Prison movies
by poncechris | created - 23 Oct 2019 | updated - 13 Sep 2021 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Brawl in Cell Block 99 (2017)
Not Rated | 132 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A former boxer-turned-drug runner lands in a prison battleground after a deal gets deadly.
Director: S. Craig Zahler | Stars: Vince Vaughn, Jennifer Carpenter, Don Johnson, Udo Kier
Votes: 75,764
2. American History X (1998)
R | 119 min | Crime, Drama
Living a life marked by violence, neo-Nazi Derek finally goes to prison after killing two black youths. Upon his release, Derek vows to change; he hopes to prevent his brother, Danny, who idolizes Derek, from following in his footsteps.
Director: Tony Kaye | Stars: Edward Norton, Edward Furlong, Beverly D'Angelo, Jennifer Lien
Votes: 1,186,876 | Gross: $6.72M
3. The Green Mile (1999)
R | 189 min | Crime, Drama, Fantasy
A tale set on death row, where gentle giant John Coffey possesses the mysterious power to heal people's ailments. When the lead guard, Paul Edgecombe, recognizes John's gift, he tries to help stave off the condemned man's execution.
Director: Frank Darabont | Stars: Tom Hanks, Michael Clarke Duncan, David Morse, Bonnie Hunt
Votes: 1,408,525 | Gross: $136.80M
4. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
R | 142 min | Drama
Over the course of several years, two convicts form a friendship, seeking consolation and, eventually, redemption through basic compassion.
Director: Frank Darabont | Stars: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Bob Gunton, William Sadler
Votes: 2,890,830 | Gross: $28.34M
5. Felon (2008)
R | 104 min | Crime, Thriller
Locked up for killing an intruder in self-defense, a family man must cope with life in the violent penal system.
Director: Ric Roman Waugh | Stars: Stephen Dorff, Marisol Nichols, Vincent Miller, Anne Archer
Votes: 83,586 | Gross: $0.04M
6. Shot Caller (2017)
R | 121 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A newly released prisoner is forced by the leaders of his gang to orchestrate a major crime with a brutal rival gang on the streets of Southern California.
Director: Ric Roman Waugh | Stars: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Omari Hardwick, Lake Bell, Jon Bernthal
Votes: 98,697
7. Get the Gringo (2012)
R | 96 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
A career criminal nabbed by Mexican authorities is placed in a tough prison where he learns to survive with the help of a young boy.
Director: Adrian Grunberg | Stars: Mel Gibson, Kevin Balmore, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Jesús Ochoa
Votes: 111,660
8. Animal (2005 Video)
R | 93 min | Drama, Action
A notorious gangster nicknamed "Animal" must reconcile his past in order to make a future for his criminally-minded son.
Director: David J. Burke | Stars: Ving Rhames, Terrence Howard, Chazz Palminteri, Jim Brown
Votes: 2,161
9. Undisputed (2002)
R | 94 min | Action, Crime, Drama
When heavyweight champion George "Iceman" Chambers lands in prison, the resident gangster arranges a boxing match with the reigning prison champ.
Director: Walter Hill | Stars: Wesley Snipes, Ving Rhames, Peter Falk, Michael Rooker
Votes: 34,420 | Gross: $12.76M
10. Let's Go to Prison (2006)
R | 84 min | Comedy, Crime
When a career criminal's plan for revenge is thwarted by unlikely circumstances, he puts his intended victim's son in his place by putting him in prison...and then joining him.
Director: Bob Odenkirk | Stars: Dax Shepard, Will Arnett, Chi McBride, David Koechner
Votes: 26,481 | Gross: $4.61M
11. In Hell (2003)
R | 98 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
A man must survive a prison where hardened criminals battle to the death for the wardens' entertainment.
Director: Ringo Lam | Stars: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Lawrence Taylor, Lloyd Battista, Carlos Gómez
Votes: 21,508
12. Death Warrant (1990)
R | 89 min | Action, Crime, Mystery
In a violent and corrupt prison, decorated cop Louis Burke must infiltrate the jail to find answers to a number of inside murders. What he finds is a struggle of life and death tied in to his own past.
Director: Deran Sarafian | Stars: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Robert Guillaume, Cynthia Gibb, George Dickerson
Votes: 20,796 | Gross: $16.85M
13. Bound by Honor (1993)
R | 180 min | Crime, Drama
Based on the true life experiences of poet Jimmy Santiago Baca, the film focuses on step-brothers Paco and Cruz, and their bi-racial cousin Miklo.
Director: Taylor Hackford | Stars: Damian Chapa, Jesse Borrego, Benjamin Bratt, Enrique Castillo
Votes: 34,071 | Gross: $4.50M
14. The Longest Yard (2005)
PG-13 | 113 min | Comedy, Crime, Sport
Prison inmates form a football team to challenge the prison guards.
