Movies like Waist Deep (2006)
The best movies like Waist Deep (2006) are Empire (2002), Caught in the Crossfire (2010) and State Property: Blood on the Streets (2005). If Waist Deep hooked you with its action and adventure, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.

Quick picks
- Highest ratedShottas (2002)7.7/10 from 389 votes
- NewestA Score to Settle (2019)Released 2019
Empire (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: Fans watch both · both action & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCaught in the Crossfire (2010)
Two detectives investigating a gang-related find themselves targeted by both gang members and crooked cops.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & adventure
State Property: Blood on the Streets (2005)
Three gangsters vie for control of the streets of Philadelphia.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & drama
Never Die Alone (2004)
A drug kingpin's rise and tragic fall is witnessed vicariously by a reporter who uses the criminal's diary as the basis for his new book.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisGang Tapes (2001)
When a brutal carjacking yields a videocamera, a teenage boy decides to document his life and the lives of his fellow gangbangers.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & action
Sugar Hill (1994)
In the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, the Mafia steps in when a drug dealer quits his partner and brother to lead a straight life with his girlfriend.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & action
SnoozefestMovies like thisIn Too Deep (1999)
Drug lord Dwayne Gittens rules Cincinnati with an iron fist. No wonder he's known as "God" on the streets. Determined to break Gittens' stranglehold on the city is undercover cop Jeffrey Cole. But as Cole takes on an assumed identity to penetrate Gittens' criminal empire, he makes a disturbing discovery -- he kind of likes being a gangster.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSet It Off (1996)
Four inner-city Black women, determined to end their constant struggle, decide to live by one rule — get what you want or die trying. So the four women take back their lives and take out some banks in the process.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisState Property (2002)
A Philadelphia gang member becomes a drug kingpin and starts a feud with vicious rivals in his quest for the American Dream.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBaby Boy (2001)
The story of Jody, a misguided, 20-year-old African-American who is really just a baby boy finally forced-kicking and screaming to face the commitments of real life. Streetwise and jobless, he has not only fathered two children by two different women-Yvette and Peanut but still lives with his own mother. He can't seem to strike a balance or find direction in his chaotic life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBrooklyn Rules (2007)
Brooklyn, 1985. With the mob world as a backdrop, three life-long friends struggle with questions of love, loss and loyalty.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & action
SnoozefestMovies like thisJuice (1992)
Four Harlem friends -- Bishop, Q, Steel and Raheem -- dabble in petty crime, but they decide to go big by knocking off a convenience store. Bishop, the magnetic leader of the group, has the gun. But Q has different aspirations. He wants to be a DJ and happens to have a gig the night of the robbery. Unfortunately for him, Bishop isn't willing to take no for answer in a game where everything's for keeps.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHoliday Heart (2000)
After losing his police officer lover, Christian drag queen Holiday Heart meets 12-year-old Niki and her drug-addicted mother, Wanda. Heart finds relief from heartache and a renewed sense of purpose when he steps in as a father figure to Niki and welcomes the two women into his life. But when Wanda becomes romantically involved with her drug dealer, Silas, it may endanger Niki and threaten to destroy the makeshift family.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Paid in Full (2002)
Ace is an impressionable young man working for a dry cleaning business. His friend, drug dealer Mitch, goes to prison. In an unrelated incident, he finds some cocaine in a pants pocket. Soon, Ace finds himself dealing cocaine for Lulu. Via lucky breaks and solid interpersonal skills, Ace moves to the top of the Harlem drug world. Of course, unfaithful employees and/or rivals conspire to bring about Ace's fall.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHot Boyz (2000)
Injustice begets a criminal. Kool is an artist without prospects, a black belt in karate, and in love with LaShawna, poised and college bound. One night she witnesses a stabbing and discovers the victim is a cop as he dies in her arms. She's jailed for murder by the infamous Ramparts Division of the LAPD. Kool wants to prove her innocence, and Tully, the cynical detective in charge, ignores LaShawna's case but uses Kool to break up an incipient crime operation. She's in danger because the guilty parties fear that the officer talked before he died. While in jail awaiting a hearing and legal help, she's beaten to death by a rogue cop. Kool vows revenge: the Hot Boyz are born.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & drama
Biker Boyz (2003)
A mythic motorcycle tale of father and son, this is the story of Manuel Galloway, also known as "the King of Cali", the president of a motorcycle club whose members are all African-American men, mostly white-collar workers who exchange their suits and ties at night and on weekends for leather outfits and motorcycle helmets.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & drama
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: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEveryday Black Man (2011)
