Best movies like The Painted Desert

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like The Painted Desert Starring James Gammon, Nobu McCarthy, Kazuya Kimura, Priscilla Pointer, and more. If you liked The Painted Desert then you may also like: 10th & Wolf, Unfinished Business, WiseGirls, Avenging Angelo, Casino and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.

In the middle of the desert, a solipsistic Japanese-American woman, along with her elderly and paralysed friend Barbara, runs the Desert Rose Cafe. Things liven up with the arrival of a mafia henchman (whose boss is hiding out at a nearby ranch), a battered Japanse man (who turns out to be a terrific chef, but who also triggers Barbara's memories of internment during WWII), and an attack on the mob boss' camp.

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10th & Wolf

A former street thug returns to his Philadelphia home after a stint in the military. Back on his home turf, he once again finds himself tangling with the mob boss who was instrumental in his going off to be a soldier.

Unfinished Business

1985 documentary film about Min Yasui, an attorney from Oregon, Gordon Hirabayashi, a Quaker college student in Washington, and Fred Korematsu, a San Francisco welder and how their lives were affected by Japanese American internment during World War II.

WiseGirls

Meg, Raychel and Kate are three waitresses at a restaurant frequented by mob bosses. Their lives become complicated when one of the women witnesses a crime, and the three friends suddenly find themselves entangled in their customers’ dangerous world.

Avenging Angelo

A woman who has recently discovered that she is the daughter of Angelo, a major mafia boss, decides to wreak vengeance when he is killed by a hitman. She's aided by his faithful bodyguard, with whom she soon falls in love.

Casino

In early-1970s Las Vegas, Sam "Ace" Rothstein gets tapped by his bosses to head the Tangiers Casino. At first, he's a great success in the job, but over the years, problems with his loose-cannon enforcer Nicky Santoro, his ex-hustler wife Ginger, her con-artist ex Lester Diamond and a handful of corrupt politicians put Sam in ever-increasing danger.

Hiding Out

A very successful stock broker is called to court to testify against a mob boss who was into some inside trading. Andrew Morenski must become Max Hauser and go back to high school for protection from the mob.

Last Man Standing

John Smith is a mysterious stranger who is drawn into a vicious war between two Prohibition-era gangs. In a dangerous game, he switches allegiances from one to another, offering his services to the highest bidder. As the death toll mounts, Smith takes the law into his own hands in a deadly race to stay alive.

Prime Cut

A group of ruthless Chicago mob enforcers are sent to Kansas City to settle things with the owner of a slaughterhouse who has taken money that is not his to keep.

Mikey and Nicky

In Philadelphia, a small-time bookie who stole mob money is in hiding and he begs a childhood friend to help him evade the hit-man who's on his trail.

Married to the Mob

Angela de Marco is fed up with her gangster husband's line of work and wants no part of the crime world. When her husband is killed for having an affair with the mistress of mob boss Tony "The Tiger" Russo, Angela and her son depart for New York City to make a fresh start. Unfortunately, Tony has set his sights upon Angela -- and so has an undercover FBI agent looking to use her to bust Tony.

Pixie

To avenge her mother's death, Pixie masterminds a heist but must flee across Ireland from gangsters, take on the patriarchy, and choose her own destiny.

Southie

South Boston Irish bad boy Danny Quinn returns back home from New York and gets stuck between his pals, who are supported by one Irish mafia clan, and his family, which are members of another.

To Be Takei

Over seven decades, actor and activist George Takei journeyed from a World War II internment camp to the helm of the Starship Enterprise, and then to the daily news feeds of five million Facebook fans. Join George and his husband, Brad, on a wacky and profound trek for life, liberty, and love.

Tomorrow We Live

Julie Bronson, whose father operates a desert cafe, is attracting the unwanted attention of a half-crazed gangster known as The Ghost who runs a desert night club several miles away.

Topaz

This documentary was secretly and 'illegally' shot inside the prison camps, established during World War II by American authorities to detain US citizens of Japanese descent who were considered a potential threat to national security.

Coroner Creek

A man is bent on taking revenge on those responsible for his fiancée's death.

Our Godfather

The story of how Sicilian Mafia boss Tommaso Buscetta (1928-2000), the Godfather of Two Worlds, revealed, starting in 1984, the deepest secrets of the organization, thus helping to convict the hundreds of mafiosi who were tried in the trial held in Palermo between 1986 and 1987.

Young Guns of Texas

A man searching for a stolen army payroll is joined by several men after the reward money. One of the pursuers, after killing a ranch foreman, elopes with the ranchers' daughter. Enraged at the shooting of his foreman and convinced that his daughter was kidnapped, the rancher leads a posse after his daughter. When Apaches attack the thieves and their pursuers, the rancher's posse is forced to side with his daughter's new husband and his friends.

