Best movies like While the City Sleeps

Chick Hewes is released from prison and finds work as an accountant. Two years later, Chick's crooked friend, Benny LaMarr, to whom he is indebted for past kindnesses, steals a diamond necklace from the home safe of the district attorney. When the district attorney threatens to accuse the police of inefficiency in crime fighting, Garvey, who is campaigning for the office of police commissioner, promises to catch the thief in twenty-four hours.

The Great Depression hits home for nine year old Kit Kittredge when her dad loses his business and leaves to find work. Oscar nominee Abigail Breslin stars as Kit, leading a splendid cast in the first ever "American Girl" theatrical movie. In order to keep their home, Kit and her mother must take in boarders - paying house - guests who turn out to be full of fascinating stories. When mother's lockbox containing all their money is stolen, Kit's new hobo friend Will is the prime suspect. Kit refuses to believe that Will would steal, and her efforts to sniff out the real story get her and friends into big trouble. The police say the robbery was an inside job, committed by someone they know. So if it wasn't Will, then who did it.

An unemployed loafer who spends his time playing pool decides he's ready to look for a job so he can secure his girlfriend's parents' approval for their marriage.

Unable to pay his bookie, a man returns to his hometown where his embezzler brother and girlfriend plot a robbery that ends in tragedy.

Garvey is a San Francisco pawnshop operator. His unemployed and criminal friends Dillard, Turtle and Weslake, team up with Boardwalk, a local pimp, to burgle Garvey's shop while the owner is out of town. During the elaborate planning process, Dillard falls for a Hispanic woman, the sister of a friend. Boardwalk is assigned to case a local apartment, where he meets and falls for the maid. Amidst all these romantic hijinks, Weslake puts together a burglary plan, which is executed by the makeshift gang.

Needing a new partner capable of intricate cons, Richard Gaddis, recruits Rodrigo, a crook with a perfect poker face. The two plan a big-time scam: selling a fake Silver Certificate to currency collector William Hannigan. Rodrigo distrusts his new associate, but needs money to help out his ill father. The situation becomes more complicated when Rodrigo falls for Gaddis' sister, Valerie, drawing another player into the game.

After being released on parole, a burglar attempts to go straight, get a regular job, and just go by the rules. He soon finds himself back in jail at the hands of a power-hungry parole officer.

A disgraced parole officer is indebted to a local gang leader and forced to pull off a series of dangerous drug heists within twelve hours in order to pay the $2 million dollars he owes, rescue his kidnapped pregnant wife, and settle a score with the city's corrupt police chief, who is working with the gang leader and double-crossed him years ago.

A Brooklyn pier racketeer bullies boat-owners into paying protection money but two fed-up fishermen decide to eliminate the gangster themselves rather than complain to the police.

Durell and LeeJohn are best friends and bumbling petty criminals. When told they have one week to pay a $17,000 debt or Durell will lose his son, they come up with a desperate scheme to rob their neighborhood church. Instead, they end up spending the night in the presence of the Lord and are forced to deal with much more than they bargained for.

Joe Don Baker plays a gambler who is framed for a crime he did not commit. A corrupt legal system leads him into a plea bargain and four years behind bars. By the time he gets out of prison, he's determined to put together the pieces of his frame-up and dole out the justice he was denied to those responsible.

Tommy and Gary are criminals engaging in grand thefts in order to make ends meet. They are opportunists and have no fear. After a routine robbery goes awry, the friends are forced to put their criminal activity behind them. As Tommy's relationship flourishes with his new girlfriend Scarlet, his economic hardships become obvious. Scarlet soon proposes a notion that will make all their money troubles vanish - the heist of a half a million dollar painting. With just a short window of opportunity, Tommy and Gary design an ambitious plan, one that will ultimately determine their fate.

The idle rich have their own particular problems. Case in point, Georg and Monika Hedberg were once poor and happy but since Georg became an established painter family bliss has decreased for every fur coat Monika has bought. Their divorce lawyer suggest that they try to save their marriage by moving to a small apartment and live life frugally but happy. When the trial period is over and they want to return home again, their lawyer has stolen their money and disappeared. The Hedbergs are evicted for unpaid rent and terminal poverty seem to be imminent. Plot by Mattias Thuresson.

Singer Steve, friend Seymour and fiance Jane, along with her dizzy blonde room mate Irma, have a series of misadventures on a California-bound train and end up involved with a gang of murderous gangsters in Las Vegas.

Two thieves attempt to steal 80 million dollars of hidden Texas drug money from the famed ranch belonging to a dead member of the Cowboy Mafia.

Kaitlyn is a high school student whose obsession with gambling leads to her accumulating a mountain of debt. Her habit also causes a high degree of family tension.

Without the security of the job he wants or the future he dreamed of, Paul Dynan plans the perfect crime to help his struggling family – abduct the socialite children of three wealthy men and collect a ransom of $3-million dollars. Over the course of one long night, Paul and his accomplices hold the rich kids hostage awaiting the ransom with little idea of the secrets that will surface between the fathers when they are forced to choose between their children and their money.

A government ministry's fast-rising head of security asks a shadowy fixer, Meursault, to steal a bag from an armored truck. Meursault goes to Théo, a former night club owner, in prison for two years on false charges, who's being released in exchange for information about Montreal's underworld. Théo agrees to steal the bag for money and safe passage to the US for himself and his son Robin. Théo brings in two helpers, Gilder, ex-con and set designer, and Roxanne, Gilder's friend, a tough-minded petty thief. Their elaborate plan blows up when a guard, Marcel, takes his responsibilities too seriously. What happens to father and son? Will any of the thieves escape

A former cop's ex-wife marries a stockbroker, who it turns out has cheated the Mafia out of a large sum of money. They kidnap the wife to force the husband to pay the money back. The ex-cop has to rescue her.

