Best movies like The Big Adventure

Stopping briefly in a small Texas town, an itinerant race car driver finds that his stock car, on a trailer behind his motor home, has just been quickly and expertly stripped. He chases down the miscreants, who turn out to be six orphan children. He has no recourse to the law, for the corrupt local sheriff takes most of the proceeds of their thievery in exchange for not putting them in an orphanage. They are charming rogues who are in turn charmed by him. Disliking their arrangement with the sheriff, they stow away with him, and he finds himself becoming a reluctant stepfather. Thanks to their enthusiasm and incredible mechanical know-how, he begins to make a name for himself on the racing circuit. But the sheriff doesn't take kindly to losing his extra income...

Outlaw gangs are plundering the freight lines that bring supplies into Yellow Creek. The only thing that will save the town is the insurance money on the freight, but the outlaws are looking to steal that also. Lane comes to town as the best man for the wedding of Tom and Judy, but it will be up to him to find the outlaw boss.

Sam, a recovering alcoholic, feels dissatisfied with his life of sobriety and goes back in search of the good times he enjoyed with his wino friends on "the Nickel" of Los Angeles' skid row.

A father reminisces about his childhood when he and his younger brother moved to a new town with their mother, her new husband and their dog, Shane. When the younger brother is subjected to physical abuse at the hands of their brutal stepfather, Mike decides to convert their toy trolley, the "Radio Flyer", into a plane to fly him to safety.

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.

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.

When the peaceful Morris family move to a small town and buy the town grocery store, they run afoul of the Cullen family. The Cullen's have been bullying the town's folk for years, and now they are harassing the Morris family every chance they get. Matt meanwhile meets and starts seeing a lot of Becky who also likes him. Unfortunately her last name is Cullen, and when the rest of the family finds out about their relationship, they decide to get even, and their harassment is elevated to vicious assault.

Zain, a 12-year-old boy scrambling to survive on the streets of Beirut, sues his parents for having brought him into such an unjust world, where being a refugee with no documents means that your rights can easily be denied.

The story of a mentally unstable loner lost in a life forced upon him. By night Oliver aimlessly wanders the streets and bars on what can only be described as a truly shocking and humiliating killing spree. His only savior and possible way out of a life he is desperate to escape comes in the form of the beautiful Sophia with her sweet eccentricity and naivety to the danger she has put herself in.

To support her younger sisters, Polly Vance finds work as a live-in companion to the aging Johanna Webb. Johanna's nephew, Chester Creigg, quarrels with his aunt and severs relations with her, because of her cruel treatment of her new employee, after which Polly returns to her old home. Then, when a fire breaks out at Polly's house, Chester rushes over to save her sisters, but loses his eyesight during the rescue. Convalescing from his burns, Chester learns that Johanna has died and marvels at the similarity between her and the old housemaid who is now taking care of him.

Light-hearted, old-style romance about a farm-hand who arranges to buy a pair of mules from his employer. No one is able to handle the mules and he must train them. Adding to his dilemma, he pursues his boss's daughter who gets her kicks out of keeping him guessing about her true feelings. Of course, at the end he tames both the mules and the girl.

A tale about two young boys, Prosper and Bo, who flee to Venice after being orphaned and dumped in the care of a cruel auntie. Hiding in the canals and alleyways of the city, the boys are befriended by a gang of young urchins and their enigmatic leader, the Thief Lord. From their home base of an old cinema theater, the children steal from the rich to support themselves and soon capture the interest of a bumbling detective. However, a greater threat to the children is something from a forgotten past - a beautiful magical treasure with the power to spin time itself

When 9-year-old orphan Oliver Twist dares to ask his cruel taskmaster, Mr. Bumble, for a second serving of gruel, he's hired out as an apprentice. Escaping that dismal fate, young Oliver falls in with the street urchin known as the Artful Dodger and his criminal mentor, Fagin. When kindly Mr. Brownlow takes Oliver in, Fagin's evil henchman Bill Sikes plots to kidnap the boy.

