Best movies like Hopeless

At 10 years old, Owen becomes a ragged orphan when his mother dies. Abusive next-door neighbors the Conways take him in, and by 17, Owen has learned that might is right. At 25, he's a career gangster: loitering, gambling and drinking in dens of iniquity. Marie Deering arrives in Owen's area, eager to empower the impoverished, gang-affiliated youth through education. Owen slowly but surely leaves his old life behind, choosing the narrow path- all the while falling in love with Marie. Skinny, who's taken over Owen's role in the gang, reappears to him, spelling trouble.

A drifter becomes both a bank robber and a hero in this crime thriller. Andrew McCarthy stars as Wade Corey, who hitches a ride on a freight train already occupied by Doyle Kennedy (Matt Dillon), a charming ex-con who convinces Wade to accompany him to his hometown. Once there, Wade realizes too late that Doyle is intent on robbing the local bank. After they are separated following the crime, Wade hides the money. Happening upon a drowning in progress, he saves a young girl who just happens to be the daughter of the state governor, and he becomes an unlikely hero. Finding work at a nearby farm, the meandering Wade becomes a hired hand, falls for the beautiful daughter (Leslie Hope) of his boss, and dreads the return of Doyle, who is sure to come looking for his money.

Rick Heller is a juvenile delinquent who keeps getting himself into trouble. To keep him out of trouble his mother puts him to work cleaning the cage of a gorilla named Katie which she is teaching to communicate through the use of sign language. When the owner of the gorilla takes her back to become a flea market freak Rick takes it upon himself to break Katie out and take her on an adventurous journey to get her out of the country.

Heaven's mother Leigh had to escape from Farthinggale Manor and the secrets she harbored. Falling into the arms of Luke, his devotion promised her hope as only Luke knew her deepest of secrets. Bravely she bore the suspicions of the hill folk, as she tried to grasp the happiness that long eluded her. With a baby girl, Heaven, on the way, she hoped for a chance at happy ever after.

A narcissistic TV weatherman, along with his attractive-but-distant producer, and his mawkish cameraman, is sent to report on Groundhog Day in the small town of Punxsutawney, where he finds himself repeating the same day over and over.

When a son and mother move to Seattle in hopes for a better life, the mother meets a seemingly polite man. Things go south when the man turns out to be abusive, endangering their lives. As the mother struggles to maintain hope in an impossible situation, the son has plans to escape.

After a bank robbery, four criminals escape to Mexico, but a storm causes an accident which takes down the plane where several die in the crash. The criminals take it into their own hands to continue when one survivor is attacked and eaten by a crocodile. The criminals kill it, but from then on the mother Crocodile is on a killing spree with a goal to kill each survivor. But that is not the only worry, because they're trapped within it's world, and if it doesn't kill them, the criminals will.

Murphy plays an ex-Quantrill's Raider who's released from jail with buddy Cooper to be deputized as Arizona Rangers in order to hunt down the remnant of the gang, rumored to he hiding out in a town "neer dee border" in the words of the loose-lipped saloon dancer. The goons are found hiding in an Indian mission. Murphy and Cooper pretend to want to rejoin the gang, but the bad guys catch on and brutally beat Cooper, who protects Murphy's true sentiments to the death.

Ray Eddy, an upstate New York trailer mom, is lured into the world of illegal immigrant smuggling. Broke after her husband takes off with the down payment for their new doublewide, Ray reluctantly teams up with Lila, a smuggler, and the two begin making runs across the frozen St. Lawrence River carrying illegal Chinese and Pakistani immigrants in the trunk of Ray's Dodge Spirit.

A man must survive a prison where hardened criminals battle to the death for the warden's entertainment.

Butler is an experienced car thief, McCoy a struggling reporter trying to nail a bad guy-senator. Meeting for the first time when they're both in dire need of air transportation, they team up long enough for Butler to steal a car with a very special piece of luggage in the trunk, and all hell breaks loose. Suddenly they're chased by both sides of the law, and who can tell which is which?

One summer, Jay finds four chimps on the prairie who have fallen off a circus cart.

Valentine Casey is a Marshal in the desolate Tucson territory of the early 1900s. On Christmas Eve, his outlaw family pays him a disturbing visit. He must confront the sins of his past. He and his partner, U.S. Christmas, journey through the desert to a small town that the ruthless Henry Clan has hit in order to save Casey's love, Adelyne.

