Highest-Rated Movies about 'Comeback', Sort by Popularity

The Stratton Story (1949), The Hustler (1961), The Wrestler (2008), Fat City (1972), Peaceful Warrior (2006), What's Love Got to Do with It (1993), Grand Prix (1966), But Not for Me (1959) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Comeback movies.

#2. The Hustler (1961)

Storyline: "Fast" Eddie Felson is a small-time pool hustler with a lot of talent but a self-destructive attitude. His bravado causes him to challenge the legendary "Minnesota Fats" to a high-stakes match, but he loses in a heartbreaking marathon. Now broke and without his long-time manager, Felson faces an uphill battle to regain his confidence and his game. It isn't until he hits rock bottom that he agrees to join up with ruthless and cutthroat manager Bert Gordon. Gordon agrees to take him on the road to learn the ropes. But Felson soon realizes that making it to the top could cost him his soul, and perhaps his girlfriend. Will he decide that this is too steep a price to pay in time to save himself?

Plot Keywords: hustler, sexy woman, gambler, anti-hero, alcoholic, writer, tense ...

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#3. The Wrestler (2008)

Storyline: This is a drama about an aging professional wrestler, decades past his prime, who now barely gets by working small wrestling shows in VFW halls and as a part-time grocery store employee. As he faces health problems that may end his wrestling career for good he attempts to come to terms with his life outside the ring: by working full time at the grocery store, trying to reconcile with the daughter he abandoned in childhood and forming a closer bond with a stripper he has romantic feelings for. He struggles with his new life and an offer of a high-profile rematch with his 1980s arch-nemesis, The Ayatollah, which may be his ticket back to stardom.

Plot Keywords: wrestler, daughter, fan, stripper, somber, gripping, gritty ...

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#5. Peaceful Warrior (2006)

Storyline: Dan Millman has it all: good grades, a shot at the Olympic team on the rings and girls lining up for the handsome Berkely college athlete all teams mates look up to with envy. Only one man shakes his confidence, an anonymous night gas station attendant, who like Socrates, keeps questioning every assumption in his life. Then a traffic crash shatters Dan's legs, and his bright future. Now Socrates's life coaching is to make or break Dan's revised ambition.

Plot Keywords: athlete, stranger, gymnast, thug, doctor, eerie, profound ...

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#6. What's Love Got to Do with It (1993)

Storyline: Anna Mae Bullock always had a special voice. Soon after arriving in St. Louis to live with the mother who had walked out when she was small, she soon attracts the attention of pop group leader Ike Turner. She becomes his band's singer, his wife, and mother to his children - not all hers. In love with him and determined not to leave in the way her mother had, she finds herself the target of increasing violence from him who can't see who is making his band such a success.

Plot Keywords: singer, abusive husband, wife, musician, manager, dark, emotional ...

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#7. Grand Prix (1966)

Storyline: American Grand Prix driver Pete Aron is fired by his Jordan-BRM racing team after a crash at Monaco that injures his British teammate, Scott Stoddard. While Stoddard struggles to recover, Aron begins to drive for the Japanese Yamura team, and becomes romantically involved with Stoddard's estranged wife.—Damian Penny <g0mb@unb.ca>

Plot Keywords: driver, teammate, wife, girlfriend, cool, thrilling, racetrack ...

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#8. But Not for Me (1959)

Storyline: Out of hit ideas and seemingly in the twilight of his career, Broadway producer Russ Ward (Clark Gable) decides to give up the game. But when Russ lays off his nubile secretary, Ellie Brown (Carroll Baker), she shocks him with a declaration of love. Inspired, Ward commands playwright MacDonald (Lee J. Cobb) to rewrite his latest show as a May-December romance starring Brown herself. Ward struggles to make a comeback as his ex-wife, Kathryn (Lilli Palmer), plots to end his new relationship.

Plot Keywords: broadway producer, secretary, playwright, ex-wife, lover, actress, hilarious ...

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#10. Dance Academy: The Movie (2017)

Storyline: Christian Reed feels betrayed but objects not when Tara, who waved a fat damages claim, which her top lawyer probably would have won, in return for another audition at the National Ballet, isn't selected and accept to move to New York, moving in with Kat and her brilliant lover. She fails to pass any major audition, worse the Ollie, who co-created a novel choreography. Indomitable Ben Tickle has moved in with the senior teacher after recovering from his cancer and trains their tails off with Tara, but has another relapse.—KGF Vissers

Plot Keywords: friend, dance instructor, love interest, dancer, partner, touching, inspiring ...

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#11. Born to Be Blue (2015)

Storyline: Born to be Blue starring Ethan Hawke is a re-imagining of jazz trumpeter Chet Baker's life in the 60's. When Chet stars in a film about himself, a romance heats up with his costar, the enigmatic Jane (Carmen Ejogo). Production is shelved when Chet's past comes back to haunt him and it appears he may never play music again but Jane challenges him to mount a musical comeback against all the odds.—Leonard Farlinger

Plot Keywords: musician, jazz musician, trumpeter, love interest, moving, emotional, engaging ...

