Top 250 Movies Like Rebel

A list of the best movies similar to Rebel. If you liked Rebel then you may also like: The Yakuza, An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, V.I. Warshawski, Velvet Smooth, Woman Against the World and many more great movies featured on this list.

TV show

After her brother is slain by police, Oakland police officer Rebecca “Rebel” Cole becomes disillusioned with the system and is forced to take matters into her own hands and become a private investigator and a champion for her community.

The Yakuza

Harry Kilmer returns to Japan after several years in order to rescue his friend George's kidnapped daughter - and ends up on the wrong side of the Yakuza, the notorious Japanese mafia.

An Unsuitable Job for a Woman

After finding her boss, a private detective, has committed suicide and has left her his agency, Cordelia Gray is asked to investigate the suicide of the man's son. During the course of her investigation, Cordelia becomes obsessed with the young man's memory and his increasingly suspicious death.

V.I. Warshawski

Victoria "V.I" Warshawski is a Chicago based private detective who agrees to babysit for her new boyfriend; then he is murdered. Being the detective type, she makes the murder her next case. In doing so she befriends the victim's daughter, Kat, and together they set out to crack the case.

Velvet Smooth

A crime lord hires Velvet Smooth, the head of a detective agency, to find out who is stealing his business.

Woman Against the World

A young woman marries against her father's will, but the happy life she expected turns into a series of tragedies.

No Hands on the Clock

A wise-cracking private detective's honeymoon is interrupted by a kidnapping case.

No Way Back

Crowder is a an unethical private detective in pursuit of a gangster who's after embezzled money.

On the Other Hand, Death

Donald Strachey is a gay private investigator who learns of a local school's decision to chastise a lesbian teacher for speaking openly about her sexuality. Discovering that her home has been vandalized, Donald starts to look into things and discovers there is more going on than appears on the surface.

Other Voices

Phil and Anna are a young, married couple, who begin to suspect one other of an affair. When a shady private investigator gets involved in their relationship, things begin to spin out of control, in this turn-of-the-millennium thriller.

Roaring City

A San Francisco private eye finds himself under suspicion while investigating a prizefighter's murder.

Romeo Must Die

Two warring gang families (one African-American, the other Chinese) maneuver for bragging rights to the Oakland, California, docks. Hang Sing and Trish O'Day uncover a trail of deceit that leaves most of the warring factions dead … or worse!

Accomplice

A private detective and his assistant are hired to find a missing husband. The seemingly easy case is complicated by a dead body.

Adventures of a Private Eye

While a private detective is away on vacation, his not particularly bright assistant takes it upon himself to "solve" a case that comes in. Complications ensue.

The Big Sleep

Private Investigator Philip Marlowe is hired by wealthy General Sternwood regarding a matter involving his youngest daughter Carmen. Before the complex case is over, Marlowe sees murder, blackmail, deception, and what might be love.

Blackenstein

Eddie is a Vietnam veteran who loses his arms and legs when he steps on a land mine, but a brilliant surgeon is able to attach new limbs. Unfortunately an insanely jealous assistant (who has fallen in love with Eddie's fiance) switches Eddie's DNA injections, transforming him into a gigantic killer.

Blitz

A tough cop is dispatched to take down a serial killer who has been targeting police officers.

Brothers

David and Monty, estranged half-brothers, train in mixed martial arts to earn a livelihood. However, things change when the two are forced to compete against each other in the final tournament.

City Heat

Set in Kansas City in 1933, Eastwood plays a police lieutenant known simply by his last name, Speer. Reynolds plays a former cop turned private eye named Mike Murphy. Both Speer and Murphy served on the force together and were once good friends, but are now bitter enemies. When Murphy's partner is slain they team up again to fight the mob.

Acts of Violence

When his fiancee is kidnapped by human traffickers, Roman and his ex-military brothers set out to track her down and save her before it is too late. Along the way, Roman teams up with Avery, a cop investigating human trafficking and fighting the corrupt bureaucracy that has harmful intentions.

