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Movies like The Best of Times

Key Features:
Small town life, Redemption, Second chance, Football, Underdog, Nostalgia, Comedy, Teamwork, Community, Sports documentary
Tone:
humorous, earnest
Target Audience:
Sports movie fans, Comedy lovers, Nostalgia seekers
Emotional Arc:
Hope → Triumph

The Best of Times

1986-01-31
The Best of Times Poster - Find Similar Movies

A small-town loser determines to have one more shot at the big time by winning a football game.

Genres
Comedy
Cast
Robin Williams, Kurt Russell, Pamela Reed, Holly Palance, Donald Moffat, Margaret Whitton, M. Emmet Walsh, Donovan Scott, R.G. Armstrong, Dub Taylor
Crew
Ron Shelton, Roger Spottiswoode
Rating
5.6(124 votes)
The Best of TimesThe Best of Times
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The Comebacks
4.82

Out-of-luck coach Lambeau Fields takes a rag-tag bunch of college misfits and drives them towards the football championships. In the process, this life-long loser discovers that he is a winner after all by redeeming himself, saving his relationship with his family and friends, and finding that there is indeed, no "I" in "team"!



Touchback
Touchback(2011)
6.45

A former high-school football star loses his shot at a college scholarship due to a devastating gridiron injury, but gets a second chance at living his dream.



The Best of Me
7.462

A pair of former high school sweethearts reunite after many years when they return to visit their small hometown.



Rebound
Rebound(2005)
5.594

An acclaimed college hoops coach is demoted to a junior varsity team after a public meltdown.



The Replacements
6.69

Maverick old-guard coach Jimmy McGinty is hired in the wake of a players' strike to help the Washington Sentinels advance to the playoffs. But that impossible dream hinges on whether his replacements can hunker down and do the job. So, McGinty dusts off his secret dossier of ex-players who never got a chance (or screwed up the one they were given) and knits together a bad-dream team of guys who just may give the Sentinels their title shot.



Best. Christmas. Ever!

After a twist of fate brings their families together for Christmas, Charlotte sets out to prove her old friend Jackie's life is too good to be true.



Best of the Best
6.5

A team from the United States is going to compete against Korea in a Tae Kwon Do tournament. The team consists of fighters from all over the country--can they overcome their rivalry and work together to win?



Home Team
Home Team(2022)
6.6

Two years after a Super Bowl win when NFL head coach Sean Payton is suspended, he goes back to his hometown and finds himself reconnecting with his 12-year-old son by coaching his Pop Warner football team.



Goodbye Mr. Loser
7.034

A middle-aged loser travels back in time to his high scool years to put his life on the right track.



Just Friends
6.218

While visiting his hometown during Christmas, a man comes face-to-face with his old high school crush whom he was best friends with – a woman whose rejection of him turned him into a ferocious womanizer.



Leatherheads
5.859

A light hearted comedy about the beginnings of Professional American Football. When a decorated war hero and college all star is tempted into playing professional football. Everyone see the chance to make some big money, but when a reporter digs up some dirt on the war hero... everyone could lose out.



The Winning Season
6.354

A comedy centered on a has-been coach who is given a shot at redemption when he's asked to run his local high school's girls basketball team



The Best Is Yet to Come

Following a huge misunderstanding, two friends always decide to tackle everything to make up for lost time.



Larry Crowne
6

When he suddenly finds himself without his long-standing blue-collar job, Larry Crowne enrolls at his local college to start over. There, he becomes part of an eclectic community of students and develops a crush on his teacher.



The Underdoggs
7

Jaycen 'Two Js' Jennings is a washed-up former pro football star who has hit rock bottom. When sentenced to community service coaching the Underdoggs, an unruly pee-wee football team in his hometown, he sees it mostly as an opportunity to rebuild his public image. But in the process, he may just turn his life around and rediscover his love of the game.



Friday Night Lights

A small, turbulent town in Texas obsesses over their high school football team to an unhealthy degree. When the star tailback, Boobie Miles, is seriously injured during the first game of the season, all hope is lost, and the town's dormant social problems begin to flare up. It is left to the inspiring abilities of new coach Gary Gaines to instill in the other team members -- and, by proxy, the town itself -- a sense of self-respect and honor.



The Mighty Ducks
6.6

After reckless young lawyer Gordon Bombay gets arrested for drunk driving, he must coach a kids hockey team for his community service. Gordon has experience on the ice, but isn't eager to return to hockey, a point hit home by his tense dealings with his own former coach, Jack Reilly. The reluctant Gordon eventually grows to appreciate his team, which includes promising young Charlie Conway, and leads them to take on Reilly's tough players.