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#12. Kingpin (1996)

Storyline: Roy Munson was raised to be the best bowler in the world (trained early on by his father). But a fellow bowler, Ernie McCracken and a misunderstanding with some rough punks, leaves poor Roy with the loss of his bowling hand! Not to let this get him down, he gets a prosthetic hand and becomes a travelling sales man. But it's really all down hill for him from that night on until ... One day he meets Ishmael who is Amish and sneaks away from the farm to bowl (his fellow Amish would disown him if they knew)! Roy convinces Ishmael to let him be his trainer and he'll make him the best bowler the world has ever seen. Reluctantly Ishmael agrees to go on the road and shortly afterwards actually finds that life outside the farm is quite fun. Soon their paths cross that of Ernie McCracken who is still a top ranking bowler. While Roy's career and life have landed in the toilet bowl, Ernie is still drawing huge crowds and all the babes! They both square off for the ultimate bowling championship .....

Plot Keywords: bowler, girlfriend, amish man, rival, gangster, madcap, hilarious ...

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#13. Dangerous (1935)

Storyline: Dan Bellows finds former stage star Joyce Heath a penniless drunk and takes her to his Connecticut home for rehabilitation. Unaware that she is married to Gordon, he asks his fiancée Gail to free him and offers to sponsor Joyce in a play. When Gordon refuses to give Joyce a divorce, she runs the car into a tree crippling him for life. Joyce urges Dan return to Gail, opens her play, and begs Gordon for forgiveness.—Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>

Plot Keywords: actress, architect, fiancé, husband, bleak, emotional, connecticut ...

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#14. Cars 3 (2017)

Storyline: Blindsided by a new generation of blazing-fast racers, the legendary Lightning McQueen is suddenly pushed out of the sport he loves. To get back in the game, he will need the help of an eager young race technician with her own plan to win, inspiration from the late Fabulous Hudson Hornet, and a few unexpected turns. Proving that #95 isn't through yet will test the heart of a champion on Piston Cup Racing's biggest stage!

Plot Keywords: racer, racecar, rookie, newcomer, amusing, cheeky, inspiring ...

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#15. Hello, Frisco, Hello (1943)

Storyline: San Francisco's Barbary Coast is the hub of light and gaiety for a bustling young metropolis, while at Sharkey's Colosseum , Trudy Evans (Alice Faye), Johnnie Cornell (John Payne), Dan Daley (Jack Oakie) and Beulah (June Havoc) offer divertissement. Trying out a new number the group pulls the paying customers away from the bar, and they are promptly fired. True-blue Trudy begs Dan and Beulah to stick with Johnnie who is full of ideas, some of which, later cause Trudy much distress. When fast-talking Sam Weaver (Laird Cregar) happens upon Johnnie with another tale of a sure bonanza gold strike. Johnnie grubstakes him to the group's last $10. Coming upon an anti-drinking missionary group, Johnnie makes them a proposition which will benefit them all. He stages a series of street carnivals in front of the saloons which attracts the crowds, especially when Beulah performs cooch-dance, to the ruination of the juke-and-gin mills. Each proprietor offers $500, if Johnnie will keep away from their bars, but to Sharkey (Ward Bond) the price is $1000. With the money from his high-handed extortion Johnnie opens The Grizzly Bear and it becomes an overnight sensation with Trudy as the star of an elaborately-mounted show which even brings in the carriage trade from Nob Hill, including the haughty Bernice Crodt (Lynn Bari) and her pre-entourage days entourage. Johnnie is fascinated by her poise and social position. The Grizzly prospers and Johnnie soon opens three more saloons which makes him an early-day impresario , and Trudy the Toast of the Coast. Beulah is rather toasty herself. Ned (John Archer), a Trudy admirer, brings Cochran (Aubrey Mather), an English theatrical producer, slumming in the colonies, to see the show and offers a starring role in his next London production. Deeply in love with Johnnie, Trudy refuses, but cad Johnnie, eager for society prestige abruptly marries femme-fatale Bernice so he can climb up Nob Hill. Broken-hearted Trudy sails for England where as the star of "The Girl from Piccadilly" she is the darling of the London theatre crowds. Johnnie and Bernice go on a European honeymoon, during which time he sees Trudy's show. That's is Johnnie last highlight for a while. Back in gay old Frisco, Johnnie's fortunes decline rapidly when he becomes a sponsor of Grand Opera, long a pet project for money-drain Bernice. One by one he closes Barbary Coast saloons including the Grizzly Bear. Dan and Beulah go back to Sharkeys and Johnnie is a barker for a cooch-show on the carnival midway. Trudy returns and is distressed more than somewhat to find the familiar night spots shuttered and silent and Bernice had given Johnnie his walking papers when he ran out of money. So True-Blue Trudy quietly finances Sam, who in turn convinces Johnnie that he has at last struck a gold bonanza. With "his share" of the old grubstake Johnnie reopens the Grizzly but refuses to hire Trudy for his show since he now has a large case of remorse. Will they get together again?—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>

Plot Keywords: socialite, entertainer, singer, showman, saloon owner, charming, uplifting ...

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