Shaft

Cool black private eye John Shaft is hired by a crime lord to find and retrieve his kidnapped daughter.

Trouble Man

It seems that masked men are knocking over the floating crap games of Chalky and Pete. Chalky and Pete hire the cool, loose, elegant Mr. T to fix things. Then, the masked manipulators set up the death of a collector for a rival gang lord. It looks like it's up to T to hold a gang war from breaking out, keep the police off his back, and earn his fee from Chalky and Pete.

Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song

After saving a Black Panther from some racist cops, a black male prostitute goes on the run from "the man" with the help of the ghetto community and some disillusioned Hells Angels.

Find the Blackmailer

A private eye is hired by a mayoral candidate to prevent any sort of adverse publicity. It seems that, somewhere in town, there's a talking blackbird who insists upon saying that the candidate will commit a murder. When the killing occurs, the candidate is implicated, and the detective is off on a hectic pursuit of the incriminating crow and the actual murderer.

The Fat Man

A innocent dentist is murdered and the only apparent motive seems to be to steal a set of dental x-rays. To the police it looks like an accident, but private eye Brad Runyan thinks there's more to it.

Sorry to Bother You

In an alternate present-day version of Oakland, black telemarketer Cassius Green discovers a magical key to professional success – which propels him into a macabre universe.

The Long Goodbye

In 1970s Hollywood, Detective Philip Marlowe tries to help a friend who is accused of murdering his wife.

French Connection II

"Popeye" Doyle travels to Marseilles to find Alain Charnier, the drug smuggler that eluded him in New York.

Fruitvale Station

Oakland, California. Young Afro-American Oscar Grant crosses paths with family members, friends, enemies and strangers before facing his fate on the platform at Fruitvale Station, in the early morning hours of New Year's Day 2009.

Lady in the Lake

Private eye Phillip Marlowe wants to get out of the detective racket and into crime writing. But when he's called to the office of editor Adrienne Fromsett, it's not to talk about his story ideas — she wants him to locate the missing wife of her boss, Mr. Kingsby. The assignment quickly becomes complicated when bodies start turning up.

Sheba, Baby

Sheba, a Chicago private detective returns back home to Louisville, Kentucky, to help her father fight mobsters.

The Heat

Uptight and straight-laced, FBI Special Agent Sarah Ashburn is a methodical investigator with a reputation for excellence--and hyper-arrogance. Shannon Mullins, one of Boston P.D.'s "finest," is foul-mouthed and has a very short fuse, and uses her gut instinct and street smarts to catch the most elusive criminals. Neither has ever had a partner, or a friend for that matter. When these two wildly incompatible law officers join forces to bring down a ruthless drug lord, they become the last thing anyone expected: buddies.

Black Gunn

A successful and popular nightclub owner who believes financial independence is the path to equality and success, must act as a go-between for militant-minded brother and the white gang syndicate his brother has attacked and robbed. Their involvements lead to a breathless race course chase, the destruction of a dopepusher and a violent waterfront climax.

Black Eye

An ex-police officer operating a private detective business comes face to face with a syndicate-backed dope ring.

Shaft's Big Score!

John Shaft is back as the lady-loved black detective cop on the search for the murderer of a client.

Jack the Bear

Story of the relationships between two sons and their father, who moves the family to California and becomes a tv horror show host after the death of his wife.

Earth Mama

A pregnant single mother, with two children in foster care, embraces her Bay Area community as she fights to reclaim her family.

Drylongso

A young woman in a photography class begins taking pictures of black men out of fear they will soon be extinct.

City of Tiny Lights

In the teeming, multicultural metropolis of modern-day London, a seemingly straightforward missing-person case launches a down-at-heel private eye into a dangerous world of religious fanaticism and political intrigue.

The Last Case of August T. Harrison

August T. Harrison, private eye, comes out of retirement to solve a bizarre missing persons case, but finds himself caught in the middle of a dark conspiracy involving the writings of H.P. Lovecraft.

