being offered a career as a Reggaetón singer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & action
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisEl padrino: The Latin Godfather (2004)
In the streets of East Los Angeles, Manny is a formidable drug dealer. Impressed by his extravagant lifestyle and prowess, his young son, Kilo, yearns to follow in his footsteps. Kilo resolves to learn how to prosper in the drug world, and his new life as a dealer begins. In a world where a man wants everything, he may end up with nothing.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDirt (2018)
In search of a lifeline for his struggling off road racing team, a man takes on a young car thief looking for a second chance, but as their worlds collide, they must struggle to forge a successful alliance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRun (1991)
When a law student accidentally kills the son of a mob boss in a fight, he finds himself relentlessly pursued by the mob and the police.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHunting Season (2025)
When a reclusive survivalist and his daughter rescue a mysterious, wounded woman from a river, they become entangled in a deadly web of violence and revenge, forcing them to confront a brutal criminal to survive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFast Charlie (2023)
When his aging mob boss is whacked, Charlie Swift, a loyal friend and hired gun, will stop at nothing to destroy the upcoming crew that took him out.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMexicali (2026)
A former special forces contractor is forced out of retirement as an avocado farmer in Mexico when local gangsters try to force him and his family off their farm.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEmpire (2002)
Big time drug dealer Victor Rosa is looking to get out of the game and sees his chance with a big deal with a new friend who happens to be a Wall St. stockbroker. Thinking this will be his chance to go out on top, Victor soon finds out that he's been double crossed and his last option is to get revenge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAll the Names of God (2023)
After being implicated in a terrorist attack, Santi, a taxi driver, is taken hostage by one of the perpetrators.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Perfect Weapon (1991)
Jeff, a young delinquent, is enrolled by his father in a kenpo school, in the hopes of teaching the boy some self-discipline. Years later, Jeff's mentor, Kim, is being threatened by one of the Korean mafia families. Jeff tries to help his old friend, but is too late to prevent Kim's death at the hands of an unknown hitman. Vowing revenge, Jeff takes on all of the families, using his martial arts skills to find the man who killed his friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFacing El Chapo (2026)
Two Mexican officers must survive the final hours of their shift after crossing a ruthless cartel boss.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Absolute CinemaMovies like this7 Boxes (2012)
It’s Friday night in Asunción and the temperature is 40ºC. Víctor, a 17-year-old wheelbarrow-boy, dreams of becoming famous and covets a cell phone in Mercado 4. He is offered the chance to deliver seven boxes with unknown contents in exchange for $100. This sounds like an easy job but it soon gets complicated. Something in the boxes is highly coveted. Víctor and his persecutors find themselves caught up in a crime they know nothing about.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThose Who Love, Hate (2017)
Enrique Hubermann, homeopathic physician, travels in flight from a love. By a joke of fate, in that distant place he meets the woman he wants to forget, a beautiful young woman like a demon who manipulates men and triggers dangerous passions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Killer (2024)
Zee is a feared contract killer known as "the Queen of the Dead," but when she refuses to murder a young blind woman, she finds herself hunted both by criminal colleagues and a determined police detective.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
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 · both action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPoint Blank (2019)
A nurse is forced to spring a wounded murder suspect from the hospital when the man’s brother kidnaps his pregnant wife and wants to make a trade.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUntil Death (2007)
Anthony Stowe is a dirty cop who is hooked on heroin—and everyone hates him. After a serious accident, he is placed into an induced coma, but emerges from it a better person who wants to put things right.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe King of Havana (2015)
Recently escaped from reformatory, Reinaldo struggles to get by in the streets of Havana in the late 90s, one of the worst decades for Cuban society. Hopes, disillusionment, rum, good humor and above all hunger, accompany him in his wanderings, until he meets Magda and Yunisleidy, survivors like himself. In one or the other's arms, he will try to escape the material and moral misery surrounding him, living love, passion, tenderness and uninhibited sex to the limit.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTwo Shots Fired (2014)
Mariano, 16, inexplicably and without warning, shoots himself twice and improbably survives. Then, life goes on. His brother pursues a romance with a girl working at a fast-food joint, his mother takes off on a trip with a stranger, and Mariano recruits a woman to join his medieval wind ensemble.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Secret in Their Eyes (2009)
Hoping to put to rest years of unease concerning a past case, retired criminal investigator Benjamín begins writing a novel based on the unsolved mystery of a newlywed’s rape and murder. With the help of a former colleague, judge Irene, he attempts to make sense of the past.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisAlemania (2024)
Sixteen-year-old Lola is studying for her resits when the possibility of a semester in Germany comes up. Lola wants to go, but her family, bogged down by her elder sister's psychiatric problems, don't want her to make the trip. The lack of stability and exhaustion in the ties with her family prompt Lola to go ahead with her idea and set out to find new experiences that make her see both herself and the circumstances that surround her with different eyes.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Official Story (1985)
Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1983. In the last and turbulent days of the military dictatorship, Alicia, a high school history teacher, begins to ask uncomfortable questions about the dark origins of Gaby, her adopted daughter.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEternal Light (TBA)
The life and work of Guido Buffo, an artist and scientist whose passion for knowledge and art is intertwined with his love story with Leonor. Through a journey through key moments in his life, the short film explores his vision of the interconnection between art and science, as well as his profound love for his wife and daughter, who inspire him to build an enduring legacy: his chapel in the Córdoba mountains.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Delinquents (2023)
Morán works as a clerk in a bank in Buenos Aires. He is as good as invisible to his colleagues. Over dinner with his colleague Román, Morán tells him that he stole exactly $650,000, which is exactly double what he would have made until his retirement. He plans to turn himself in, but not before offering Román to split the money if agrees to hide it for the duration of his incarceration.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPapeles en el viento (2015)
When El Mono dies, his three longtime friends try to recover from the loss and want to secure his little girl's future. But for Fernando, Mauricio and El Ruso this will not be easy. They decide to recover a big investment El Mono had made when he had bought a soccer player who was supposed to become a star.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Stories of the Argentine West (2023)
At a tabern in the argentine interior, xenophobia among gauchos is in charge of blurring the line between the law and the trap.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
Rebellion in Patagonia (1974)
In 1920, workers from Patagonia, in Southern Argentina, gather around an anarcho-syndicalist society and go on strike, demanding better working conditions. When the situation turns unsustainable, President Yrigoyen sends Lieutenant Colonel Zavala to impose order.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Hole in the Wall (1982)
In this modern retelling of the Faust legend, a freelance photographer meets the enigmatic Mefi, who leads him, through a hole in the wall, to a room where a disembodied voice predicts stock prices.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like El Polaquito and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like El Polaquito?
The closest matches to El Polaquito are Sky High (2020), The Enforcer (2022) and Straight from the Barrio (2008). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after El Polaquito?
Start with Sky High (2020), the closest match to El Polaquito.
What is the highest-rated movie like El Polaquito?
Facing El Chapo (2026), rated 8.7/10 by 990 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like El Polaquito?
Facing El Chapo (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Spanish movies like El Polaquito?
Yes: Sky High (2020), Straight from the Barrio (2008) and All the Names of God (2023).
How are movies similar to El Polaquito chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside El Polaquito, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.