Movies like The Kidnappers (1953)
The best movies like The Kidnappers (1953) are Six Pack (1982), The Boy with Green Hair (1948) and Pollyanna (1960). If The Kidnappers hooked you with its drama and comedy, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedAnne of Green Gables (1985)8.1/10 from 263 votes
- NewestThe Painter (2024)Released 2024
Six Pack (1982)
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...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Boy with Green Hair (1948)
Peter, an orphaned boy, is adopted by Gramp Frye after his parents are killed in Europe while doing war relief work. The boy feels safe with his new caretaker, but when he is taunted for being an orphan, he gets demoralized. The next day Peter wakes up with green hair. Embarrassed and further ridiculed, Peter seeks solace in a nearby forest. To his surprise, he finds other orphans in the woods, who encourage him to spread news of the injustices of war.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPollyanna (1960)
A young girl comes to an embittered town and confronts its attitude with her determination to see the best in life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLove the Coopers (2015)
When four generations of the Cooper clan come together for their annual Christmas Eve celebration, a series of unexpected visitors and unlikely events turn the night upside down, leading them all toward a surprising rediscovery of family bonds and the spirit of the holiday.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFoster (2011)
Looking to adopt a child and unable to conceive a child of their own, the Morrisons' lives are turned upside down when a seven-year-old boy unexpectedly shows up on their doorstep.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBecause of Winn-Dixie (2005)
A girl, abandoned by her mother when she was three, moves to a small town in Florida with her father. There, she adopts an orphaned dog she names Winn-Dixie. The bond between the girl and her special companion brings together the people in a small Florida town and heals her own troubled relationship with her father.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Great Gilly Hopkins (2015)
Young and feisty Gilly Hopkins devises a scheme to escape from her new foster home and reunite with her birth mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIgby Goes Down (2002)
Igby Slocumb, a rebellious and sarcastic 17-year-old boy, is at war with the stifling world of old money privilege he was born into. With a schizophrenic father, a self-absorbed, distant mother, and a shark-like young Republican big brother, Igby figures there must be a better life out there -- and sets about finding it.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGrandma (2015)
Self-described misanthrope Elle Reid has her protective bubble burst when her 18-year-old granddaughter, Sage, shows up needing help. The two of them go on a day-long journey that causes Elle to come to terms with her past and Sage to confront her future.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnne of Green Gables (1985)
Anne Shirley, an orphan, is fostered by farmer Matthew Cuthbert and his sister Marilla, who were expecting a boy to be sent them to help with their farm work. They accept Anne, who quickly endears herself to them and to the local villagers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisSamantha: An American Girl Holiday (2004)
Kindhearted Samantha Parkington's world starts to change the day Nellie O'Malley walks into her life. Nellie, her father, and her two little sisters have moved in next door to be servants for the Ryland family. Though they come from completely different backgrounds, Samantha and Nellie become fast friends. The girls turn to each other in happiness and sorrow, adventure and danger.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCoupe de Ville (1990)
Meet the Libner brothers: Marvin, the oldest, is a sergeant in the U.S. Air Force. Buddy, the middle child, is a timid dreamer. Bobby, the youngest, is a handsome rebel in reform school. As kids, they fought a lot and as adults, they barely speak. In the summer of 1963, their tough and eccentric father, Fred, gives them a task: to bring a 1954 Cadillac, bought for their mother, Betty, from Detroit to Miami. As the trip goes on, the three brothers fight and begin to reconnect with each other, while trying to keep the Caddy in mint condition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004)
Three wealthy children's parents are killed in a fire. When they are sent to a distant relative, they find out that he is plotting to kill them and seize their fortune.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMio in the Land of Faraway (1987)
Under the watch of his unkind realtives, lonely Bosse's luck is changed when he is sent to the land where his real father is the King. In that country, he sets out on a quest, together with his new friend, to destroy the evil Knight Kato.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Adults (2023)
Eric returns home for a short visit and finds himself caught between reuniting with his sisters and chasing a victory with his old poker group. As the trip extends, Eric finds it increasingly difficult to avoid confrontations and revelations as his carefully constructed façade of his adulthood gives way to old childhood conflicts.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAddams Family Values (1993)
Siblings Wednesday and Pugsley Addams will stop at nothing to get rid of Pubert, the new baby boy adored by parents Gomez and Morticia. Things go from bad to worse when the new "black widow" nanny, Debbie Jellinsky, launches her plan to add Fester to her collection of dead husbands.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLittle Lord Fauntleroy (1980)
Young Cedric Errol and his widowed mother live in genteel poverty in 1880s Brooklyn after the death of his father. Cedric's grandfather, the Earl of Dorincourt, has long ago disowned his son for marrying an American. But after the death of the Earl's remaining son, he decides to accept Cedric as his heir.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhere the Red Fern Grows (2003)
Set in the Ozark Mountains during the Great Depression, Billy Coleman works hard and saves his earnings for 2 years to achieve his dream of buying two coonhound pups. He develops a new trust in God as he faces overwhelming challenges in adventure and tragedy roaming the river bottoms of Cherokee country with "Old Dan" and "Little Ann."