The Mack

Goldie returns from five years at the state pen and winds up king of the pimping game. Trouble comes in the form of two corrupt white cops and a crime lord who wants him to return to the small time.

Commune

In 1968, Elsa and Richard Marley founded an alternative-living community, named Black Bear, in the remote Northern California wilderness with the motto "Free Land for Free People." This film tells the story of that intended utopia. Through archival footage and interviews with former residents, director Jonathan Berman explores the problems and realities of communal living and the evolution of a community that endured FBI harassment, cult leadership and more.

The Last Word

When politicians try to force out a renter in a corrupt real-estate deal, the man decides to take matters into his own hands. He takes a police officer hostage, hoping to expose the scam and save his home.

Five on the Black Hand Side

Leonard Jackson plays a barber who is also the domineering head of a middle-class African American family. Jackson is forced to rethink his values when his previously docile wife (Clarice Taylor) joins their three children in rebelling against her husband's retrogressive behavior.

Blindspotting

Collin must make it through his final three days of probation for a chance at a new beginning. He and his troublemaking childhood best friend, Miles, work as movers, and when Collin witnesses a police shooting, the two men’s friendship is tested as they grapple with identity and their changed realities in the rapidly-gentrifying neighborhood they grew up in.

Sisters

Inquisitive journalist Grace Collier is horrified when she witnesses her neighbor, fashion model Danielle Breton, violently murder a man. Panicking, she calls the police. But when the detective arrives at the scene and finds nothing amiss, Grace is forced to take matters into her own hands. Her first move is to recruit private investigator Joseph Larch, who helps her to uncover a secret about Danielle's past that has them both seeing double.

Small Town Crime

Mike Kendall, a disgraced ex-cop, is fighting a losing battle with the bottle. When he finds a woman left for dead at the side of a road, Kendall turns private eye to track down her killers, taking one last shot at redemption.

Tony Rome

Tony Rome, a tough Miami PI living on a houseboat, is hired by a local millionaire to find jewelry stolen from his daughter, and in the process has several encounters with local hoods as well as the Miami Beach PD.

Danger Zone

A San Francisco man is paid to bid on a saxophone and escort a woman to a yacht party.

Assignment to Kill

A private eye is hired by an insurance company to investigate a shipping magnate suspected of deliberately sinking his own ships for the insurance money. He finds himself involved in a web of deception, double-crossing and murder.

The Outsider

Darren McGavin is David Ross, a private investigator playing a game of follow the money. A simple case of embezzling turns bad quickly when bodies start dropping and the savvy P.I. is the primary suspect in an attractive woman's death. This NBC TV movie served as a pilot for the later series.

Murder Is My Business

Michael Shayne is a private detective who is disliked greatly by Pete Rafferty, local chief of police detectives. Rafferty notifies the newspaper press that he is going to close Shayne's agency, just as Michael is about to be hired by the wealthy Eleanor Ramsey, who is being blackmailed. She is the stepmother of what she considers to be two grown-up brats, Dorothy and Ernest, and she considers their father to be of little value to the world himself. They all conspire to get their hands on her money, even to the extent of attempting to hire Shayne to frame an insurance robbery. Mrs. Ramsey is murdered, and Rafferty is trying to pin the killing on Shayne, despite the fact that suspicion points to Buell Renslow, brother of the slain woman. Shayne's secretary, the fetching Phyllis Hamilton, decides to do a little detective work to help her boss.

Little Boy Blue

Living in rural Texas is a dysfunctional family: an abusive dad, a Vietnam vet with a war wound that's left him impotent; a compliant wife and a son of about 20, two small sons who look a lot like their brother. The dad harbors a secret, and he goes to murderous lengths to keep it hidden. The young man, Jimmy, who has suspicions, but little comes out until a Yankee woman comes to town.

Stacey

The sleazy and dangerous adventures of a gorgeous female private detective.