Director: Peter Segal | Stars: Adam Sandler, Burt Reynolds, Chris Rock, Nelly
Votes: 195,204 | Gross: $158.12M
15. Law Abiding Citizen (2009)
R | 109 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A frustrated man decides to take justice into his own hands after a plea bargain sets one of his family's killers free.
Director: F. Gary Gray | Stars: Gerard Butler, Jamie Foxx, Leslie Bibb, Colm Meaney
Votes: 320,051 | Gross: $73.34M
16. Life (I) (1999)
R | 108 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
In 1932, two strangers are wrongfully convicted and develop a strong friendship in prison that lasts them through the 20th century.
Director: Ted Demme | Stars: Eddie Murphy, Martin Lawrence, Obba Babatundé, Nick Cassavetes
Votes: 54,808 | Gross: $63.84M
17. The Hurricane (1999)
R | 146 min | Biography, Drama, Sport
The story of Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter, a boxer wrongly imprisoned for murder, and the people who aided in his fight to prove his innocence.
Director: Norman Jewison | Stars: Denzel Washington, Vicellous Shannon, Deborah Kara Unger, Liev Schreiber
Votes: 102,517 | Gross: $50.67M
18. Animal Factory (2000)
R | 94 min | Crime, Drama
A young man goes to prison and a tough, older convict takes him under his wing as a mentor.
Director: Steve Buscemi | Stars: Willem Dafoe, Edward Furlong, Danny Trejo, Mark Boone Junior
Votes: 14,653 | Gross: $0.04M
19. Son of a Gun (2014)
R | 108 min | Action, Crime, Drama
JR busts out of prison with Brendan Lynch, Australia's most notorious criminal, and joins Lynch's gang for a gold heist that soon pits the two men against one another.
Director: Julius Avery | Stars: Ewan McGregor, Brenton Thwaites, Alicia Vikander, Brendan Kerkvliet
Votes: 29,576 | Gross: $0.00M
20. Papillon (I) (2017)
R | 133 min | Adventure, Biography, Crime
Wrongfully convicted for murder, Henri Charriere forms an unlikely relationship with fellow inmate and quirky convicted counterfeiter, Louis Dega, in an attempt to escape from the notorious penal colony on Devil's Island.
Director: Michael Noer | Stars: Charlie Hunnam, Damijan Oklopdzic, Christopher Fairbank, Jason Ryan
Votes: 86,318 | Gross: $2.34M
21. Lock Up (1989)
R | 109 min | Action, Crime, Drama
With only six months left of his sentence, inmate Frank Leone is transferred from a minimum security prison to a maximum security prison by a vindictive warden.
Director: John Flynn | Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Donald Sutherland, John Amos, Sonny Landham
Votes: 46,454 | Gross: $22.10M
22. Ernest Goes to Jail (1990)
PG | 81 min | Comedy, Crime, Family
Ernest P. Worrell is a bank janitor sent to jail when people mistake his identity for a look-alike.
Director: John R. Cherry III | Stars: Jim Varney, Gailard Sartain, Bill Byrge, Barbara Tyson
Votes: 10,089 | Gross: $25.03M
23. Escape from Alcatraz (1979)
PG | 112 min | Action, Biography, Crime
Alcatraz is the most secure prison of its time. It is believed that no one can ever escape from it, until three daring men make a possibly successful attempt at escaping from one of the most infamous prisons in the world.
Director: Don Siegel | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Patrick McGoohan, Roberts Blossom, Jack Thibeau
Votes: 147,538 | Gross: $43.00M
24. Tango & Cash (1989)
R | 104 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
Framed by their ruthless arch-nemesis, a pair of mismatched LAPD officers must put their differences aside to get even with the brutal crime baron who sent them to rot in a maximum-security prison.
Directors: Andrey Konchalovskiy, Albert Magnoli | Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Kurt Russell, Teri Hatcher, Jack Palance
Votes: 113,650 | Gross: $63.41M
25. Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay (2008)
R | 114 min | Adventure, Comedy
After being mistaken for terrorists and thrown into Guantánamo Bay, stoners Harold and Kumar escape and return to the U.S., where they proceed to flee across the country with federal agents in hot pursuit.
Directors: Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg | Stars: John Cho, Kal Penn, Neil Patrick Harris, Rob Corddry
Votes: 142,044 | Gross: $38.09M
26. Vault (I) (2019)
R | 99 min | Action, Crime, Drama
In 1975, a group of small time criminals attempt to pull off the biggest heist in American history: stealing over $30 million from the Mafia in the smallest state in the union, Rhode Island.
Director: Tom DeNucci | Stars: Theo Rossi, Clive Standen, Samira Wiley, Don Johnson
Votes: 2,900
27. American Me (1992)
R | 125 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
A Mexican-American Mafia kingpin is released from prison, falls in love for the first time, and grows introspective about his gangster lifestyle.
Director: Edward James Olmos | Stars: Edward James Olmos, William Forsythe, Sal Lopez, Vira Montes
Votes: 10,387 | Gross: $13.09M
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