Earl and Baby, two young lovers with a plan to escape their small Texas town. But when Baby's dim-witted cousin Junior gets tangled up in a whole heap of trouble, Earl has just 48 hours to save the day, rescue Junior and keep his promise to get his Baby to Los Angeles in time for sweeps.

Jack takes his son and daughter to his late wife's beachside hometown hoping to heal and become closer. The summer brings visions of the past that could forge a new path forward.

In the early 1900's Tennessee, a loving family undergoes the shock of the father's sudden, accidental death. The widow and her young son must endure the heartache of life following the tragedy, but slowly rise up from the ashes to face the hope of renewed life.

The Canadian teen comedy Hatley High sends up high school sports rituals by placing a most unlikely competitive game at the center of its story: that of chess. Tommy (Nicholas Wright) is a new arrival in his parents' hometown of Hatley, whose mother recently died. He discovers, after the fact, that his mom was once a chess pro and thus a legend in the community. Tommy's chess-fixated peers accept him almost instantly, inferring that he must have inherited his dear mother's skills, but in time Tommy carves out a niche for himself independently of his mom's legacy, and strikes up an enduring romance with Hyacinthe (Rachelle Lefevre) a "chess cheerleader." Two fictional British filmmakers "frame" the tale by filming it for a documentary that they are producing, and thus provide witty, ongoing narration.

Molly, the shy, romance-starved wife of an arrogant frontier sheriff, finds herself drawn to a prisoner in her husband's jail. This prisoner, a handsome young man named Johnny, plays on Molly's sympathy and convinces her to help him escape. Molly then accompanies Johnny on his cross-country flight but soon learns he's simply been using her. Molly makes the best of the situation, however, and by the time the sheriff's posse catches up with them, Molly shows that she's learned how to assert herself.

The story is of a small town in the early west and of a 'shooter' of reputation that drifts into it and stands up to the controlling family that runs it. But far from a John Wayne, this hero is caught and brutally beaten and left to die, only to be saved by a prostitute that has also suffered under the hand of this group of desperados. The only one possible to stand up to the shooter is another solitary man who joins with the notorious family although he is deputized as the town's sherif.

When the boss of Boston's Irish mob abruptly skips town to escape a federal indictment, a low-level gangster gathers a group of petty crooks to seize control of the streets.

After escaping a Puget Sound institution, "Stepfather" Gene Clifford alters his appearance with plastic surgery and takes on another new identity: Keith Grant. Moving to Deer View, California, Keith falls for a divorced school principal, arousing the suspicions of her wheelchair-bound, computer-savvy son.

Tony Danza stars as a thief named Jack Clayton. When Jack is about to be caught at the mall, he dresses up as Santa Claus and hops on the bus to Evergreen. He is mistaken for the new Santa at Sarah Gibson's tree store. He is very reluctant at first, but after becoming a part of the town, and falls in love with Sarah, he begins to have second thoughts on robbing Evergreen's bank.

Having just moved back to her hometown without her serviceman husband but with her young son, Gretchen Daniels finds her life in disarray as Christmas approaches. But she discovers new purpose when she helps to deliver a message to her neighbor, Melissa, which makes her an ally in the quest to find the neighbor's sibling she never knew she had. The women become bonded not only by the search, but by the understanding that being there for each other means they're no longer alone. This friendship becomes the greatest Christmas gift of their lives. Based on a bestselling novel by Donna VanLiere.

In the follow up to the box-office hit Nitro (2007), we catch up with Max as he serves time for the role he played in the death of a police officer. When the film begins, Max learns that his 17-year-old son Theo has just been recruited by a criminal organization. Desperate to get him out of this situation, Max escapes from prison. He discovers that Theo and his best friend Charly have fallen under the control of Daphne, an alluring femme fatale, who is taking advantage of the teens’ expert computer skills to plan a bold and risky burglary. Quickly understanding he’ll be unable to persuade his son to walk away from it all, Max joins the team in order to protect them. His driving skills and his athletic prowess will prove to be invaluable assets in this action-packed sequel.

Dare Rudd and Bate Fillmore have been enemies since early childhood, primarily over the affections of Nell Worstall. Dare, assuming the name of Holt, goes west to Colorado, as does most of his Kentucky friends and enemies. The feud between Dare and Bate is renewed, and Dare learns that Nell's father is in jail on a trumped-up charge made by Bate in order to force Nell to marry him.