Alien Private Eye

An alien sent to Earth to retrieve a drug that was sent here on a black disc has to fight her race's enemies, who are also on Earth to search for the drug.

Medias Res

Dave and Joe, just evicted from their Oakland apartment, turn to stealing cars and dealing Fluoride to make their financial ends meet. One night they find Summer Hayes, star of a popular 1990's teen soap, in the trunk of a stolen automobile. Shoot-outs, car chases, and overdoses ensue. In the Fluoride heightened world of "Medias Res", nothing is what it at first appears to be.

Run, Simon, Run

A Papago Indian returns to his reservation after a prison term and searches for his brother's killer.

Philo Vance Returns

Playboy Larry Blendon introduces his grandmother Stella Blendon to his fiancée, radio singer Virginia Berneaux. Despite Larry's record of broken romances and divorces, Virginia decides she will marry him. Virginia is slain that night and Blandon telephones his friend, Philo Vance, to help find the killer.

Mister Dynamite

A gambler hires a detective to investigate when a murder is committed in his casino.

Cannon

In this pilot film to the TV series, Cannon investigates the murder of a war buddy to clear the man's wife of suspicion in his death.

The Return of Frank Cannon

Private detective Frank Cannon comes out of retirement to investigate an old friend and Army Intelligence colleague's death, which has been ruled a suicide, but which smells like murder.

The Late Show

Over-the-hill gumshoe in Los Angeles seeks to avenge the killing of an old pal, another detective who had gotten himself involved in a case concerning a murdered broad, stolen stamps, a nickel-plated handgun, a cheating dolly, and a kidnapped pussycat.

A Matter of Wife... and Death

A private investigator is confronted by the police AND the mob about the killing of a former private-eye associate.

Dangerous Heart

A cop begins to turn to booze and cocaine during a tough undercover assignment. When a big drug-buy goes sour and the cop ends up with a million in cash, he decides to take off with the money. The drug dealer catches up with him, but he dies before revealing where he stashed the cash. Months later, the drug dealer finds the cop's wife and seduces her, in an effort to find his missing million. In the process, he falls in love with her and alienates his former partners in crime.

Third Degree Burn

A down-and-out private eye (Treat Williams) gets too close to the wife (Virginia Madsen) of a rich man (Richard Masur) soon found dead.

Missing Pieces

A private detective has to deal with an unpleasant memory, a near-insoluble mystery, and a pursuing murderer inflicted with drugs and political corruption.

Crosscurrent

Two San Francisco detectives investigating a murder committed on one of the city's famous cable cars discover that the victim was the son of a shipping tycoon. The trail leads to a drug dealer, a shady physician and a nervous police captain

Joe Dancer III: The Big Trade

The last of Robert Blake's three "Joe Dancer movies" finds the private investigator framed for manslaughter as he tries to uncover a Hollywood scandal that could ruin a studio and destroy a top star's career.

Into Thin Air

Ellen Burstyn stars as Joan Walker, a mother whose college student son vanishes while traveling from Canada to Colorado. When police fail to investigate, Walker takes matters into her own hands. She and her ex-husband begin a search, but when their son's van is found in Maine brandishing stolen plates, they fear the worst. Now, it's up to a private detective to uncover the chilling truth in this absorbing drama based on a true story.

P.I. Private Investigations

A young architect finds himself being stalked by a gang of criminals who believe he knows something that could expose their activities.

The Underground

A cop must stop the killings of rap stars. But, he gets in too deep after his partner is killed.

Lady Luck

New York manicurist Mamie Murphy plans to marry a rich man, so she repeatedly turns down the proposals of honest reporter David Haines. When she is announced the winner of $2,500 and a ticket worth $150,000 for champion horse Lady Luck, if the horse wins an upcoming race, Mamie is pursued by wealthy sportsman Jack Conroy and nightclub owner and racketeer Tony Morelli.

The Runaround

Two private eyes compete to find an heiress and bring her back, unmarried, to New York.

