Top Private Eye Movies & TV Shows

Motherless Brooklyn (2019)

6.7 1.6K votes

Genre: Drama, Thriller

Country: United States of America

Duration: 145 min.

Audience: R

Story: New York City, 1957. Lionel Essrog, a private detective living with Tourette syndrome, tries to solve the murder of his mentor and best friend, armed only with vague clues and the strength of his obsessive mind.

Plot: based on novel or book, jazz club, tourette syndrome, brooklyn, new york city, private detective, murder investigation, political corruption, ...

Time: 1950s

Cast

Carlos Santos

Miguel u00c1ngel Muu00f1oz

Luisa Gavasa

Maru00eda Cantuel

The Crack: Inception (2019)

6.7 39 votes

Genre: Drama, Thriller

Country: Spain

Duration: 117 min.

Audience: PG-13

Story: Madrid, Spain, 1975; shortly after the end of the Franco dictatorship. Six months after the mysterious death of his lover, a prestigious tailor, a married woman visits the office of the young Germán Areta, a former police officer turned private detective, to request his professional services.

Plot: madrid, spain, prequel, black and white, private detective, neo-noir, spanish transition

Time: 1970s

Cast

Paul Newman

Lauren Bacall

Julie Harris

Arthur Hill

Harper (1966)

6.7 196 votes

Genre: Crime, Mystery, Thriller

Country: United States of America

Duration: 121 min.

Audience: NR

Story: Harper is a cynical private eye in the best tradition of Bogart. He even has Bogie's Baby hiring him to find her missing husband, getting involved along the way with an assortment of unsavory characters and an illegal-alien smuggling ring.

Plot: adultery, husband wife relationship, based on novel or book, kidnapping, nightclub, investigation, swimming pool, murder, ...

Cast

Mireille Enos

Peter Krause

Jay Hayden

Rose Rollins

The Catch (2016) TV Show

6.6 128 votes

Genre: Comedy, Crime, Drama

Country: United States of America

Seasons: 2

Episodes: 20

Audience: TV-14

Story: Strong and successful Alice Martin is a fraud investigator who's about to be the victim of fraud by her fiancé. Between her cases, she is determined to find him before it ruins her career.

Plot: con man, fraud, private investigator, los angeles, california

Cast

Jim Carrey

Courteney Cox

Sean Young

Tone Loc

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994)

6.6 6.4K votes

Genre: Comedy, Crime, Mystery

Country: United States of America

Duration: 86 min.

Audience: PG-13

Story: He's Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. The Ace is on the case to find the Miami Dolphins' missing mascot and quarterback Dan Marino. He goes eyeball to eyeball with a man-eating shark, stakes out the Miami Dolphins and woos and wows the ladies. Whether he's undercover, under fire or underwater, he always gets his man… or beast!

Plot: miami, florida, dolphin, detective, human animal relationship, stupidity, mascot, slapstick comedy, ...

Inherent Vice (2014)

6.5 2.7K votes

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Mystery

Country: United States of America

Duration: 149 min.

Audience: R

Story: In Los Angeles at the turn of the 1970s, drug-fueled detective Larry "Doc" Sportello investigates the disappearance of an ex-girlfriend.

Style: surreal

Plot: based on novel or book, boat, detective, ex-girlfriend, vice, hippie lifestyle, pot smoking, marijuana, ...

Time: 1970s, 1960s

Place: california

Cast

Nicolas Cage

Joaquin Phoenix

James Gandolfini

Peter Stormare

8MM (1999)

6.5 2.3K votes

Genre: Crime, Mystery, Thriller

Country: Germany, United States of America

Duration: 123 min.

Audience: R

Story: A small, seemingly innocuous plastic reel of film leads surveillance specialist Tom Welles down an increasingly dark and frightening path. With the help of the streetwise Max, he relentlessly follows a bizarre trail of evidence to determine the fate of a complete stranger. As his work turns into obsession, he drifts farther and farther away from his wife, family and simple life as a small-town PI.