After her mother's death, New York City fashion designer Lisa Rayborn (Natasha Henstridge) returns to her hometown and family farm. Due to a weak economy, her brother Jim (Harry Hamlin) has converted the family business from a cattle farm into a sheep farm, despite their father's (Lawrence Dane) objections. To help out, Lisa decides she will stay to help on the farm. She adopts a border collie from the local animal shelter and trains it as a sheepdog, naming the dog Lucky. Jim and Lisa decide to enter Lucky into a sheep herding contest, but when a severe thunderstorm sparks a forest fire, Lucky helps rescue trapped children and bring them to safety. While doing so, Lucky gets her leg burned, and it looks as if she will not be able to compete.

Marco Perkins is a garage mechanic and a would-be-prizefighter who gets a place on the ritzy country club's polo team because he is the town's most proficient mallet-wielder, having learned to play polo while serving in the U.S. army. His hobnobbing with the town-elite and social upper-crust at the polo-matches gives him an inflated idea of his social position, and he decides he is is moving on up. He breaks off with his girl-friend, true-blue Cynthia Brown, and hits on débutante Gloria Staunton, who appears to have an interest in being hit upon. Gloria's interest lies mostly in showing Marco that hired-hands who can play polo still aren't to the manor born.

A heartwarming, quintessentially British adventure for all the family, PUDSEY THE DOG: THE MOVIE follows cheeky London stray dog, Pudsey, who is quite happy being a lone ranger, looking out for number one, until he meets siblings Molly (Izzy Meikle-Small), George (Spike White) and Tommy (Malachy Knights). After losing their father, their mother Gail (Jessica Hynes) is moving the family to the sleepy village of Chuffington and Pudsey tags along, to the dismay of their landlord, Mr. Thorne (John Sessions), and his cat Faustus. As Pudsey starts to settle in with the family and realize what he was missing when he was alone, he stumbles across Thorne's evil plan and he determines to save them and the whole village.

Encompassing three hugely popular double acts, The Crazy Gang were one of Britain's best-loved, most enduring variety troupes – their antics delighting audiences for over three decades from the early 1930s and their career taking in numerous Royal Command performances. Their efforts to save a struggling circus provide the laughs in this uproarious comedy, also starring Goldfinger icon Shirley Eaton and featuring Flanagan and Allen's rendition of their greatest hit, Underneath the Arches. The Crazy Gang have been jacks-of-all-trades with Joe Winter's Monster Circus for almost as long as Joe has been on the road, and they're still hoping for a big break. But Joe has hit hard times: his equipment is mortgaged, most of his acts have deserted him and even the elephants have walked out. So the Gang set about finding a way to save the circus... and come up with a typically novel solution!

Joe Grant is an inventor, fireman and baseball player in his small hometown. He gets an offer to play in a big team and hopes to get more money for his inventions. But Joe's invited to present his invention to a fire extinguisher company at the same time when he is supposed to play. Will he be able to show the effectiveness of his invention and win the game?

After graduating from Brown University, Hope Danelles finds herself failing miserably trying to make a go of it in New York and ends up moving back to her hometown of Traver. Ohio. After realizing the small town has very little going on, Hope is forced to take a job at the local Waffle Hut.

In this drama thriller set in the South, a young boy named Green (Bret Harrison) longs to escape his unhappy life but feels trapped in his hometown. A gifted special-effects makeup artist, Green has big dreams of working in Hollywood. But the boy's personal demons -- a drunken, abusive stepfather, a group of religious zealots out to destroy his work and the love of a girl who prefers small-town life -- may stand in the way of his dreams.

In a small western town in Arizona called Jaspen, a boy is born on Christmas Day. Joseph "Joe" Novak is born in a makeshift shelter, but his mother, Marika Novak (Alejandra Rojo) dies during childbirth. Because of the day he was born, the boy will be nicknamed Christmas Joe. Joe's father (Jack Taylor) will never forgive him for the death of his wife, which will lead Joe toward a rebellious attitude. He will become a troubled teenager, and will end up learning how to shoot. Joe will also reject his father's pacific attitude.

Nate, a bounty hunter, keeps searching for money to pay back a debt. He discovers there's an outlaw and her reward is enough to avoid his hanging. Nate must break the outlaw out of jail in order to save his life.

A young woman is faced with local disapproval and strain on her marriage when she agrees to serve as a surrogate mother.