Asylum

Robert Patrick stars as a private investigator traumatized by his father's suicide who goes undercover in a mental institution to uncover the murderer of his psychiatrist.

Showdown in Manila

The film unfolds in Manila, Philippines, and in the jungles of the island of Boracay on a tropical island in the privacy of living Russian middle-aged man (Alexander Newsky). But the quiet life interrupted by the murder of one of the locals. In order to protect the daughter of the slain Filipino bandits Russian guy have to remember the past, he tried to bury.

Shutterspeed

Renegade Los Angeles cop Riley Davis is forced to seek the help of his estranged brother, a homicide detective, when his model fiancee and a photographer friend are kidnapped.

Champions

William Rockman, a champion "Terminal Combat" fighter who retired from the sport after accidentally killing a young man while training. Five years after his retirement, Terminal Combat has been banned by the government and has gone underground. The "new" Terminal Combat is just that; one combatant in each match usually does not live to tell about the experience. When Rockman's younger brother is killed in one of the underground matches by his old rival, the King, Rockman enters the tournament to exact revenge on the King, not knowing that the King and his wife, Daria, have been enslaved by Max Brito, the tournament's greedy promoter.

Guns & Lipstick

A female private investigator's latest client turns up murdered, and she is thrust into a deadly underworld of bi-sexual strippers, a Chinese Godfather with a taste for young girls and the hunt for one very elusive gem.

Bixler High Private Eye

Teenage detective Xander DeWitt is the new kid at Bixler Valley High, and he's there to unravel the biggest mystery of his life- the truth about his missing father. But in order to crack this case, Xander must learn to work with a partner- fearless investigative reporter Kenzie Messina.

A Snowy Day in Oakland

A Snowy Day in Oakland - A magical urban tale about a beautiful psychologist from San Francisco who decides to end a stalled romance with her longtime, high-profile, psychiatrist, boyfriend/business partner. She moves on with her life by opening her own private practice in a vacant, street-front office space in the middle of a small, commercial block located across the bay in Oakland, turning the predominately African-American and psychologically ignored neighborhood on its emotional ear.

Take It Out in Trade

A couple hire a detective to locate their missing daughter. He finds her in a "house of ill-repute."

Lonely Street

Bubba Mabry, a gullible private detective, becomes the prime suspect in a tabloid reporter's murder after being hired to snoop on him by a mysterious celebrity.

The Dark Hour

A pair of detectives investigates the murder of an elderly millionaire who was the target of blackmail and death threats and find that there is no shortage of suspects, many of them in the victim's own family.

Collar

While his life begins to crumble, TJ Williams's fast fading future is bartered for political gain by his former best friend and boss, a mayor with her eye on a Senate seat and an ambitious activist reverend.

Two for the Money

Two cops, who have quit the police department to become private detectives and bounty hunters, hunt for a killer who has eluded capture for years.

Breakaway

When Johnny Matlock whisks away a cold war secret from under the noses of Berlin's top secret agents, his every move is followed when he returns to England. His girlfriend Paula is kidnapped but her handbag is discovered at the scene of the crime by the aristocratic private eye, Duke Martin. Inside it he discovers the secret formula that the agents are searching for and tracks down her sister Paula. As Johnny grows frantic for the safe return of his girlfriend, Duke Martin plays a deadly game of double bluff with the enemy agents.

Three Blondes In His Life

Tough insurance investigator Mahoney goes to LA to look into the murder of a fellow investigator. It's found that the murdered man knew three different women — all blondes — and with each he had had a love affair. What is their connection to the crime? And will Mahoney bed all of them as well?

Rebels of Oakland: The A's, The Raiders, The '70s

"As soon as you hear the title to this new one, you know exactly what it's about and why it's likely to be good, especially if you were a sports fan growing up in the 1970s. Even to good boys all the way across the country in New Hampshire, the authority-flouting baseball A's and football Raiders were magical. Not only did they win championships, they did it amid clubhouse brawls, feuds with an owner and a general embrace of the 1960s aesthetic. Filmmakers Rick Bernstein and Ross Greenburg tell the stories of these turbulent, talented teams and show how they perfectly fit their city. Oakland was blue collar and home to hardcore hard-core 1960s rebellion, exemplified by the Black Panthers. Oakland, especially, was not San Francisco, the effete, world-class city across the bay."

