Movies like Better Late Than Never (1979)
The best movies like Better Late Than Never (1979) are Alley Cats Strike (2000), A Flintstones Christmas Carol (1994) and It Runs in the Family (2003). If Better Late Than Never hooked you with its comedy and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedWizards of Waverly Place: Wizard School (2008)9.0/10 from 261 votes
- NewestAgak Laen: Menyala Pantiku! (2025)Released 2025
Alley Cats Strike (2000)
A group of hip retro teenage outsiders become involved in an interschool bowling rivalry.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Flintstones Christmas Carol (1994)
Fred is cast as Ebenezer Scrooge in a stage adaption of the classic Christmas story, but is acting a bit stingy in real life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIt Runs in the Family (2003)
This is the story of a dysfunctional New York family, and their attempts to reconcile
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhere the Money Is (2000)
Henry Manning has come up with a new way to break out of prison: fake a stroke and get transferred to a nursing home. It's a perfect plan, except for one thing: the woman assigned to take care of him at the nursing home, Carol Ann McKay, has a plan of her own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Odd Life of Timothy Green (2012)
A childless couple bury a box in their backyard, containing all of their wishes for an infant. Soon, a child is born, though Timothy Green is not all that he appears.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMadea Goes to Jail - The Play (2006)
Madea returns in another hilarious story in which she gets sent to the big house. But regardless of the circumstances, she gives her trademark advice and wisdom to her friends and family as they learn the importance of letting go, moving on, and forgiveness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFree Rein: The Twelve Neighs of Christmas (2018)
As Bright Fields preps for its Mistletoe Ball, a broken ornament leads Zoe to a family secret, while Gaby finds herself at the mercy of new boss Mia.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Wrinkle in Time (2003)
Meg and Charles Wallace are aided by Calvin and three interesting women in the search for their father who disappeared during a government experiment. Their travels take them around the universe to a place unlike any other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Good Half (2024)
Renn Wheeland returns home to Cleveland for his mother's funeral. Once there, he forges new relationships while healing old ones, before confronting his problems and trying to face his grief.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBest Man Down (2012)
A newlywed couple cancels their honeymoon and returns to the snowy Midwest to make the funeral arrangements for their best man, who died unexpectedly after their ceremony.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWizards of Waverly Place: Wizard School (2008)
When Alex is caught using magic to clean her room she is forced to go to wizard school with Justin. Max and Jerry camp out on the terrace to prove their manhood.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisLouis C.K.: Hilarious (2010)
In this unique and dynamic live concert experience, Louis C.K.'s exploration of life after 40 destroys politically correct images of modern life with thoughts we have all had...but would rarely admit to.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGenius (1999)
Charlie Boyle finds that even his high IQ can't solve all of his problems when he takes on a double life in order to make friends his own age.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
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 thisChang Can Dunk (2023)
Chang, a 16-year-old, Asian American, bets the high school basketball star that he can dunk by Homecoming. The bet leads 5' 8" Chang on a quest to learn to dunk—not only to impress his crush, Kristy, but to gain the respect of his high school peers too. But before he can rise up and truly throw one down, he'll have to reexamine everything he knows about himself, his friendships and his family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Wizards Return: Alex vs. Alex (2013)
While trying to prove to her family she can be mature and responsible, teen wizard Alex Russo conjures up a spell to rid herself of her bad qualities, unintentionally creating a Good and Evil Alex. When Evil Alex gets involved in a plan to take over the world by a dark wizard, Good Alex must find a way to save her family, humankind, and ultimately herself in an epic Good vs. Evil battle.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisRocko's Modern Life: Static Cling (2019)
After 20 years in space, Rocko returns to a technologically advanced O-Town and makes it his mission to get his favorite show back on the air.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHard Sell (2016)
Senior Hardy Buchanan struggles to keep up at an elite private school while caring for his unstable mother and raising money for surgery to save their beloved family dog. Desperate for cash, he teams up with a mysterious runaway to run an unconventional scheme targeting wealthy classmates. But as the plan spirals and Hardy’s feelings for classmate Lake deepen, he’s forced to decide what kind of person he wants to be.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisHello Sister, Goodbye Life (2006)
A college student must take care of her 7-year-old half sister after the death of their parents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMerry Christmas, Drake & Josh (2008)
Step brothers Drake and Josh must give a foster family the best Christmas ever or face years in jail for a Christmas party gone wrong.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAfterglow (2025)
Josephine, harboring a fear of being forgotten by her grandfather with dementia, summons the courage to visit him at his nursing home.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & comedy
The Peanut Butter Falcon (2019)
A down-on-his-luck crab fisherman embarks on a journey to get a young man with Down syndrome to a professional wrestling school in rural North Carolina and away from the retirement home where he’s lived for the past two and a half years.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMamma Gógó (2010)
Mamma Gógó is about Gógó, an elderly lady, who is diagnosed with Alzheimer disease and her son’s and family’s reaction to her illness. While Gógó is continuously getting herself into trouble, of the kind only a person with Alzheimer can, the son, the director, is struggling with financial troubles after his film Children of Nature has flopped in the cinema. As Gógó‘s disease progresses her family decides that it is best for her to move to a nursing home. Gógó and her deceased husband, who appears on the scene, are not happy with that decision. The director is dependent on others when it comes to his finances and when Gógó settles into the nursing home he decides to sell his mother’s apartment and valuable artwork but the profits of the sale help him to get by.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
Agak Laen: Menyala Pantiku! (2025)
After repeatedly failing their missions, Detectives Bene, Boris, Jegel, and Oki are given one last chance: to go undercover in a nursing home in search of a fugitive wanted for the murder of the mayor’s child.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
Fried Green Tomatoes (1991)
Amidst her own personality crisis, a southern housewife meets an outgoing old woman who tells her the story of Idgie Threadgoode and Ruth Jamison, two young women who experienced hardships and love in 1920s Whistle Stop, Alabama.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFinal Wager (2024)
Former sports gambling addict Chance needs $60,000 to save his mother from nursing home eviction. So he falls back into his old habits, only to learn he's never lost a bet on Christmas. Is this the Christmas miracle he's been waiting for? Or just an addict who can't control himself?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
Home Sweet Home (1974)
Jules, a rebellious septuagenarian, foments a revolt in his home ruled by quasi-military rules. He and his twenty supporters will oppose the management, the firefighters and even the gendarmes.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
Mateo's Mother (2019)
After a period of time without seeing his mother, Anjel Mari decides to bite the bullet and go and visit her at the nursing home to which she has been admitted. He doesn’t like seeing how his mother has disappeared under the skin of a senile old woman who does not recognise her own children.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Dancing on the Elephant (2025)
Faced with a future of chair-xercise and spoon-fed pudding, nursing home friends Nora and Edna attempt to break out of the 'fox farm' and find a life worth sticking around for.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Better Late Than Never?
The closest matches to Better Late Than Never are Alley Cats Strike (2000), A Flintstones Christmas Carol (1994) and It Runs in the Family (2003). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Better Late Than Never?
Start with Alley Cats Strike (2000), the closest match to Better Late Than Never.
What is the highest-rated movie like Better Late Than Never?
Wizards of Waverly Place: Wizard School (2008), rated 9.0/10 by 261 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Better Late Than Never?
Agak Laen: Menyala Pantiku! (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Better Late Than Never?
Yes: Alley Cats Strike (2000), A Flintstones Christmas Carol (1994) and It Runs in the Family (2003).
How are movies similar to Better Late Than Never chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Better Late Than Never, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.