Best movies like Little Big Top

Scudder is a detective with the Sheriff's Department who is forced to shoot a violent suspect during a narcotics raid. The ensuing psychological aftermath of this shooting worsens his drinking problem and this alcoholism causes him to lose his job, as well as his marriage.

After serving time for murder, Josh Hutton returns to his home town where he meets Audry Hugo. No one can remember exactly what Josh did...

Vulgar is about a man who is a children's clown but has not been getting much luck lately. He lives in a cheap apartment which he can't even afford. Bums are constantly sleeping in his run down car and crashing on his lawn. He has a nagging mother who lives in a nursing home, and his best friend is a moocher. One day he comes up with the idea to become a bachelor clown.

A prudish woman working on tenure as a literacy professor at a large urban university finds herself attracted to a free-spirited, liberal woman who works at a local carnival.

A 60-year-old lumber supply businessman is dismayed to learn his 50-year-old wife is pregnant. A film adaptation of the hit Broadway comedy, with Paul Ford repeating his stage role as the flabbergasted papa-to-be.

A circus wild animal trainer searches for the son who was taken away from him by a meddling relative years earlier.

A young woman is pursued in reality and in her subconscious by the sadistic carnival clown who raped and murdered her mother.

An average family is thrust into the spotlight after the father commits a seemingly self-defense murder at his diner.

Runaway teen Bobby is given shelter by a friendly cult of Satanists, but his presence leads to conflicts within Satan's Children, especially after a lesbian member is damned to Hell. But Bobby proves to be one sick puppy, which he demonstrates in ways that would even make the devil smile. So hilarious, and just plain insane, you'd think Lucifer himself was personally involved!

Story of an inventor who, suffering betrayal in life, makes a career of it by becoming a clown whose act consists of getting slapped by all the other clowns. He falls in love with another circus performer, and those who betrayed him enter his life yet again.

The daughter of a circus owner fights to save her father from a takeover spearheaded by the man she loves.

A despairing clown suffering a broken heart and a self-indulgent count who uncontrollably laughs learn to help each other with their problems, but both fall in love with the same young woman.

A circus' beautiful trapeze artist agrees to marry the leader of side-show performers, but his deformed friends discover she is only marrying him for his inheritance.

To ensure a full profitable season, circus manager Brad Braden engages The Great Sebastian, though this moves his girlfriend Holly from her hard-won center trapeze spot. Holly and Sebastian begin a dangerous one-upmanship duel in the ring, while he pursues her on the ground.

Carrie, Mitzie, and Chicago get in trouble a lot in the women's prison, but are offered early parolement if they agree to become subjects of a study on human aggression and antisocial behavior at a Kansas City college. Dr. Blalock, the professor in charge of the study, is accepting money under the table from a shady government contact to use an experimental drug on the women. The drug induces the same hostile behavior the doctor is supposedly trying to cure, and after a while the women have a hard time conducting themselves in a civil manner.

A vicious band of nuclear terrorists is threatening America's atomic weapons research. Truck jockey Charlie Morrison (Forrest Tucker) volunteers for a last-ditch, suicide scheme to lure them into a trap, baited with a vital shipment of bomb-grade plutonium. Soon, Charlie's high-balling it down a remote desert road with a small army of lethally equipped bandits zeroing in on him. Charlie's secret weapon? "Big Thunder", a 65-foot, 18-wheeled war wagon of merciless high-tech destruction!

A magician in a carnival--who actually can read minds and levitate people and objects--works with a superintelligent chimp named Alex, who can also talk. The magician and the chimp soon become the stars of the carnival, drawing in big crowds. However, the wild-animal trainer, who has been displaced by the team as the carnival's top act, decides to kidnap Alex and sell him to a medical laboratory for experimentation, thereby getting rid of his competition.

A dictatorial film director hires an unknown actress to play the lead role in a planned movie biography of a late, great Hollywood star.

A man struggling to find purpose in life is enlightened by a drunk ailing widow.