Patch Adams
7.3

The true story of Dr. Hunter "Patch" Adams, who in the 1970s found that humor is the best medicine, and was willing to do just anything to make his patients laugh—even if it meant risking his own career.



The Dream Team
5.028

A former footballer living in Brittany enlists his old teammates to help the local fisherman to win some games in order to raise money and save jobs.



The Big Green
5.554

In a depressed Texas town, British foreign exchange teacher Anna attempts to inject some life into her hopeless kids by introducing them to soccer. They're terrible at first, but Anna and her football-hero assistant whip them into shape. As they work overtime, the pair help kids build their self-esteem and also get involved in solving family squabbles.



Soccer Days
5.9

A comedic romp that celebrates the power of friendship to turn your life around, Dias de Futbol introduces us to Antonio, an ex-convict and amateur shrink who convinces his pals that the best way to overcome their midlife crises and lack of success with women is to reassemble their old soccer team and win something in life, even if only a local championship. Directed by David Serrano. Starring Alberto San Juan, Natalia Verbeke (Dot the I, Son of the Bride), Pere Ponce, and Fernando Tejero.



Poms
Poms(2019)
6.55

After moving to a retirement community, loner Martha eventually befriends her fun-loving neighbor, Sheryl, and forms a cheerleading club for young-at-heart seniors, though they face roadblocks along the way.



The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

The Herdman kids are undeniably the worst kids in the history of the world. They lie, steal, cheat, bully and overall terrorize their small community. But this Christmas, they're taking over their local church Pageant – and they just might unwittingly teach a shocked little town the true meaning of Christmas.



A Mighty Team
5.437

Sadoun is France’s best soccer player whose extra-curriculum pleasures are damaging his play and new contract negotiations. Dispatched by his scheming agent to his home village, he ends up reconciling with his father, relating to his fatherless niece, who dotes on him, and training his local children’s team, whom he takes to championship glory.



Bustin' Loose
6.1

After ex-con Joe Braxton violates his probation, he is given a second chance. All he has to do is drive a group of special kids across the country.



Battle of the Year
6.8

A down-on-his-luck coach is hired to prepare a team of the best American dancers for an international tournament that attracts all the best crews from around the world, but the Americans haven't won in fifteen years.



Peggy Sue Got Married
6.117

At her 25th high school reunion, Peggy Sue faints and awakens in 1960—back in her senior year, before her marriage and all her regrets. Given a second chance to relive her youth, she must decide whether to change the choices that shaped her life or embrace the past that made her who she is.



Bis
Bis(2015)
5.3

Éric and Patrice have been friends since high school. Over the years, they have both taken very different paths: Éric has become a hedonist, has a string of girlfriends and is always on the look out for a new one; Patrice has become a monogamous father with a very ordered life. After a drunken evening, the two childhood friends find themselves cast back into 1986, when they were 17 years old. This return to the past is a dream opportunity to try to change the path their lives will take. What will they do with this second chance?



Little Giants
6.467

When Danny O'Shea's daughter is cut from the Peewee football team just for being a girl, he decides to form his own team, composed of other ragtag players who were also cut. Can his team really learn enough to beat the elite team, coached by his brother, a former pro player?



The Rocker
6.046

In the 1980s, a drummer is abandoned by his band just before they become rock superstars. Twenty years later, the drummer sees his second chance at stardom arise when he is asked to perform with his teenage nephew's high school rock band.



Queens of The Field

After its football team is disqualified for insulting a referee during a major game, a small country town risks losing its funding along with its field. To avoid this disaster, there is only one solution: creating a new team made up exclusively of women to defend the city’s colors! But in a community where football has always been an activity reserved for men, these women’s new status will be sure to shake up the daily lives of the town’s residents…



The Wendell Baker Story

Luke Wilson plays a good-hearted ex-con who gets a job in a retirement hotel. Three elderly residents help him win back his girlfriend as he lends them a hand in fighting hotel corruption.



Best of the Best 3: No Turning Back

A martial arts instructor comes to the defense of a schoolteacher who has taken a stand against a local white supremacist organization.



Home Run
Home Run(2013)
6.2

A pro ball player with a substance abuse problem is forced into rehab in his hometown, finding new hope when he gets honest about his checkered past, and takes on coaching duties for a misfit Little League team



Straight Time
7.1

After being released on parole, a burglar attempts to go straight, get a regular job, and just go by the rules. He soon finds himself back in jail at the hands of a power-hungry parole officer.