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLittle Big Man (1970)
Jack Crabb, looking back from extreme old age, tells of his life being raised by Indians and fighting with General Custer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Railway Children (1970)
At the dawn of the 20th century, following their father's arrest on suspicion of betraying state secrets, the three Waterbury children—Bobbie, Phyllis and Peter—move with their mother to Yorkshire, where they find themselves involved in unexpected dramas along the railway by their new home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Acid House (1998)
A surreal triptych adapted by "Trainspotting" author Irvine Welsh from his acclaimed collection of short stories. Combining a vicious sense of humor with hard-talking drama, the film reaches into the hearts and minds of the chemical generation, casting a dark and unholy light into the hidden corners of the human psyche.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAbducted: A Father's Love (1996)
A man kidnaps his little girl to protect her from an abusive mother, then becomes the first man to enter a woman's underground movement.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Ruthless People (1986)
Sam Stone hates his wife Barbara so much that he wants her dead. He's ecstatic when she's taken by a duo of kidnappers who want $500,000 ransom in exchange for her life. Fully intending to ignore every one of the kidnappers' demands in the hopes that they do him a favor and murder her for him, the two confused kidnappers have to figure out how they're going get their money, and what they're going to do with the overbearing Barbara.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhite Chicks (2004)
Two FBI agent brothers, Marcus and Kevin Copeland, accidentally foil a drug bust. To avoid being fired they accept a mission escorting a pair of socialites to the Hamptons--but when the girls are disfigured in a car accident, they refuse to go. Left without options, Marcus and Kevin decide to pose as the sisters, transforming themselves from black men into rich white women.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like this3 Men and a Baby (1987)
Three bachelors find themselves forced to take care of a baby left by one of the guy's girlfriends.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Painter (2024)
In a secluded estate in the heart of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a young couple battles the crushing weight of grief after losing two children. The wife is pregnant again, and their isolation only deepens the husband’s growing sense of dread and hopelessness. Haunted by the fear of another tragedy, he wrestles with his darkest instincts as the line between love and madness blurs. But when an unexpected decision pulls him back from the edge, the arrival of their child brings consequences far more disturbing than he could have ever imagined.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
God's Eye View (2014)
A Christian missionary group is abducted by Islamic rebels. In fear for their lives, the group slowly sees their faith in each other slip away.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Proof of Life (2000)
When Peter Bowman, an American engineer working in a South American country, is captured by anti-government forces, the rebels learn his identity and demand $5 million for his safe return. However, his US employer is on the verge of insolvency and will not provide the ransom. Peter's wife Alice is forced to deal with the matter on her own and she retains the services of freelance professional hostage negotiator Terry Thorne.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPippi in the South Seas (1970)
Pippi Longstocking, accompanied by friends Tommy and Annika, adventures on the South Seas to search for her father, who has been kidnapped by pirates.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both family
Popcorn FlickMovies like this3000 Miles to Graceland (2001)
It was an ingenious enough plan: rob the Riviera Casino's count room during an Elvis impersonator convention. But Thomas Murphy decided to keep all the money for himself and shot all his partners, including recently-freed ex-con Michael Zane. With $3.2 million at stake, the Marshals Service closing in, Michael must track down Murphy.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Kidnappers?
The closest matches to The Kidnappers are Six Pack (1982), The Boy with Green Hair (1948) and Pollyanna (1960). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Kidnappers?
Start with Six Pack (1982), the closest match to The Kidnappers.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Kidnappers?
Anne of Green Gables (1985), rated 8.1/10 by 263 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Kidnappers?
The Painter (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Kidnappers?
Yes: Six Pack (1982), The Boy with Green Hair (1948) and Pollyanna (1960).
How are movies similar to The Kidnappers chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Kidnappers, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.