Movies like Big Reef (2004)
The best movies like Big Reef (2004) are Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016), True History of the Kelly Gang (2019) and Beautiful Disaster (2023). If Big Reef hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedHunt for the Wilderpeople (2016)7.6/10 from 2,445 votes
- NewestThe Map That Leads to You (2025)Released 2025
Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016)
Ricky is a defiant young city kid who finds himself on the run with his cantankerous foster uncle in the wild New Zealand bush. A national manhunt ensues, and the two are forced to put aside their differences and work together to survive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTrue History of the Kelly Gang (2019)
Set against the badlands of Australia where the English rule with a bloody fist and the Irish endure, Ned Kelly discovers he comes from a line of Irish rebels — an uncompromising army of cross dressing bandits immortalised for terrorising their oppressors back in Ireland. Fuelled by the unfair arrest of his mother, Kelly recruits a wild bunch of warriors to plot one of the most audacious attacks of anarchy and rebellion the country has ever seen.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisBeautiful Disaster (2023)
College freshman Abby tries to distance herself from her dark past while resisting her attraction to bad boy Travis.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHe Died with a Felafel in His Hand (2001)
A search for love, meaning and bathroom solitude. Danny goes through a series of shared housing experiences in a succession of cities on the east coast of Australia. Together these vignettes form a narrative that is surprisingly reflective.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTop End Wedding (2019)
Lauren and Ned are engaged, they are in love, and they have just ten days to find Lauren’s mother who has gone AWOL somewhere in the remote far north of Australia, reunite her parents and pull off their dream wedding.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisImpromptu (1991)
In 1830s France, pianist/composer Frédéric Chopin is pursued romantically by the determined, individualistic woman who uses the name George Sand.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisYou Only Live Once (1937)
Based partially on the story of Bonnie and Clyde, Eddie Taylor is an ex-convict who cannot get a break after being released from prison. When he is framed for murder, Taylor is forced to flee with his wife Joan Graham and baby. While escaping prison after being sentenced to death, Taylor becomes a real murderer, condemning himself and Joan to a life of crime and death on the road.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAdopt a Highway (2019)
Russ Millings has just been released from prison after serving 21 years for a 3rd strike conviction for possessing an ounce of marijuana. As he tries to adapt to a world he doesn’t recognize – including trying to learn how to use the internet – he finds an abandoned baby in a dumpster behind the fast food restaurant where he works as a dishwasher. Unsure of what to do, and caught between impulses of kindness and panic, Russ soon realizes this could be his chance at redemption.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGoldstone (2016)
Indigenous Detective Jay Swan arrives in the frontier town of Goldstone on a missing persons inquiry. What seems like a simple investigation unearths an intricate web of crime, corruption, human trafficking, and coordinated exploitation of indigenous people’s land. Jay must bury his differences with young local cop Josh, so together they can bring justice to Goldstone.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRoom at the Top (1958)
An ambitious young accountant schemes to wed a wealthy factory owner's daughter, despite falling in love with a married older woman.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMarked Men: Rule + Shaw (2025)
Shaw Landon has loved Rule Archer from the moment she laid eyes on him. Rule, a fiery-tempered rebel tattoo artist, doesn’t have time for a good girl pre-med student like Shaw — even if she’s the only one who can see the person he truly is. She lives by other people’s rules; he makes his own. But a short skirt, too many birthday cocktails, and spilled secrets lead to a night neither can forget. Now, Shaw and Rule must figure out how a girl like her and a guy like him are supposed to be together without destroying their love…or each other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisReasonable Doubt (2014)
When up-and-coming District Attorney Mitch Brockden commits a fatal hit-and-run, he feels compelled to throw the case against the accused criminal who was found with the body and blamed for the crime. Following the trial, Mitch's worst fears come true when he realizes that he acquitted a guilty man, and he soon finds himself on the hunt for the killer before more victims pile up.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisBite the Bullet (1975)
At the beginning of the 20th century, a newspaper organizes an endurance horse race : 700 miles to run in a few days. 9 adventurers are competing, among them a woman, Miss Jones, a Mexican, an Englishman, a young cow-boy, an old one and two friends, Sam Clayton and Luke Matthews. All those individualists will learn to respect each other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Light Between Oceans (2016)
A lighthouse keeper and his wife living off the coast of Western Australia raise a baby they rescue from an adrift rowboat.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDay of Reckoning (2025)
Put-upon lawman John Dorsey is on the verge of losing his wife and his job as sheriff, so he posses up with bullish U.S. Marshall Butch Hayden to hold outlaw Emily Rusk hostage. A battle of wills ensues as Emily turns the posse on themselves, but as her marauding husband and his gang approach, Emily and John realize they will need each other to survive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisPrivate Valentine: Blonde & Dangerous (2008)
When fluffy, bubble gum movie star Megan Valentine suddenly finds herself broke and humiliated in the public eye, she wanders from the wreckage of a car accident and witlessly enlists in the U.S. Army hoping in vain that it will change her life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAmateur (1994)
A man wakes up in an alley, bleeding and with no memory of who he is. He stumbles into a coffee shop and is befriended by a charitable ex-nun who is failing in her attempts to write marketable pornography.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSidelined: The QB and Me (2025)
Dallas, a burdened but headstrong dancer, is determined to get into the best dance school in the country—her late mother’s alma mater. However, that dream is suddenly derailed when the cheeky yet secretly grieving football star, Drayton, crashes into her life with a unique story of his own. Will the two of them be able to grow into their dreams together, or will their dreams be sidelined?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBad Sister (2015)
As a top student at St. Adeline's Catholic Boarding School, Zoe senses that something is not quite right about the school's new nun-- a sense proven to be true when it is revealed the "good' nun is an imposter with a fatal attraction to Zoe's brother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Map That Leads to You (2025)
Heather is a young woman traveling Europe with friends before starting her perfectly planned life. A chance meeting with Jack sparks an unexpected romance that leads to deep emotional discovery. As secrets and life choices test their bond, her path changes forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Big Reef?
The closest matches to Big Reef are Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016), True History of the Kelly Gang (2019) and Beautiful Disaster (2023). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Big Reef?
Start with Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016), the closest match to Big Reef.
What is the highest-rated movie like Big Reef?
Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016), rated 7.6/10 by 2,445 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Big Reef?
The Map That Leads to You (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Big Reef?
Yes: Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016), True History of the Kelly Gang (2019) and Beautiful Disaster (2023).
How are movies similar to Big Reef chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Big Reef, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.