Champions
Champions(2023)
6.72

A stubborn and hotheaded minor league basketball coach is forced to train a Special Olympics team when he is sentenced to community service.



A Shoe Addict's Christmas

As Christmas approaches, a department store worker whose life lacks fulfillment meets her guardian angel, who offers her a chance to change her circumstances by magically transporting her to Christmases past whenever she tries on a new pair of shoes.



The Sandlot: Heading Home

A successful professional baseball player gets his ego in check when he travels back in time to his boyhood sandlot ball-playing days.



Seems Like Old Times

After being falsely accused of robbing a bank, a writer seeks the help of his lawyer ex-wife to clear his name. However, hilarity ensues when he must hide from her husband, who’s throwing a party for law enforcement officials.



The Main Event
5.254

A bankrupt entrepreneur attempts to recoup some of her losses by getting a washed-out boxer she picked up as a tax loss back into the ring — an idea her protégé isn't fond of.



Wimbledon
Wimbledon(2004)
6.2

Britain’s Peter Colt has never quite lived up to his dreams of tennis stardom. Once ranked as high as number 11 in the world, the journeyman veteran has watched his number slip to 119 as his confidence on the court slowly ebbs away.  Now, on the eve of his leaving the world of professional tennis, he’s granted a wild card, allowing him to play his final Wimbledon tournament…make that his final tournament ever.



The Perfect Catch
6.3

When Jessica Parker’s former high school boyfriend, superstar baseball player Chase Taynor, returns to town, she finds the inspiration to reinvent her struggling diner… and revisits the past to find something even better for the future.



About Time
7.909

The night after another unsatisfactory New Year's party, Tim's father tells his son that the men in his family have always had the ability to travel through time. They can't change history, but they can change what happens and has happened in their own lives. Thus begins the start of a lesson in learning to appreciate life itself as it is, as it comes, and most importantly, the people living alongside us.



The Brady Bunch Movie

The original '70s TV family is now placed in the 1990s, where they're even more square and out of place than ever.



Some Shooting Stars
4.271

These old friends now have to train the next football generation with the help of their own offsprings...



Gridiron Gang
7

Under the leadership of their counselor, teenagers at a juvenile detention center gain self-esteem by playing football together. Based on a true story.



17 Again
17 Again(2009)
6.3

On the brink of a midlife crisis, 30-something Mike O'Donnell wishes he could have a "do-over." And that's exactly what he gets when he wakes up one morning to find he's 17 years old again. With his adult mind stuck inside the body of a teenager, Mike actually has the chance to reverse some decisions he wishes he'd never made. But maybe they weren't so bad after all.



Semi-Tough
5.5

A three-way friendship between two free-spirited professional football players and the owner's daughter becomes compromised when two of them become romantically involved.



To Leslie
To Leslie(2022)
7.024

A West Texas single mother wins the lottery and squanders it just as fast, leaving behind a world of heartbreak. Years later, with her charm running out and nowhere to go, she fights to rebuild her life and find redemption.



The Way Back
6.6

A former basketball all-star, who has lost his wife and family foundation in a struggle with addiction, attempts to regain his soul and salvation by becoming the coach of a disparate ethnically mixed high school basketball team at his alma mater.



Just in Time for Christmas

Lindsay is faced with a life-altering decision as Christmas approaches: Stay in her tiny hometown and marry boyfriend Jason or accept a coveted post teaching at an Ivy League college on the other side of the country. What to do? Fortunately for Lindsay, she has some big-time help in the form of a magical messenger who is able to transport her three years into the future to see how it would all turn out.



Music and Lyrics
6.4

A washed-up '80s pop star gets a chance at a comeback when reigning pop diva Cora Corman invites him to write & record a duet with her, but there's a problem--Alex hasn't written a song in years; he's never written lyrics and he has to come up with a hit in a matter of days.



The Land Before Time III: The Time of the Great Giving

When a sudden shortage of water threatens all life in the great valley, The gang of young dinosaur must cooperate with a group of bullies to make a risky journey outside the valley and find the cause.



The Best Years
6.8

Italy from the '80s to the present day, through the dreams, loves, successes and failures of four friends.



80 for Brady
6.3

Four lifelong friends set out on an unforgettable journey to see their hero Tom Brady play in Super Bowl LI and witness one of the greatest comebacks in sports history, discovering that it's never too late to live life to the fullest. Inspired by a true story.



Grown Ups
Grown Ups(2010)
6.401

After their high school basketball coach passes away, five good friends and former teammates reunite for a Fourth of July holiday weekend.