Since closing the door to a violent past, quiet and thoughtful Moses Stanton everyday existence is running a small neighborhood store, and watching over his daughter who doesn't know he exists. When a young man, Malik, comes in claiming to be a black Muslim that is doing good for the neighborhood, Moses takes him on as a partner but soon realizes that Malik is nothing but a drug dealer seeking to destroy the neighborhood and Moses's daughter. Therefore, Moses must become the man he used to be in order to save his beloved neighborhood and his daughter. Written by Carmen Madden
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & drama
Street Kings (2008)
Tom Ludlow is a disillusioned L.A. Police Officer, rarely playing by the rules and haunted by the death of his wife. When evidence implicates him in the execution of a fellow officer, he is forced to go up against the cop culture he's been a part of his entire career, ultimately leading him to question the loyalties of everyone around him.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCrime Partners (2003)
Hustlers, players and gangsters rule the urban streets of New York in this story about loyalty and betrayal. Billy Goode, a street-smart crook and his partner Jackie Williams are two small time gangsters with dream of seeing their names in the headlines. After a shooting and robbery that doesn't give them the attention they desire, the partners hook up with the local criie boss Kenyatta who has a major agenda to shake up the city. Meanwhile Detective Benson and Detective Ryan are on the case.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Shaft (2000)
New York police detective John Shaft arrests Walter Wade Jr. for a racially motivated slaying. But the only eyewitness disappears, and Wade jumps bail for Switzerland. Two years later Wade returns to face trial, confident his money and influence will get him acquitted -- especially since he's paid a drug kingpin to kill the witness.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisShottas (2002)
A raw urban drama about two friends raised on the dangerous streets of Kingston, Jamaica. Biggs and Wayne take on the "Shotta" way of life to survive. As young boys, they begin a life of crime, eventually moving to the US where they begin a ruthless climb from the bottom. They remain bound to each other by their shottas loyalty as they aggressively take control of the Jamaican underworld.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & adventure
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJason's Lyric (1994)
The story of a young man who must confront his own fears about love as well as his relationships with family and friends.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFresh (1994)
Death and violence anger twelve year old drug courier Fresh, who sets his rival employers against each other.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Wood (1999)
In the panicky, uncertain hours before his wedding, a groom with prenuptial jitters and his two best friends reminisce about growing up together in the middle-class African-American neighborhood of Inglewood, California. Flashing back to the twenty-something trio's childhood exploits, the memories capture the mood and nostalgia of the '80s era.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCover (2007)
When someone is murdered on New Year's Eve, the prime suspect is Valerie Maas, a church-going home-maker whose life unravels when she discovers that her husband of many years has been leading a double life. Her strength of character and faith keep her going as the revelation of her husband's betrayal threatens to destroy all that they have known.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Five Fingers (2006)
Martijn, an idealistic Dutch pianist, travels to Morocco to help start a food program for malnourished children. Within moments of his arrival, however, Martijn is abducted by a group of terrorists, injected with a debilitating drug, and imprisoned. Under threat of death, the young man engages in a mental chess match with Ahmat, trying to learn his captor's true objective and avoid a horrible fate.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Suspect (2013)
Two African American social scientists pose as bank robbers in an effort to understand the racial dynamics of small-town law enforcement. However, their experiment takes an unplanned turn.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller
Damage (2009)
An ex-con battles it out in the cage to pay for the operation that would save the daughter of his victim. Along the way he finds fatherly love, and friendship, in the most unlikely of places.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Score to Settle (2019)
A former mob enforcer who is released from prison after serving 22 years for a crime he didn't commit sets out on a path for revenge against the people who wronged him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Waist Deep?
The closest matches to Waist Deep are Empire (2002), Caught in the Crossfire (2010) and State Property: Blood on the Streets (2005). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Waist Deep?
People who watched Waist Deep most often go on to Empire (2002), Caught in the Crossfire (2010) and State Property: Blood on the Streets (2005).
What is the highest-rated movie like Waist Deep?
Shottas (2002), rated 7.7/10 by 389 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Waist Deep?
A Score to Settle (2019) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Waist Deep?
Yes: Empire (2002), Caught in the Crossfire (2010) and State Property: Blood on the Streets (2005).
How are movies similar to Waist Deep chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Waist Deep, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.





