Forced by her mean-spirited father, Lord Chief Justice James O'Brien, to marry a man she doesn't love, Connaught O'Brien gives up hope of ever with her true love, Dermot McDermot. After her father dies and a hunted rebel leader returns to town, however, Connaught finds a renewed hope that the tides of oppression will shift and she might again find happiness. This silent romantic drama, set in Ireland, is the first film in which a then-unknown John Wayne is clearly visible.

One day Sammy and his younger sister Ellie happen upon a cabin where Alice, a young, partially deaf girl with epilepsy is being kept by her abusive stepfather. The three soon become friends and hope to get Alice an education and help her escape from the torture she undergoes daily. However, Alice's stepfather soon finds out about the friendship Alice has struck up and punishes her brutally. This story of friendship and youth shows that everyone is human and deserves to be treated so, no matter their disability or weakness.

Geraldine and her two daughters, Livvie and Angeline, are living rough on the streets on London. When their van blows up, they must find an alternative place to stay. At first, they live in temporary housing, but the conditions are unbearable. Geraldine reacts quickly and the family decides to take up residence in Scottley's, the best department store in London. They must keep it a secret from doorman Brian (whom the girls call Mr. Whiskers), and a couple of bumbling thieves who want to rob the store safe of its jewels.

Aurora Lane (Bessie Barriscale) lives in a small town loaded with small-minded residents. She had an illegitimate child and with the earnings from her millinery shop, she has sent him away to be educated. When Don, her son (Arnold Gregg), returns from college, he finds he has to defend his mother constantly. He is accused of murdering a man who made a snide remark about Aurora and is put on trial.

After killing her treacherous step-father, a girl tries to escape the country with a young vagabond. She dresses as a boy, they hop freight trains, quarrel with a group of hobos, and steal a car in their attempt to escape the police, and reach Canada.

When Shiloh's abusive previous owner, Judd Travers, tries to retake Shiloh again, Ray tries to find a way to end the rivalry and open up the hidden kindness within the town drunk.

After a St. Bernard named George is given to a relative by it's owner he causes mischief in the neighboring town and for the newly named owner, After enough terror while trying to get a girl, The newly found owner gives George to a monastery in the cold snowy mountain wasteland until it's original owner comes back to get him. However, during the night George escapes and finds himself trapped among the frozen wasteland. And the only way for the newly found owner to get the girl and save George is to realize the importance of having and saving George is.

A buffalo hunter tries to stop a thief and his minions from stealing hides.

A young Czechoslovak orphan, Loddy Bicek, befriended by an American army sergeant, is brought into the United States as a stowaway by the soldier. He is apprehended, but escapes and makes his way to the sergeant's home town. There, he is befriended by young Danny Mitchell and his dog, Rusty, a K-9 veteran of World War II. A third boy reports Loddy to the authorities, and when Loddy tries to run away, he falls into a deep ravine.

Joe and his siblings have a couple of problems. First off, their stepparents are despicably evil. Secondly, they seemed to have killed them. Now this mixed up mess of half-sisters and step-brothers have to figure out how to dispose of the bodies, cover up the murders, collect their grandfather's inheritance and somehow stick together as a family -- all without getting caught. Not to mention Joe's incessant need to keep tabs on his promiscuous sister, an eye on the precocious little ones and a lustful watch on the girl next-door. Growing up has its complications. Murder's just one of them.

This tells a story literally 'hidden from history'. In the 1960s and 70s, British governments, conspiring with American officials, tricked into leaving, then expelled the entire population of the Chagos islands in the Indian Ocean. The aim was to give the principal island of this Crown Colony, Diego Garcia, to the Americans who wanted it as a major military base. Indeed, from Diego Garcia US planes have since bombed Afghanistan and Iraq. The story is told by islanders who were dumped in the slums of Mauritius and in the words of the British officials who left a 'paper trail' of what the International Criminal Court now describes as 'a crime against humanity'

Hollywood actress Lindsay Lohan travels to India to investigate the issue of child trafficking. As the capital Delhi prepares to host the Commonwealth Games, she talks to young boys just rescued from factories in the slums. When she learns that many have been sent away with traffickers by their own parents, Lindsay sets off to find out why. In West Bengal, parents, child victims, and a former trafficker share their stories and reveal the desperate poverty which fuels this cruel trade in children. As India's economy is booming, Lindsay asks what can be done to stop this abuse.