The Last Laugh
5.424

After moving to a retirement home, restless talent manager Al reconnects with long-ago client Buddy and coaxes him back out on the comedy circuit.



Mr. 3000
Mr. 3000(2004)
5.3

Aging baseball star who goes by the nickname, Mr. 3000, finds out many years after retirement that he didn't quite reach 3,000 hits. Now at age 47 he's back to try and reach that goal.



Romy and Michele's High School Reunion

Two not-too-bright party girls reinvent themselves for their high school reunion. Armed with a borrowed Jaguar, new clothes and the story of their success as the inventors of Post-It notes, Romy and Michele descend on their alma mater, but their façade crumbles quickly.



Teacher of the Year

Surrounded by the eccentric faculty of Truman High School, Mitch Carter wins the California Teacher of the Year award and immediately receives a tempting offer that may force him to leave his job.



Return to Mayberry
6.2

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.



The Twits
The Twits(2025)
6.1

When the meanest, nastiest villains pull a trick to take over their town, two brave children team up with a family of magical animals to bring them down.



Next Stop, Christmas
6.424

Angie wonders what her life would be like if she had married a former boyfriend who became a famous sportscaster. She takes the train home to spend Christmas with her family and inexplicably finds herself 10 years in the past. With the advice of the train's enigmatic conductor, Angie has the chance to revisit that Christmas and learn what — and who — is truly important to her.



Grumpy Old Men
6.7

For decades, next-door neighbors and former friends John and Max have feuded, trading insults and wicked pranks. When an attractive widow moves in nearby, their bad blood erupts into a high-stakes rivalry full of naughty jokes and adolescent hijinks.



The Longest Yard
6.7

A football player-turned-convict organizes a team of inmates to play against a team of prison guards. His dilemma is that the warden asks him to throw the game in return for an early release, but he is also concerned about the inmates' lack of self-esteem.



The Best Days
5.9

A quartet of stories unfold across four holidays as family members, friends and colleagues face hard decisions, career setbacks and life-changing events.



10 Years
10 Years(2012)
5.828

A group of friends reunite ten years after their high-school graduation.



Necessary Roughness
5.492

When the Texas State University Fightin' Armadillos football team is disqualified for cheating and poor grades, the University is forced to pick from a team that actually goes to school. Will they even win a single game?



The Marc Pease Experience

Former high school musical star, Marc Pease, finds himself still living in the past, eight years after graduating.



Feel the Beat
7.566

After failing to make it on Broadway, April returns to her hometown and reluctantly begins training a misfit group of young dancers for a competition.



Back to School
5.375

Two adults go to their middle school reunion in order to show off their success to old bullies teenage crushes.



Remember the Titans

After leading his football team to 15 winning seasons, coach Bill Yoast is demoted and replaced by Herman Boone – tough, opinionated and as different from the beloved Yoast as he could be. The two men learn to overcome their differences and turn a group of hostile young men into champions.



Hoosiers
Hoosiers(1986)
7.034

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.



Palmer
Palmer(2021)
8.1

After 12 years in prison, former high school football star Eddie Palmer returns home to put his life back together—and forms an unlikely bond with Sam, an outcast boy from a troubled home. But Eddie's past threatens to ruin his new life and family.



Groundhog Day
7.618

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.



Kristin's Christmas Past

Given the opportunity to revisit her estranged family on Christmas Eve, 1996, Kristin Cartwright discovers that while its impossible to change the past, its important to learn from it.



Playing for Keeps
5.656

A former sports star who's fallen on hard times starts coaching his son's soccer team in an attempt to get his life together.



Ass Backwards
4.42

Two best friends embark on a cross country trip back to their hometown to attempt to win a pageant that eluded them as children.



World's Greatest Dad

In the wake of a freak accident, Lance suffers the worst tragedy and the greatest opportunity of his life. He is suddenly faced with the possibility of fame, fortune and popularity, if he can only live with the knowledge of how he got there.



Brian Banks
7.2

An All-American football player's dreams to play in the NFL are halted when he is falsely accused of rape and sent to prison.



Major League II
5.7

After losing in the ALCS the year before, the Cleveland Indians are determined to make it into the World Series this time! However, they first have to contend with Rachel Phelps again when she buys back the team.



Once Upon a Time in the Midlands

Dek, a decent but somewhat dull man, enjoys a happy existence with beloved girlfriend Shirley. They live together with her 12-year-old, Marlene: her daughter by the delinquent Jimmy, who flew the coop years ago and hasn't been heard from since. Dek loves Shirley so much that he proposes to her on national television.