In the follow up to the box-office hit Nitro (2007), we catch up with Max as he serves time for the role he played in the death of a police officer. When the film begins, Max learns that his 17-year-old son Theo has just been recruited by a criminal organization. Desperate to get him out of this situation, Max escapes from prison. He discovers that Theo and his best friend Charly have fallen under the control of Daphne, an alluring femme fatale, who is taking advantage of the teens’ expert computer skills to plan a bold and risky burglary. Quickly understanding he’ll be unable to persuade his son to walk away from it all, Max joins the team in order to protect them. His driving skills and his athletic prowess will prove to be invaluable assets in this action-packed sequel.

Jan Froman is a young man with great plans for the future. He gets a job as an assistant janitor at a bank, but with inherited money he starts to buy and sell real estate which eventually increases in value. He falls in love with Margareta, whose father is a naval officer. Margareta is slighted by her fiance and follows Froman on a sailing trip in the archipelago. Plot by Mattias Thuresson.

Alex's high opinion of himself isn't backed up by reality as he is unemployed and having trouble with his girlfriend. When he finally gets a job with the local council/municipality of Hudiksvall his life is about to change. Suddenly Alex finds himself the leader of a local theatre group of people with learning difficulties. Through their work together, Alex comes to appreciate that we all have our own talents which can grow if given the opportunity and support. "The Importance of Tying Your Own Shoes" is based on the work of the Glada Hudik Theatre whose performances have met with success in Sweden and internationally since it was formed in 1996.

Eric, an ordinary man in his mid 30's with an ordinary job wins a large sum of money playing the lottery. Despite his total lack of talent, he quits his job and sets off to learning how to play soccer. Eric firmly believes that if he spends 10 000 hours of training on what he sets his mind to, he can master just about anything.

25 million dollars, 8 safety deposit boxes, and months before anyone will know it’s gone. But Harrison’s perfect heist turns deadly when his safe-cracker, Mack, discovers their getaway pilot brutally murdered. Someone knew about the job, someone set them up. Stranded in a frozen hangar, held hostage by someone outside, loyalty turns to suspicion and friends turn to enemies. Now it’s a race against time as the band of thieves try to uncover the rat and escape their troubled pasts…if they can survive the night.

Their job is stealing, their lives a cruel dead end. Director Jon Alpert takes his cameras undercover for this hard-hitting look at men who live by theft and suffer addiction. Focusing on a year in the lives of three professional criminals, this gritty profile—which includes hidden-camera footage of actual thefts—exposes the "petty" crimes that are paralyzing America.

An unemployed stay at home dad begins venturing out at night. Befriended by a group of petty criminals and strippers, he begins to feel alive. But when he is implicated in a murder, he finds himself indebted to a psychotic gangster and is drawn into a world of violence that threatens his life and his family's safety.

Thatcherism and the Irish troubles provide the backdrop for this study of Mick, a well-meaning youth in Sheffield, who has, unlike Dickens' Pip, no expectations. Mick lives with his parents, works on his motorbike, looks for work, and every two weeks gets his check from the dole. There are no jobs. His best mate Alan joins the army to fix tanks and is sent to Belfast to quell Catholics. At a disco, Mick meets Karen, who works at a shoe shop and lives with her recently-separated mom. Karen misses her dad. She offers Mick emotional stability and a route to adulthood; Alan pitches the army. Does Mick have a future?

When a Millennial woman finds herself unable to pay rent, she befriends a small-time con artist who encourages her to chart her own path - by embracing petty crime.

Young woman Marta dreams of a better future and leaves her parent's cabbage patch and move to Stockholm. Waiting tables doesn't pay nearly enough and she soon finds herself working the streets. Her teenage sweetheart Adrian also moves to Stockholm to search for her. Plot by Mattias Thuresson.

After fighting for their country in the Army, friends Chris and Johnny return to South London only to find their home town has changed beyond recognition. With no jobs the two join local gangs, work their way to the top and become feared hooligan bosses. The only thing that can top war, and threaten friendships, is money and power, but who will stand their ground and come out on top in the violent and bloody battle between North and South?

When three teen friends are forced by their parents to get summer jobs, they decide to invent fake jobs and hang out instead, but then embark on a series of get-rich-quick schemes to make the money they should have been earning. But the sweet life proves much more difficult than anticipated.

Lucy Castillo, a young med student, has just given up a prized summer internship to bail out her troubled younger brother, Sal... again. He needs cash fast, and after being unable to find a job, Lucy reluctantly accepts the too-good-to-be-true position as a housekeeper offered to her through a friend of a friend. For only three weeks work, she will be paid enough to get Sal out of trouble. Things start to take a disturbing turn, however, as the job reveals itself to be anything but normal. Her never-seen employer seems to have a dark side, and Lucy's own haunted past begins to reappear, tormenting her. As the job spirals out of control and Sal's life hangs in the balance, Lucy's grip on reality disappears.

Anna and Karl are a young couple in Stockholm, unable to find an apartment of their own. However, they play matchmakers to make their friends Fredrik and Ulla to get together, getting an apartment of their own that way. Plot by Mattias Thuresson.

Wholesaler Berggren's daughter Elin travels to Örebro to spend her honeymoon with her husband Efraim. They get separate rooms on the hotel and later that night she finds another woman in her husband's bed. She goes back home immediately. Elin's sister Irma is courted by the handsome Klas, but he seems to be unable to forget his last fiancée. Plot by Mattias Thuresson.

A petty burglar sets a chain of events in motion when he steals some money that the owner doesn't want the authorities to know about.