1959, support from US troops based in Asia and later from the Sates enables two actresses to start a charity for mixed-race 'orphans' who are locally neglected as outcasts. Thus originates Childhelp, which later runs multi-disciplinary centers for abused and/or neglected children in the States. Among them is bright Jacob Fletcher, whose stepfather, a lawyer, terrorized him into utter trauma and reclaims him shortly after 10 months in jail. Jacob's peers have distressing stories of their own, but competent, devoted staff helps most of them decisively on the former farm, using animal therapy.

A caring housekeeper and a protective gardener support three elderly Jewish sisters who are left to keep what remains of a most unique vow. Three wayward young women are on a destructive path of pain and sorrow. The six lives are merged when a merciful judge grants the young women a lifeline of hope, but cultural and moral differences create an expected resistance as the young women fight against the sisters' rules of decency and respect. All are forced to confront the realities of their decisions when the power of redemption attempts to cross the barriers of ethnic tensions. Considered one of the best drama movies of 2022, The Lady Makers does not disappoint. This independent produced, feature film has guts.

The "one desire" of ex-gambler Clint Saunders and bar woman Tacey Cromwell is to escape their shady former lives and settle down to respectability. With Clint's younger brother and an orphaned girl in tow, the couple moves to a Colorado mining town where their love is tested by Judith Watrous, daughter of the town banker, who has her sights on Clint.

Set in the rainy environs of Oregon and Washington, Punk Love is the story of two forlorn lovers, searching for that elusive Hollywood Ending to the story of their dreams. Sarah is a lost 15-year-old, trapped in an unloving home, in a dreary small paper mill town. When she meets Spike, she envisions a new life for herself. Falling in love, Sarah and Spike go on a crime spree of small-time con jobs, both to support themselves and their drug habit. Spike has dreams of his own, and when he successfully auditions for a band, he can't help but feel that he and Sarah are starting on the road to escaping their ill-fated existence. But just as things are looking up, everything goes uncontrollably wrong, and Spike and Sarah have only their undying love for each other as a means of survival against all odds. Director/writer Nick Lyon's Punk Love is a modern-day fairy tale about two fallen angels searching for meaning in a world without pity...

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.

A little girl leaves home with her pet dog and rabbit to escape abuse and find the ocean in the hopes of feeling closer to her father who has passed away.

After being abandoned in the desert by his abusive stepfather, Phillip finds himself cruelly cast into a game of life or death until a beautiful orphan named Lucy and her boyfriend Jack come to his rescue. The three runaways patrol the desert and live as petty thieves, but they soon find that the fight for survival against nature may become a fight for survival against each other.

It's 1963 in rural Massachusetts, and Nora James has the usual worries of an eleven year-old girl:lipstick, first crushes, staying out of trouble at school...not easy when your teacher is the elderly Sister Concilia. And even harder when your parents are struggling to heal from an almost unbearable loss. Then tragedy strikes another Massachusetts family, the Kennedys, and shatters the fragile bonds holding the James family together, Nora, sent to live with her brittle Aunt Rose, soon learns who she is, what she wants, and what she must do to achieve it. She makes a decision that is both cruel and courageous. Nora's choice unlocks the way to what amounts to the rescue of her family. (Maureen Foley, writer/director of the film)

The twenty-something Betty comes to a remote small town and strikes a friendship with the fourteen-year old local girl Lea, who is fascinated by her new friend's tales of partying and living in the fast lane in the big city. Betty has ulterior motives for befriending the young girl, however.

Jean and Marise, young lovers forced from their homes, flee to Paris. Irrevocably separated there, their lives deviate into the slums and hard labor of low-class French society. All the while, the two desperately search for one another.