Facing the Giants
7.56

A losing coach with an underdog football team faces their giants of fear and failure on and off the field to surprising results.



Same Time, Next Christmas

Olivia Anderson is a successful young woman who met her childhood sweetheart during her family’s annual Christmas visit to Hawaii. After being separated by distance and years, the two reunite at the same Hawaiian resort years later, and the old chemistry between them flares up anew—but circumstances conspire to keep them apart.



57 Seconds
6.132

When a tech blogger lands an interview with a tech guru and stops an attack on him, he finds a mysterious ring that takes him back 57 seconds into the past.



Elizabethtown
6.2

Drew Baylor is fired after causing his shoe company to lose hundreds of millions of dollars. To make matters worse, he's also dumped by his girlfriend. On the verge of ending it all, Drew gets a new lease on life when he returns to his family's small Kentucky hometown after his father dies. Along the way, he meets a flight attendant with whom he falls in love.



Not A Minute To Lose

Elisa is an old-fashioned girl who receives the visit of her future self, who advises her to take the risk and invite Carlos, his best friend, on a date. She has always been attracted to him.



Napoleon Dynamite
6.8

A listless and alienated teenager decides to help his new friend win the class presidency in their small western high school, while he must deal with his bizarre family life back home.



Wildcats
Wildcats(1986)
6.3

High school track coach Molly McGrath knows just as much about football as anyone else on the planet. When a football coach's position becomes vacant, she applies for the job, despite snickers from fellow staff members and her former husband.



Break Point
5.77

Jimmy Price is a reckless man-child on the last leg of his career as a doubles tennis player. When his latest partner drops him, he realizes he's officially burned all of his bridges on the pro circuit. He decides to make one last ditch effort to revive his career, reaching outside of the tennis world and convincing his childhood partner -- his estranged brother Darren, now an apathetic substitute teacher - to team up with him. The mismatched pair, with the help of a unique 11-year-old named Barry, make an unlikely run at a grand slam tournament and are forced to re-discover their game, and their brotherhood.



Best Player
6.527

After his parents decide to move to a retirement home in Florida, professional gamer Quincy “Q” Johnson (Jerry Trainor) must find a way to raise 175,000 dollars to buy his family home. After hearing about a tournament for the game “Black Hole” with a grand prize of 175,500 dollars, Quincy enters the tournament, only to be faced with a new challenge. An equally skilled gamer, named Chris Saunders “Prodigy” (Jeanette McCurdy), has become the one block in Quincy’s plan, defeating him at every turn. Quincy then teams-up with his friend Wendell (Amir Talai), to try and find ways to stop Chris from entering the tournament.



Happy Times
7.055

Zhao is an old laid-off worker who's dreaming of getting married. After trying unsuccessful proposals, he finally pairs off with a gargantuan divorcée with two children. She, however, demands a lavish wedding and that Zhao finds a job and another place to stay for her blind step-daughter. Pretending he's the General Manager of a non-existent posh hotel "Happy Times", Zhao has to find ways and means of keeping both mother and stepdaughter happy.



Mean Machine
6.246

Disgraced ex-England football captain, Danny 'Mean Machine' Meehan, is thrown in jail for assaulting two police officers. He keeps his head down and has the opportunity to forget everything and change the lives of the prisoners. When these prisoners have the chance to put one over the evil guards during a prison football match, Danny takes the lead.



Nostalgic Christmas
7.043

When Anne helps her father close the family's toy store, what she finds will help inspire an entire town that is need of some Christmas cheer.



Champions
Champions(2018)
7.5

A disgraced basketball coach is given the chance to coach Los Amigos, a team of players who are intellectually disabled, and soon realizes they just might have what it takes to make it to the national championships.



The Favor
The Favor(1994)
4.8

On the eve of her high school reunion, bored housewife Kathy convinces her single best friend Emily to seduce her old flame Tom, so she can get all the juicy details. But when Emily falls for Tom, it's like high school all over again!



Torno indietro e cambio vita

Marco is married to a gorgeous woman, has a child and a great job. Everything seems perfect, at least until his wife of 25 years announces that she has another man and wants a separation. Marco is forced to leave home.



Starting Over
6.3

After divorcing his ambitious singer wife, a middle-aged man begins a new relationship with a teacher.



Crazy on the Outside

A recently paroled ex-con who has trouble adjusting to the wacky normalcy of life outside of prison. He has spent the last three years behind bars after getting caught committing a crime and taking the rap for his much more dangerous pal.

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