Best movies like Better Off Dead.
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A lawyer fights a losing battle against the courts to overturn the death sentence for a convicted female robber/murderer despite demands from the woman that her death sentence be carried out.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 119
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags:
Best tv shows and movies like Better Off Dead. (1993):
Similar in 90%
The Hoodlum Priest (1961)
Plot Summary:
Based on the life of Fr. Charles Clark, a minister to street gangs.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 483
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: neo noir, independent film
Similar in 80%
Hunting of Man (2003)
Plot Summary:
A universal story with Latino characters told in an unconventional way (like Forrest Gump and Amadeus) about a man who's trying to keep his hot-headed younger brother from carrying out revenge.
IMDB Rating: 2.8
IMDB Votes: 706
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: crime drama, independent film, serious, realistic, detective, hispanic
Similar in 87%
Lighter Fluid (2016)
Plot Summary:
An experimental look into the lives of teens and young adults in a dysfunctional town.
IMDB Rating:
IMDB Votes:
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 66 min
Plot tags: experimental
Similar in 82%
The Gift of Life (1982)
Plot Summary:
A young woman is faced with local disapproval and strain on her marriage when she agrees to serve as a surrogate mother.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 49
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 77%
In Search Of America (1971)
Plot Summary:
The producers of In Search of America never declared outright that the made-for-TV film was intended as a series pilot, but there sure are plenty of loose plot ends. Carl Betz and Vera Miles play the parents of shaggy-haired college dropout Jeff Bridges. At the boy's suggestion, Betz and Miles pack their family--including grandma Ruth McDevitt--into a 1928 Greyhound bus and hit the road, in search of you-know-where. The picaresque plotline brings the family in contact with a variety of colorful characters. Written by Lewis John Carlino, a name that would mean a lot more to filmgoers after The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea (1976), In Search of America was first telecast March 23, 1971.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 176
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: tv series pilot
Similar in 82%
Thank You All Very Much (1969)
Plot Summary:
Rosamund Stacey (Sandy Dennis), a young 'bookish' girl in London society, spends her days studying for a doctorate in the British Museum and her nights avoiding the sexual attention of the men in her life. But one day, all that changes. Through a friend, she is introduced to rising TV newsreader/announcer George Matthews (Ian McKellen) and after a further chance meeting and a tumble on the sofa, she finds herself pregnant from her first sexual encounter. A failed attempt at self-abortion just re-inforces Rosamund's resolve to have the child - leaving her on a solitary and at times dismal path through pregnancy and into motherhood, aided only by close friend Lydia (Eleanor Bron). Will she get through it? Will her child? And will she let Matthews know that he is actually the father?.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 466
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
Transit (2005)
Plot Summary:
After a graffiti artist loses his brother and fellow partner-in-crime to the hands of a vigilante killer he vows to give up graffiti forever. That lasts until he hooks up with his best friend, a tag-banger out to make a name for himself.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 21
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 74 min
Plot tags: independent film, hispanic
Similar in 84%
A Brand New Life (1973)
Plot Summary:
After 18 years of marriage, a middle-aged couple has to face the prospect of having their first child.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 69
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 74 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
The Law and the Fist (1964)
Plot Summary:
At the end of World War Two, Polish people move to the western lands vacated by Germans. But some ruthless profiteers pose as government representatives and intend to make off with loot from a deserted town they took over. One honest man stands up against them because he believes these goods belong to the people.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 412
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
Reflections on a Crime (1994)
Plot Summary:
Seven years ago, Regina (Mimi Rogers) was tried for the death. On the night before she becomes the first woman in over 40 years to be executed in a federal penitentiary, she befriends the lone, curious prison guard Colin Reeves (Billy Zane), who has been assigned to watch over her. By telling Regina's story through flashbacks interwoven with her present situation, the film helps us understand this woman in a unique, disturbing and sympathetic way.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 215
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 80%
Callie & Son (1981)
Plot Summary:
Callie was a teenage mother in trouble. Fresh out of the delivery room, her son was taken from her and sold on the black-market. Vowing to find him some day, this is her story.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 342
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 142 min
Plot tags: eighties
Similar in 87%
Sofia (2018)
Plot Summary:
Sofia, 20, lives with her parents in Casablanca. Suffering from pregnancy denial, she finds herself breaking the law by giving birth to a baby out of wedlock. The hospital gives her 24 hours to provide the father's papers before informing the authorities….