Shakes plods about his duties as party clown, and uses all of his free time getting seriously drunk. Binky, another clown, wins the spot on a local kiddie show, which depresses Shakes even more, and his boss threatens him with unemployment if he can't get his act under control.

A runaway bride and her bridesmaids are stranded in a city run by clowns. Everything seemed normal at first but this clown cult has their own set of rules. It's a carnival ride as our girls tries to stay alive to escape Clown City.

Failed college coach Norman Dale gets a chance at redemption when he is hired to coach a high school basketball team in a tiny Indiana town. After a teacher persuades star player Jimmy Chitwood to quit and focus on his long-neglected studies, Dale struggles to develop a winning team in the face of community criticism for his temper and his unconventional choice of assistant coach: Shooter, a notorious alcoholic.

Matthew, a young schizophrenic, finds himself out on the street when a slumlord tears down his apartment building. Soon, he finds himself in even more dire straits, when he is threatened by Little Leroy, a thug who is one of the tough denizens of the Fort Washington Shelter for Men. He reaches out to Jerry, a streetwise combat veteran, who takes Matthew under his wing as a son. The relationship between these two men grows as they attempt to conquer the numbing isolation of homelessness.

Hard-drinking novelist Dave Hirsh returns home after being gone for years. His brother wants Dave to settle down and introduces him to English teacher Gwen French. Moody Dave resents his brother and spends his days hanging out with Bama Dillert, a professional gambler who parties late into the night. Torn between the admiring Gwen and Ginny Moorehead, an easy woman who loves him, Dave grows increasingly angry.

Termini Station is a Canadian made drama, released in 1989 and directed by Allan King. The film stars Colleen Dewhurst and Megan Follows as Molly and Micheline Dushane, a mother and daughter living in a small Northern Ontario town. Molly is an alcoholic, which creates tension between her and Micheline and inspires Micheline's fantasies of escaping her stifling small-town life. The cast also includes Gordon Clapp and Debra McGrath as Molly's son and daughter-in-law. Termini Station was the only film besides the Anne of Green Gables movies in which Follows and Dewhurst worked together. The film was nominated for six awards at the 11th Genie Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actress nods for both Dewhurst and Follows. Filmed on location in Kirkland Lake Ontario.

A circus on the verge of bankruptcy decides to save itself by staging a animal act with lions and tigers for the first time.

A phoney "psychic" ring tricks a pretty young circus performer into working for them.

Poor health and alcoholism force Grover Cleveland Alexander out of baseball, but through his wife's faithful efforts, he gets a chance for a comeback and redemption.

When given keys to a mansion for the weekend, two friends decide to make a film but end up throwing a huge party and trashing the house. Now they race to get the "money shot" and finish their film to pay for all the damages done.

A handsome drifter, without a past, gets off an interstate bus in a small Texas town and finds work at Leroy's Country Blues Bar....and the mystery begins.

Set in the rustic Midwestern town of One Fall, the film tells the story of a man, James (Marcus Dean Fuller), who miraculously survived a horrific fall from a spectacular 200 foot-high cliff and was never heard from again. However, three years after vanishing James chooses to return to his hometown of One Fall -- but he returns a changed man. For an incomprehensible reason James has developed supernatural healing abilities since the fall. He must decide whether to use his abilities to help the ones he once turned his back on, or to continue running from his mysterious past.

A man who wants to join the circus against the wishes of his ex-circus clown father.

To avoid hostilities, Maryan, the ward of Doc May, a medicine show owner, induces Pop Garner, a circus owner, to join forces with her guardian. Doc May and Daphne, his wife, work as clowns; and Garry, a singing soldier of fortune, sings along with Maryan's act. Ruth, Maryan's partner, quits to get married; and Joe, who is jealous of Garry, replaces her with Trixie, his former assistant. When Garry announces his engagement to Maryan, Trixie persuades him to join a strip poker game in a drunken state and "compromises" him in the presence of his fiancée. Grief-stricken, Maryan falls during her act, and Garry, robbed of circus funds, is arrested. In spite of her injuries, Maryan, learning of Trixie's treachery, performs the act with her and forces a confession by threatening to drop her; Garry is released and is welcomed back to the show.

