Movies Like Hard Eight (1997)

Hard Eight is a 1997 crime, drama film from Paul Thomas Anderson with a MovieMagicScore of 6.9/10. Here are 20 similar films, ranked by real viewer ratings — starting with The Lady Gambles and Rounders.

Crime Drama

The Lady Gambles

1949

When Joan Boothe accompanies husband-reporter David to Las Vegas, she begins gambling to pass the time while he is doing a story. Encouraged by the casino manager, she gets hooked on gambling, to the point where she "borrows" David's expense money to pursue her addiction. This finally breaks up their marriage, but David continues trying to help her.

5.9

MagicScore

Rounders

1998

Poker addict Mike McDermott knows the game inside out, but loses his money one night in a game to Russian-American gangster Teddy KGB. Promising his partner Jo he'll give up, he meets up with best friend Lester 'Worm' Murphy, just out of prison and owing lots of money to the wrong kind of people. McDermott becomes his co-guarantor and now there's only one way to raise the money, the pair have to get back into the game.

7.0

MagicScore

Runner Runner

2013

When a poor college student who cracks an online poker game goes bust, he arranges a face-to-face with the man he thinks cheated him, a sly offshore entrepreneur.

5.6

MagicScore

California Split

1974

Carefree single guy Charlie Waters rooms with two lovely prostitutes, Barbara Miller and Susan Peters, and lives to gamble. Along with his glum betting buddy, Bill Denny, Charlie sets out on a gambling streak in search of the ever-elusive big payday. While Charlie and Bill have some lucky moments, they also have to contend with serious setbacks that threaten to derail their hedonistic betting binge.

6.6

MagicScore

Mississippi Grind

2015

Gerry is a talented but down-on-his-luck gambler whose fortunes begin to change when he meets Curtis, a younger, highly charismatic poker player. The two strike up an immediate friendship and Gerry quickly persuades his new friend to accompany him on a road trip to a legendary high stakes poker game in New Orleans. As they make their way down the Mississippi River, Gerry and Curtis manage to find themselves in just about every bar, racetrack, casino, and pool hall they can find, experiencing both incredible highs and dispiriting lows, but ultimately forging a deep and genuine bond that will stay with them long after their adventure is over.

6.0

MagicScore

Casino

1995

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.

8.0

MagicScore

Owning Mahowny

2003

Dan Mahowny was a rising star at the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. At twenty-four he was assistant manager of a major branch in the heart of Toronto's financial district. To his colleagues he was a workaholic. To his customers, he was astute, decisive and helpful. To his friends, he was a quiet, but humorous man who enjoyed watching sports on television. To his girlfriend, he was shy but engaging. None of them knew the other side of Dan Mahowny--the side that executed the largest single-handed bank fraud in Canadian history, grossing over $10 million in eighteen months to feed his gambling obsession.

6.7

MagicScore

21

2008

Ben Campbell is a young, highly intelligent student at M.I.T. who strives to succeed. Wanting a scholarship to transfer to Harvard School of Medicine to become a doctor, Ben learns that he cannot afford the $300,000 tuition as he comes from a poor, working-class background. But one evening, Ben is introduced by his unorthodox math professor to a small but secretive club of five students, Jill, Choi, Kianna, and Fisher, who are being trained by Professor Rosa to count cards at blackjack.

6.7

MagicScore

Alex & Emma

2003

Writer Alex Sheldon must finish his novel within a month. If he doesn't, he won't get paid. And, if that happens, angry Mafia types to whom he owes money will come looking for him. In order to expedite things, Alex hires typist Emma Dinsmore and begins dictating his novel. The book is about a doomed love affair between a character similar to Alex and a character named Polina Delacroix. But, as Alex falls for Emma, his work takes a different turn.

5.2

MagicScore

#10

One Night Only

2016

A gambler, fresh out of prison, and a beautiful hooker find themselves caught in an underground scheme that's spinning wildly out of control.