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 871
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Qatar, Belgium, Morocco
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 85%
3000 Nights (2015)
Plot Summary:
A young Palestinian schoolteacher gives birth to her son in an Israeli prison where she fights to protect him, survive and maintain hope.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 982
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar, United Arab Emirates
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
Having Babies III (1978)
Plot Summary:
Dr. Julie Farr presides over three impending births and cannot help but get involved in the lives of her troubled patients.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 32
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 82%
Having Babies II (1977)
Plot Summary:
The story of various couples who get caught up in the personal and emotional crises of birth, adoption and hospitalization, and also of the hospital and health care workers who take care of them.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 61
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 89%
Mr. and Mrs. Bo Jo Jones (1971)
Plot Summary:
It's 1956 in the beach town of Trilby. After asking the questions pertaining to the situation, sixteen year old working class Robert Joseph Jones - who prefers to be called Bo Jo - asks his same aged girlfriend, upper middle class Julie Greher, to marry him in doing what he believes to be the right thing after she tells him that she is ten weeks pregnant from their one and only sexual encounter, the secret wedding which happens the following day. These are only the first steps in both Bo Jo and Julie doing and saying what they believe are the right things under the circumstance regardless of what they may actually feel. Their life inexperience is shown in the process, which includes each finding out what little he/she really knows of the other. They both to some extent realize that being married means the loss of their innocence and the loss of their individual planned futures - which for both was college and Bo Jo working toward a football scholarship on the hopes of becoming All.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 96
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 75 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
A Streetcar Named Desire (1984)
Plot Summary:
Blanche Dubois goes to visit her pregnant sister and husband Stanley in New Orleans. Stanley doesn't like her, and starts pushing her for information on some property he know was left to the sisters. He discovers she has mortgaged the place and spent all the money, and wants to find out all he can about her. Even more friction develops between the two while they are in the apartment together.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 475
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: psychological, atmospheric, serious, emotional, realistic, disturbing, talky
Similar in 84%
Smash-Up on Interstate 5 (1976)
Plot Summary:
A disaster movie opening with an enormous multi-vehicle crash on a Californian highway. After the opening stunt-filled action, a flashback of the crash victims' lives prior to and leading up to the accident. The closing replays the entire "smash up" from various angles and in slow motion, depicting much carnage and indifference to the victims.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 432
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful, disaster movie
Similar in 85%
Too Good to Be True (1988)
Plot Summary:
A self-entitled woman is determined to keep her new man to herself at all costs.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 160
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
The Execution (1985)
Plot Summary:
The members of a San Diego Wednesday night womens' mah jongg club are five survivors of a Nazi concentration camp. They recognize the owner of a local restaurant, Walter Grossman, as a doctor from the camp who performed experiments on them as young girls. To their horror they learn that he has already been tried as a war criminal and has served but a few years for his crimes. They decide that they will "execute" him, drawing lots to determine which one will perform the act, without letting the others know who it is.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 183
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: surprise ending
Similar in 77%
Baby Snatcher (1992)
Plot Summary:
A woman is delighted to have given birth to a baby girl but her life is turned into a nightmare when she goes missing. The police mount a frantic search but to the woman's horror she finds out that it's herself who is the main suspect.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 436
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 78%
L.A. Law: The Movie (2002)
Plot Summary:
Reunion movie from the popular TV series reunites most of the original cast from the Los Angeles law firm of McKenzie-Brackman. In the eight years since the series ended, the founding senior partner, Leland McKenzie, has retired and left Douglas Brackman, Jr. as the senior managing partner. New employees to the firm are Brackman's over-achieving son Jason, who's at odds with his father, and ambitious and conniving associate Chloe Carpenter at odds with others. Former partner Michael Kuzak, is called out of retirement to help stop the impeding execution of a former client on death row. Meanwhile, divorce lawyer Arnie Becker deals with his toughest divorce: his own, where his estranged young wife has hired former McKenzie-Brackman lawyer Abby Perkins as her legal representation. Office manager Roxanne Melman deals with her ex-husband, Dave Meyer, who claims that he's dying and wants to spend some quality time with her. - Written by Matthew Patay.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 301
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, captivating, suspenseful
Similar in 87%
Butterfly in Grey (2002)
Plot Summary:
Dao returns home and finds her fiance in bed with another woman. She shoots them dead on the spot. She is sentenced to 10 years in prison. She gets out eventually and stays with a friend who runs an escort service and learns that women are even caged in the outside world.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 140
Genere: Drama
Country: Thailand
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: tense, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 86%
Radical (2023)
Plot Summary:
In a Mexican border town plagued by neglect, corruption, and violence, a frustrated teacher tries a radical new method to break through his students’ apathy and unlock their curiosity, their potential… and maybe even their genius. Based on a true story.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Mexico
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 80%
Earth Mama (2023)
Plot Summary:
With two children in foster care, Gia, a pregnant single mother pitted against the system, fights to reclaim her family. In her close-knit Bay Area community, she works to make a life for herself and her kids.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 408
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: crying, independent film
Similar in 88%
Clemency (2019)
Plot Summary:
Years of carrying out death row executions have taken a toll on prison warden Bernadine Williams. As she prepares to execute another inmate, Bernadine must confront the psychological and emotional demons her job creates, ultimately connecting her to the man she is sanctioned to kill.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: psychological, rough, bleak, suspenseful, disturbing, compassionate, dark, social, black cinema
Similar in 80%
Sharing the Secret (2000)
Plot Summary:
A teenage girl who feels she must always seem happy for her parents and friends secretly binges and purges.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: psychological, emotional, realistic, touching, serious, teen
Similar in 86%
The Group (1966)
Plot Summary:
Sidney Lumet's adaptation of the acclaimed Mary McCarthy novel. It's 1933, and eight young women are friends and members of the upper- class group at a private girl's school, about to graduate and start their own lives. The film documents the years between their graduation and the beginning of the World War in Europe, and shows, in a serialized style, their romances and marriages, their searches for careers or meaning in their lives, their highs and their lows.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags: emotional, realistic, thought provoking, captivating, semi serious, sexual, sexy
Similar in 76%
I Want to Live (1983)
Plot Summary:
The movie tells the story of a woman who struggles and fights to escape the gas chamber being condemned with capital punishment because of her participation in a hold up in which a person was killed.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 196
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: rough, thought provoking, bleak, serious, realistic, disturbing
Similar in 88%
The Magic of Ordinary Days (2005)
Plot Summary:
Pregnant out of wedlock, an educated young woman is pressured by her father into an arranged marriage with a lonely farmer in this drama set during WWII.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: touching, sentimental, sincere, serious, emotional, realistic, melancholic, contemplative, heartbreaking, sad