When Mangus Spedgwick suffers an unforeseen tragedy that causes him to lose the role of Jesus in his high school's production of Jesus Christ Superstar, he fights with all he's got to get back the part, and carry on the family tradition.

A circus owner tries to keep his financially troubled circus on the road, despite the efforts of a murderous saboteur who has decided that the show must not go on.

Mystery writer Mickey Spillane tries to help Clyde Beatty deal with a plot to sabotage his circus.

After being away for awhile, Andy Taylor returns home to Mayberry to visit Opie, now an expectant father. While there he ends up helping Barney Fife mount a campaign for sheriff.

An inept taekwondo instructor struggles with marital troubles and an unhealthy obsession with fellow taekwondo enthusiast Chuck "The Truck" Williams.

In order to avoid the closure of a bar the owner and some friends organize a wet T-shirt competition to attract new customers and their money.

3 Days of Normal follows the story of straight-laced deputy Bill Morgan who is quite content literally living within the quaint boundaries of Washington, New Hampshire. Bill’s stable and rather uneventful life is thrown for a loop when he finds and arrests a woman, Nikki Gold, passed out in her car from inebriation. Unbeknownst to him, the woman happens to be a popular movie actress longing for some normalcy in her hectic life.

Ricky, Julian and Bubbles are about to get out of jail, and this time, Julian vows to go straight, even open a legit business. Soon the Boys will all be rich. At least that's what they've told the parole board. But when they arrive back at the park, they find it's not the same old Sunnyvale - and it's not the same old Jim Lahey, Trailer Park Supervisor.

A lady ringmaster milks the publicity from a string of murders.

While on shore leave to celebrate his first anniversary, Lt. Peter Duluth (Warren Douglas) takes his wife, Iris (Audrey Long), to a Los Angeles hotel but is turned away. When mysterious Colette (Stephanie Bachelor) offers them her suite, the young couple becomes entangled in a murder plot. Aided by two PIs, Peter and Iris find two corpses and are desperate to locate Colette before she becomes the next victim, but the killers are one step ahead.

Based on actual accounts of werewolf sightings in Walworth County, Wisconsin, the film follows a local sheriff who is finally forced to accept that a string of horrifying deaths is linked to a predator which possesses DNA of both man and wolf.

Eddie is a 10-year-old girl who runs away from home with her best friend Ava, a 2-ton circus elephant. They are pursued by everyone from the police to the circus' owner

A world champion ski racer and local ski instructor find romance on the slopes as he returns home and prepares for the biggest race of his life.

At a three-ring circus, 'Spangles' Delancy, a beautiful bareback horse rider, falls in love with a wanted man, Dick Radley, who uses the circus as a hideout. The show's owner Big Bill Bowman also falls in love with Spangles-- But only one man can have her.

Based on the concept of "New America" in the year 2097, two decades after a nuclear apocalypse, Tex Kennedy, two robotic ex-secret service agents, and a female cannibal journey to find a famously dangerous area known as the "Threshold of Hell" to gain access to a radio tower to unite the survivors of the apocalypse.

The circus provides the backdrop for this melodrama that chronicles the lives of four children raised within the big top. Film historian and collector William K. Everson stated that the only surviving print was lost by actress Mary Duncan who had borrowed it from Fox Studios. In the December 1974 issue of "Films in Review," he explained that Mary Duncan, one of the film's stars, wanted it to show to a group of friends in Florida. The star was aware that it was a dangerous nitrate print and assumed that Fox had others. She threw the only copy in the ocean, a mistake characterized by Everson as "a monumental blunder to rank with Balaclava, Sarajevo, and the Fall of Babylon as one of history's blackest moments."

SPLINTERHEADS introduces Thomas Middleditch as Justin Frost, a twenty-something slacker whose “thing” is that he has no “thing” at all. When a small-time carnival rolls into town, he meets Galaxy (Rachael Taylor), a gorgeous con artist, or “splinterhead,” who has more “things” going for her than anyone he has ever met.