Movies like Dear John (2004)
The best movies like Dear John (2004) are It Runs in the Family (2003), Once I Was a Beehive (2015) and Chloe and Theo (2015). If Dear John 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 ratedTrue Grit (1969)7.3/10 from 902 votes
- NewestThe Heist (2025)Released 2025
It 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 thisOnce I Was a Beehive (2015)
After losing her father to cancer, a teenage girl reluctantly joins her new step-cousin at a summer camp for Mormon girls.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChloe and Theo (2015)
A young woman, Chloe, living by her wits on the streets of New York City, has a chance meeting with a wise Inuit Eskimo, Theo, who was sent to New York by his elders to provide a message to the people of the world – We either change our destructive was or be destroyed by them. Chloe, who has been searching for something to believe in, becomes inspired by Theo and , with the help of a kind lawyer, Monica, the three of them present Theo’s story to the United Nations in hopes of creating a better future for all of us.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
SnoozefestMovies 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 thisThe Trip to Italy (2014)
Years after their successful restaurant review tour of Northern England, Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon are commissioned for a new tour in Italy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Other Side of Heaven (2001)
John H. Groberg, a middle class kid from Idaho Falls, crosses the Pacific to become a Mormon missionary in the remote and exotic Tongan island kingdom during the 1950's. He leaves behind a loving family and the true love of his life, Jean. Through letters and musings across the miles, John shares his humbling and sometimes hilarious adventures with "the girl back home", and her letters buoy up his spirits in difficult times. John must struggle to overcome language barriers, physical hardship and deep-rooted suspicion to earn the trust and love of the Tongan people he has come to serve. Throughout his adventure-filled three years on the islands, he discovers friends and wisdom in the most unlikely places. John H. Groberg's Tongan odyssey will change his life forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSee Spot Run (2001)
A drug sniffing agent canine is a target for an assassin boss so the FBI calls Witness Protection to send him somewhere else. Meanwhile a single Mom puts her 6 year old boy James in the care of her irresponsible, mailman, neighbor, Gordon, when the babysitter bails on her. Meanwhile, an assassin mob boss hires 2 goons to kill Agent 11. But when 11 escapes from the van when they tried to kill him, he hides in Gordon's Mailtruck that James is in too. And guess what they name him. Spot.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021)
From the 1960s to the 1980s, evangelist Jim Baker and his ambitious wife, Tammy Faye, rose from humble beginnings to build an empire based on big-time evangelical Christianity--only for the couple to fall from grace because of some all-too-human sins.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMuch Ado About Nothing (2013)
A modern retelling of Shakespeare's classic comedy about two pairs of lovers with different takes on romance and a way with words.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTrue Grit (1969)
The murder of her father sends a teenage tomboy on a mission of 'justice', which involves avenging her father's death. She recruits a tough old marshal, 'Rooster' Cogburn because he has 'true grit', and a reputation of getting the job done.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisElmer Gantry (1960)
A charismatic charlatan begins a business — and eventually romantic — relationship with a roadside evangelist to sell religion to 1920s America. Based on Sinclair Lewis' novel of the same name.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCarry On Nurse (1959)
In Haven Hospital, a certain men's ward is causing more havoc than the whole hospital altogether. The formidable Matron's debut gives everyone a chill every time she walks past, with only Reckitt standing up to her. There's a colonel who's a constant nuisance, a bumbling nurse, a romance between Ted York and Nurse Denton, and Bell wants his bunion removed straight away, so after a couple of pints, the men decide to remove the bunion themselves!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisVera Cruz (1954)
After the American Civil War, mercenaries travel to Mexico to fight in their revolution for money. The former soldier and gentleman Benjamin Trane meets the gunman and killer Joe Erin and his men, and together they are hired by the Emperor Maximillian and the Marquis Henri de Labordere to escort the Countess Marie Duvarre to the harbor of Vera Cruz.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPerfect Day (1929)
Two families embark on a pleasant Sunday picnic but manage to run into a variety of issues with their temperamental automobile. Each incident requires repeated exits and reboardings by Laurel, Hardy, their wives and grouchy, gout-ridden Uncle Edgar.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Freshman (1990)
After a film student gets his belongings stolen, he meets a mobster bearing a startling resemblance to a certain cinematic godfather. Soon, he finds himself caught up in a caper involving endangered species and fine dining.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhere the Red Fern Grows (1974)
Billy Coleman works hard and saves his earnings for two years to achieve his dream of buying two red-bone coonhound pups. He develops a new trust in life as he faces overwhelming challenges in adventure and tragedy roaming the river bottoms of Cherokee country with his dogs, Old Dan and Little Ann.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOliver the Eighth (1934)