Old Man River

Documentary film version of the stage show in which actress Cynthia Gates Fujikawa explores the story of her father, actor Jerry Fujikawa, who had a long career in films and television, most often as a stereotyped Asian. The daughter, in the course of searching out her late father's history, discovers many things that she had not known, among them that her father had spent time in Manzanar, the internment camp for Japanese-Americans during World War II, that he had had a family prior to hers, and that somewhere out there was a sister she had never known existed.

The Trap

Lawyer Ralph Anderson arrives in Tula, an amazingly remote town in the desert, as reluctant emissary of mob chief Victor Massonetti, who wants the airstrip clear for his unofficial exit from the country. Ralph's arrival has a profound effect on his estranged father, the sheriff; his brother Tip, an alcoholic deputy; and his ex-sweetheart Linda, now married to Tip. Tension builds as a small army of gangsters takes over the town. Then the situation abruptly changes...

A Fine Mess

Two friends an actor and a chef discover a plot to fix a horse race and try to capitalize on it. But also have to deal with the two men who fixed it who are trying to silence them. And there's also the mob boss whom the two guys work for who planned the fixing thing whose wife is having an affair with the actor.

Hitman's Run

A former mob hitman, now in witness protection, is forced to come out of retirement when his family is threatened by his cohorts. He teams up with a skateboarding kid, who has a computer disk that the mob wants to get their hands on that has a list of new names for individuals in the FBI witness protection program. The list includes his dad, who separated from his mother years before and hadn't been seen since.

A Stranger to Love

In this Hallmark story, Allan is a normal middleaged man with a wife and two kids. When Alan is suddenly attacked one night, he loses his memory, leading his family to believe that he is dead.

The Scarface Mob

Story of how a group of incorruptible federal lawmen helped put 1920s' Chicago gangster Al Capone in prison.

Mob on the Run

An extensive overview of organized crime operations in and infiltration of the Las Vegas casino and gaming industry, covering the years 1931-1987.

Mafia

A renegade cop skirts the law in order to capture a ruthless crime boss.

White Elephant

An ex-marine enforcer must battle his conscience and code of honor when he is forced to do things for the mob.

Killer Bean Forever

When things go bad in Beantown, top assassin Killer Bean is called to clean-up the mess. Detective Cromwell finds himself in the middle between Killer Bean and mob boss Cappuccino.

Mob War

When the New York City police disrupt a big cocaine deal, the TV news reporters find John Falcone, a local mobster, nearby. They ask some tough questions, and Falcone decides he needs a public relations man to help burnish his image. He hires Todd Barrett, and he keeps Barrett in line with generous helpings of cocaine. Meanwhile, Falcone's unorthodox, violent, and sadistic methods get him cross-wise with Don Ricci, the boss. A mob war may break out. When Todd's wife is endangered, can the flack attack back at the racketeers?

Meet the Mobsters

Down-and-out lounge singer Johnny Slade is hired by a mystery man to open a hot new club, the catch being he's given a new--and terrible--song to sing each night. Noticing that whenever he sings one a new crime is committed, Johnny gradually realizes his songwriter-benefactor is a powerful mob boss in hiding and his "Greatest Hits" are the only way the man can give orders to his crew...

Last Chance Cafe

After uncovering evidence that her stepfather was murdered by her D.A. ex-husband and a ring of corrupt cops, a young woman is forced to flee with her daughter. She winds up hiding in a small, rural town, and things take a turn for the better when she falls head over heels for a local ranch owner -- but is danger still hot on her tail? Stay tuned!

In the Kingdom of the Blind, the Man with One Eye Is King

Al is caught between his loyalty to the police force and his love for his brother in a tense setting. It seems that his brother, Rudy, was involved in a mob hit that could potentially start a gang war. Tony C., a local mob boss and childhood acquaintance of Al, hires him to find out who was involved in the hit. Al must find his brother and make some decisions.

Sophie and the Rising Sun

In a small Southern town in the autumn of 1941, Sophie’s lonely life is transformed when an Asian man arrives under mysterious circumstances. Their love affair becomes the lightning rod for long-buried conflicts that erupt in bigotry and violence with the outbreak of World War ll.

Conspiracy of Hearts

In wartime Italy nuns in a convent regularly smuggle Jewish children out of a nearby internment camp. The Italian army officer in charge suspects what may be going on but deliberately turns a blind eye. When the Germans take over the camp security the nuns' activities become far more dangerous.

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