6.1

MagicScore

#11

Leaving Las Vegas

1995

Ben Sanderson, an alcoholic Hollywood screenwriter who lost everything because of his drinking, arrives in Las Vegas to drink himself to death. There, he meets and forms an uneasy friendship and non-interference pact with prostitute Sera.

7.3

MagicScore

#12

Last Vegas

2013

Aging pals Billy, Paddy, Archie, and Sam have been best friends since childhood. When Billy finally proposes to his much-younger girlfriend, all four friends go to Las Vegas to celebrate the end of Billy's longtime bachelorhood and relive their glory days. However, the four quickly realize that the intervening decades have changed Sin City and tested their friendship in ways they had not imagined.

6.4

MagicScore

#13

House of Games

1987

A psychiatrist comes to the aid of a compulsive gambler and is led by a smooth-talking grifter into the shadowy but compelling world of stings, scams, and con men.

6.8

MagicScore

#14

The Last Casino

2004

A University teacher finds three bright students and decides to teach them how to count cards to make lots of money. As they learn how to play the casinos, things get tricky when the debt owing teacher informs them that their front man wants restitution for loses in about a weeks time. The three students decide to hit all the major casinos in Ontario and Quebec until discovered.

6.9

MagicScore

#15

Phoenix

1998

Gambling fever -- along with a brutal bookie -- leads three crooked cops into a double-dealing scheme that lands them in hot water way over their heads.

5.3

MagicScore

#16

To Live

1994

Married couple Fugui and Jiazhen endure tumultuous events in mid-20th century mainland China as their personal fortunes move from wealthy landownership to peasantry.

8.1

MagicScore

#17

Babylon

2022

A tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, tracing the rise and fall of multiple characters in an era of unbridled decadence and depravity during Hollywood's transition from silent films to sound films in the late 1920s.

7.4

MagicScore

#18

Cockfighter

1974

A man who trains fighting cocks vows to remain silent until one of his birds wins a championship.

6.0

MagicScore

#19

Bugsy

1991

New York gangster Ben 'Bugsy' Siegel takes a brief business trip to Los Angeles. A sharp-dressing womanizer with a foul temper, Siegel doesn't hesitate to kill or maim anyone crossing him. In L.A. the life, the movies, and most of all strong-willed Virginia Hill detain him while his family wait back home. Then a trip to a run-down gambling joint at a spot in the desert known as Las Vegas gives him his big idea.

6.3

MagicScore

#20

Gutshot Straight

2014

A professional poker player falls deep into underworld when he takes an unexpected wager from a mysterious high roller.

4.1

MagicScore

Frequently asked

What are the best movies like Hard Eight?

The top films similar to Hard Eight by MovieMagicScore are The Lady Gambles (5.9), Rounders (7.0), Runner Runner (5.6). Each shares crime/drama themes and is ranked by real viewer ratings, not critics or studios.

Is Hard Eight worth watching?

Hard Eight holds a MovieMagicScore of 6.9/10 from 915 viewer ratings.

What kind of movie is Hard Eight?

Hard Eight (1997) is a crime, drama film directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, starring Philip Baker Hall, John C. Reilly, Gwyneth Paltrow.

Where can I find more recommendations like Hard Eight?

Browse the full ranked list above, or explore more crime recommendations on MovieMagicScore, where every list is ordered by genuine viewer ratings.

Keep exploring

Movies like The Lady Gambles Movies like Rounders Movies like Runner Runner Movies like California Split Movies like Mississippi Grind Movies like Casino

About movies like Hard Eight

This ranked list pairs Hard Eight (1997), a crime and drama film from Paul Thomas Anderson, with similar titles by genre, theme and cast overlap (fans of Philip Baker Hall take note). Unlike critic-driven sites, every position here is ordered by MovieMagicScore — a rating built only from real viewers, with no studio marketing or paid placement. Scores update as more people rate, so the list stays current.

← Back to Hard Eight