Barbershop owners Stan and Ollie answer an ad in the newspaper from a wealthy widow looking for a husband. Ollie only mails in his response and is invited to the widow's mansion. Stan discovers his unmailed letter and insists on tagging along. At the mansion, the widow's creepy butler informs them that the woman is crazy. She was once jilted by an Oliver and now her hobby is marrying Olivers and then slitting their throats. Now the boys must figure out how to escape.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisShadow of the Thin Man (1941)
While attending a major horse race with their young son, Nick Jr., Nick and Nora Charles witnesse a shocking murder from the crowded grandstand. What first appears to be an isolated killing soon leads to a maze of corruption, blackmail, gambling scandals, and criminal intrigue. As Nick investigates, he encounters suspicious bookmakers, dishonest officials, rival gangsters, and a mysterious killer determined to stay ahead of the law. Nora, as always, is never far from the action, bringing her quick wit and fearless curiosity to the case.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBeau Hunks (1931)
Stan and Ollie join the French Foreign Legion after Ollie's sweetheart rejects him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMillions (2005)
Two boys, still grieving the death of their mother, find themselves the unwitting benefactors of a bag of bank robbery loot in the week before the United Kingdom switches its official currency to the Euro. What's a kid to do?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGeorgia Rule (2007)
Rebellious, uncontrollable teenager, Rachel is hauled off by her dysfunctional mother to spend the summer with her estranged grandmother, Georgia. Her journey will lead all three women to revelations of buried family secrets and an understanding that - regardless what happens - the ties that bind can never be broken.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisReturn with Honor (2006)
Rowe McDonald is a headstrong missionary who has life after his mission all figured out. When a fatal car crash interrupts his plans, he is given sixty days to return to life and finish his work. Now he must choose whether to lead the life he planned, or reach beyond himself to change the lives of others. What will he do? Who will he touch? How will he prepare to leave it all behind?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCharly (2002)
Sam Roberts thinks he has all the answers: the purpose of life, the meaning of love, the plan for a perfect future. Until Charly walks into his life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & comedy
We Love You, Sally Carmichael! (2017)
Readers across the world are in love with author Sally Carmichael's series of romance novels that chronicle the epic love story between a human girl and a merman. But no one knows that Sally Carmichael is really Simon Hayes, a bitter, serious novelist - and Simon would like to keep it that way. When he is forced to meet a movie star about the movie adaptation, his life of anonymity starts to crumble.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Religulous (2008)
Commentator-comic Bill Maher plays devil's advocate with religion as he talks to believers about their faith. Traveling around the world, Maher examines the tenets of Christianity, Judaism and Islam and raises questions about homosexuality, proof of Christ's existence, Jewish Sabbath laws, violent Muslim extremists.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHawaiian Punch (2013)
Hawaiian Punch follows two young Mormons, Nick and Tor, during their time in Hawaii. The audience is privy to their lives sharing a house and their recreational activities around the island. Afternoons are spent cliff diving, cruising on their moped along palm tree-lined streets and talking about relationships and religion.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Mobsters and Mormons (2005)
When Carmine “The Beans” Pasquale is nabbed by the FBI, he decides to testify against his mafia boss and go into the Witness Relocation Program with his wife Gina and son Vincent. Now known as George, Linda and Patrick Cheeseman, the Pasquale family is sent to suburban Utah to begin their new life. But can the “Cheesemans” survive in a world where everyone is Mormon, all coffee is bad and scrapbooking reigns supreme?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
The Heist (2025)
One cold and fateful schoolnight, friends Kasey, Lyn, Ry, Zane, & AJ attempt to steal Kasey’s stuff back from her ex, Kyle. What could possibly go wrong?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Cremaster 2 (1999)
CREMASTER 2 is rendered as a gothic Western that introduces conflict into the system. On the biological level it corresponds to the phase of fetal development during which sexual division begins. In Matthew Barney's abstraction of this process, the system resists partition and tries to remain in the state of equilibrium imagined in Cremaster 1.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like Dear John and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Dear John?
The closest matches to Dear John are It Runs in the Family (2003), Once I Was a Beehive (2015) and Chloe and Theo (2015). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Dear John?
Start with It Runs in the Family (2003), the closest match to Dear John.
What is the highest-rated movie like Dear John?
True Grit (1969), rated 7.3/10 by 902 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Dear John?
The Heist (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Dear John?
Yes: It Runs in the Family (2003), Once I Was a Beehive (2015) and Chloe and Theo (2015).
How are movies similar to Dear John chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Dear John, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.