Plot: new york city, pornography, underground, loss of loved one, sex shop, obsession, investigation, porn actor, ...

Cast

Adam Sandler

Jennifer Aniston

Mark Strong

Mu00e9lanie Laurent

Murder Mystery 2 (2023)

6.4 2.0K votes

Genre: Comedy, Crime, Mystery

Country: United States of America

Duration: 91 min.

Audience: PG-13

Story: After starting their own detective agency, Nick and Audrey Spitz land a career-making case when their billionaire pal is kidnapped from his wedding.

Plot: new york city, paris, france, bomb, kidnapping, married couple, interpol, ex-cop, ...

Cast

Paul Newman

Anthony Franciosa

Murray Hamilton

Gail Strickland

The Drowning Pool (1975)

6.3 139 votes

Genre: Mystery, Thriller

Country: United States of America

Duration: 109 min.

Audience: PG

Story: Harper is brought to Louisiana to investigate an attempted blackmail scheme. He soon finds out that it involves an old flame of his and her daughter. He eventually finds himself caught in a power struggle between the matriarch of the family and a greedy oil baron, who wants their property. Poor Harper! Things are not as straight-forward as they initially appeared.

Plot: private detective, neo-noir, lew harper

Cast

Liam Neeson

Dan Stevens

David Harbour

Boyd Holbrook

A Walk Among the Tombstones (2014)

6.3 3.0K votes

Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery

Country: United States of America

Duration: 114 min.

Audience: R

Story: Private investigator Matthew Scudder is hired by a drug kingpin to find out who kidnapped and murdered his wife.

Plot: new york city, based on novel or book, murder, private investigator, mafia, drugs, alcoholic, kingpin, ...

Time: 1990s

Cast

Lou de Lau00e2ge

Valu00e9rie Lemercier

Melvil Poupaud

Niels Schneider

Coup de chance (2023)

6.2 447 votes

Genre: Drama, Romance

Country: France, United Kingdom

Duration: 96 min.

Audience: PG-13

Story: Fanny and Jean have everything of an ideal couple: fulfilled professionally, they live in a magnificent apartment in the beautiful districts of Paris, and seem to be in love as on the first day. But when Fanny crosses, by chance, former classmate Alain, she's immediately capsized. They see each other again very quickly and grow closer.

Plot: infidelity, husband wife relationship, paris, france, hunting accident, private detective

Cast

Tom Berenger

Bob Hoskins

Greta Scacchi

Joanne Whalley

Shattered (1991)

6.1 230 votes

Genre: Mystery, Thriller

Country: United States of America

Duration: 98 min.

Audience: R

Story: Dan Merrick comes out from a shattering car accident with amnesia. He finds that he is married to Judith who is trying to help him start his life again. He keeps getting flashbacks about events and places that he can't remember. He meets pet shop owner and part time private detective Gus Klein who has supposedly done some work for him prior to the accident. Klein helps Merrick to find out more...

Plot: infidelity, amnesia, wife, san francisco, california, identity, riddle, shipwreck, ...

Cast

Miley Cyrus

Jeremy Piven

Mike O'Malley

Joshua Bowman

So Undercover (2012)

6.1 1.2K votes

Genre: Action, Comedy

Country: United States of America

Duration: 94 min.

Audience: PG-13

Story: When the FBI hires her to go undercover at a college sorority, Molly Morris must transform herself from a tough, streetwise private investigator to a refined, sophisticated university girl to help protect the daughter of a one-time Mobster. With several suspects on her list, Molly unexpectedly discovers that not everyone is who they appear to be, including herself.

Plot: undercover, fbi, college, private investigator, sorority girl

Cast

Fred Ward

David Warner

Julianne Moore

Clancy Brown

Cast a Deadly Spell (1991)

6.1 125 votes

Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Horror

Country: United States of America

Duration: 96 min.