Hackers: Outlaws and Angels

This program reveals the daily battle between the Internet’s outlaws and the hackers who oppose them by warding off system attacks, training IT professionals and police officers, and watching cyberspace for signs of imminent infowar. Through interviews with frontline personnel from the Department of Defense, NYPD’s computer crime squad, private detective firm Kroll Associates, X-Force Threat Analysis Service, and several notorious crackers, the program provides penetrating insights into the millions of hack attacks that occur annually in the U.S.—including one that affected the phone bills of millions and another that left confidential details of the B-1 stealth bomber in the hands of teenagers. The liabilities of wireless networks, the Code Red worm, and online movie piracy are also discussed. A Discovery Channel Production. (51 minutes)

Fremont

Each morning Donya leaves her tight-knit community of Afghan immigrants in Fremont, California. She crosses the Bay to work at a family-run fortune cookie factory in San Francisco. Donya drifts through her routine, struggling to connect with the culture and people of her new, unfamiliar surroundings while processing complicated feelings about her past as a translator for the U.S. government in Afghanistan. Unable to sleep, she finagles her way into a regular slot with a therapist who grasps for prospective role models. When an unexpected promotion at work thrusts Donya into the position to write her own story, she communicates her loneliness and longing through a concise medium: the fortunes inside each cookie. Donya’s koans travel, making a humble social impact and expanding her world far beyond Fremont and her turbulent past, including an encounter with a quiet auto mechanic who could stand to see his own world expanded.

Freaky Tales

In 1987 Oakland, a mysterious force guides The Town’s underdogs in four interconnected tales: teen punks defend their turf against Nazi skinheads, a rap duo battles for hip-hop immortality, a weary henchman gets a shot at redemption, and an NBA All-Star settles the score.

Girl on the Run

A Hollywood private eye (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) seeks a singer being stalked by a hired killer.

The Joneses Unplugged

Newlyweds Matthew and Rebecca realize their relationship is in trouble when their obsession with technology and social media causes them to lose out on their dream home. After a blackout in the city forces the couple to go without their electronic devices, they have the best night they’ve had together in a while. Determined to get their marriage back on track and bring back the romance, the Joneses decide to go unplugged.

The Blazing Sun

Gene Autry hunts bank robbers Al Bartlett and Trot Lucas with his old friend Mike. Bartlett, to throw off his pursuers, kills Trot and his own brother. When Kitty Bartlett comes to town claiming to be the slain Bartlett's widow, Gene has to save her from the irate townspeople who are not aware that her name isn't Bartlett but she really is the daughter of a law officer slain by Al Bartlett. Ben Luder, a local hood, tricks Bartlett back into town by saying he has to fixed to have Doc Larry Taylor do plastic surgery on him. En route they meet Doc and his assistant Helen Ellis and Ben's ruse is exposed. Bartlett kills Ben and forces Doc to drive him to the railroad. Gene, in a fight atop a runaway train, captures Bartlett.

The Tank

In 1978 Oregon, Ben and Jules inherit an abandoned coastal property from Ben's late mother, who's never mentioned it. The untouched house has been kept a secret for 40 years and comes with a beautiful private cove and beach. Jules searches for answers while Ben unwittingly awakens a fiercely protective creature.

The Private Eye

Private investigator Mort Madison's life begins spiraling downward when a beguiling, slightly familiar woman hires him for his most unusual case.

Crime + Punishment

Over four years of unprecedented access, the story of a brave group of black and Latino whistleblower cops and one unrelenting private investigator who, amidst a landmark lawsuit, risk everything to expose illegal quota practices and their impact on young minorities.

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