Audience: R

Story: In a fantastical 1940s where magic is used by everyone, a hard-boiled detective investigates the theft of a mystical tome.

Plot: gangster, nightclub, gremlin, gargoyle, zombie, private detective, occult, astrology, ...

Time: 1940s

Cast

Dennis Miller

Erika Eleniak

Angie Everhart

Chris Sarandon

Bordello of Blood (1996)

6.0 420 votes

Genre: Comedy, Horror

Country: United States of America

Duration: 87 min.

Audience: R

Story: Private eye Rafe Guttman is hired by repressed, born-again Katherine to find her missing bad-boy brother. The trail leads him to a whorehouse run by a thousand-year-old vampire and secretly backed by Katherine's boss, televangelist Jimmy Current.

Plot: vampire, brothel, based on comic, private investigator, born again christian, televangelist

Cast

Liam Neeson

Laura San Giacomo

Kenneth Cranham

Alphonsia Emmanuel

Under Suspicion (1991)

5.9 123 votes

Genre: Crime, Thriller

Country: United Kingdom

Duration: 99 min.

Audience: R

Story: In the late 1950s, British police officer Tony Aaron resigns from the force after sleeping with Hazel, wife of the man whose house he was supposed to guard. In his new job as a fake private investigator, he helps couples get divorces by photographing Hazel having "affairs" with the husband. When she is murdered during a job, Tony begins having an affair with the dead man's mistress, Angeline, while trying to prove his innocence.

Plot: hotel room, adultery, brighton, england, divorce, private detective

Time: 1950s

Cast

John Lithgow

Teri Garr

Randy Quaid

Bruce McGill

Out Cold (1989)

5.9 27 votes

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Thriller

Country: United States of America

Duration: 88 min.

Story: Sunny is married to the butcher, Ernie, and their marriage is about to end as both of them have affairs. Thus Sunny hires Lester Atlas as private investigator in order to collect proof for the divorce. One evening drunken Ernie and his partner Dave have a fight in the butcher shop with Ernie getting knocked out in the fridge where he dies during the night. But it was not Dave's fault but intentional murder by Sunny. Only Lester has proof so Sunny kills him, too. Thus she only has to kill Dave to get rid of all witnesses, but he can free himself out of the fridge and wants to take revenge.

Plot: infidelity, love triangle, dark comedy, hunting trip, private investigator, frozen body

Cast

James Ransone

Shannyn Sossamon

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Robert Daniel Sloan

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Dartanian Sloan

Sinister 2 (2015)

5.9 2.3K votes

Genre: Horror

Country: Canada, United States of America

Duration: 97 min.

Audience: R

Story: A young mother and her twin sons move into a rural house that's marked for death.

Plot: nightmare, police, investigation, supernatural, haunted house, snuff, deputy, sequel, ...

Cast

Michael Peu00f1a

Maggie Q

Lucy Hale

Michael Rooker

Fantasy Island (2020)

5.8 2.7K votes

Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, Horror

Country: United States of America

Duration: 109 min.

Audience: PG-13

Story: A group of contest winners arrive at an island hotel to live out their dreams, only to find themselves trapped in nightmare scenarios.

Plot: cave, supernatural, private investigator, remote island, reality vs fantasy, dark fantasy, interracial adoption, fame-seeking, ...

Cast

Sidney James

Kenneth Williams

Charles Hawtrey

Joan Sims

Carry On Loving (1970)

5.7 50 votes

Genre: Comedy, Romance

Country: United Kingdom

Duration: 88 min.

Audience: PG

Story: The Wedded Bliss computer dating agency aims to bring together the lonely hearts of Much-Snoggin-in-the-Green. Its owner, Sidney Bliss, has enough complications in his own love life, but still produces a pamphlet called 'The Wit to Woo'. The strange collection of hopefuls lead to some outlandish matches—and jealousies are bound to lead to trouble.

Plot: virgin, bachelor, wrestler, sexual humor, love, scam, carry on, couple, ...

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