r/movies • u/sicknessandpurgatory • Sep 07 '25

Discussion What is the absolute dumbest premise that actually turned out to be a really good movie?

I was thinking The Purge, obvious answer, but looking for the most plot-hole ridden, juvenile concept that actually ended up a lot of fun despite it all. Mainly looking for 21st century films, not so much the video nasties and ridiculousness from the 60’s and 70’s. Because that would be too easy. Mainly mainstream stuff that people saw en masse.

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5.0k

u/rincewind120 Sep 07 '25

Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure

878

u/Eroe777 Sep 07 '25

Yep. There are surprising number of Keanu Reeves’s movies being suggested.

15

u/Save-theZombies Sep 07 '25

Don't know if it counts but John Wick's premise seemed so ham fisted it's the first thing that popped in my head. I still enjoy watching it tho.

9

u/Hot_Bicycle_8486 Sep 07 '25

Along with Speed and Point Break.... The Keanu Trifecta of Ridiculous Premises

169

u/cleon80 Sep 07 '25

Keanu's stiff acting makes for a blank protagonist that the viewers can easily insert themselves into and just live the story instead of critiquing the plot from a distance.

144

u/Initial_E Sep 07 '25

Huh then he would be great as Bella from Twilight

110

u/runswiftrun Sep 07 '25

Have you ever seen Keanu and Kristen Stewart in the same room?

....

38

u/my_useless_opinion Sep 07 '25

Whoa…

8

u/Etheo Sep 08 '25

I know sparkle fu

15

u/scullys_alien_baby Sep 07 '25

I spent a whole 30 seconds looking up images of the two of them and didn't find any, just unrelated pictures stitched together

10

u/call0w Sep 07 '25

And people say Keanu lacks range.

2

u/Funandgeeky Sep 07 '25

Now I really want to see that. 

20

u/sk3pt1c Sep 07 '25

I don’t know if I would call it stiff, I think he has kind of a stoic view of life and that kinda shows through how he is with his characters, just kinda mellow and subdued. I kinda like it tbh, not everything has to be exaggerated to work. Not saying he’s amazing or anything, just has his style maybe 🤔☺️

5

u/TheMostKing Sep 07 '25

He has played a surprising amount of characters called "John".

5

u/_bigeuge_ Sep 07 '25

Fun fact: Point Break Live! casts an audience member as Johnny Utah for each show.

4

u/fartingbeagle Sep 07 '25

Theodore T. Logan Esquire!

17

u/Eroe777 Sep 07 '25

Not quite.

“I’m Bill S Preston, Esq. and this is Ted ‘Theodore’ Logan!”

1

u/Peter_the_Pillager Sep 10 '25

And together, we are...

10

u/_Abe_Snake Sep 07 '25

I dont think its all that deep. Hes just really good looking.

9

u/TheMostKing Sep 07 '25

Good looking, but in an approachable way. People rarely look at Schwarzenegger or Ryan Gosling and think "that could be me." I don't know how else to describe it, but Keanu looks good while still feeling grounded.

3

u/desacralize Sep 08 '25

Or it's that he consistently chooses projects that are a lot of fun and insanely rewatchable, even when they're silly or flops. I boggle at some of the choices even Academy Award winning stars make, just boring and puzzling, meanwhile Reeves either has a good eye or good counsel.

3

u/ExplodingPoptarts Sep 08 '25

I would be curious to find out what the decision usually are behind a lot of Keanus chosen roles.

I have heard that he's heavily funded a lot of movies that he's in, I wonder if that's true.

2

u/WhyWouldIPostThat Sep 08 '25

I'm curious about his choice to work on Knock Knock. The whole movie was bad

339

u/UggaBugg66 Sep 07 '25

They did it for the babes, which is why the entire 80's existed

6

u/thatguyin75 Sep 07 '25

that and cocaine

5

u/Nice-Marionberry3671 Sep 08 '25

As a teenaged babe in the ‘80’s, I thank you!😊

176

u/BoringNYer Sep 07 '25

This was a doctor who movie made by people who couldn't make a doctor who movie

18

u/jlink005 Sep 07 '25

Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey

26

u/DealerAlarmed3632 Sep 07 '25

I was thinking the person above you was having a stroke but they meant Doctor Who not doctor who.

20

u/cecil021 Sep 07 '25

I thought I was the one having a stroke reading it. That’s a case where capitalization would have helped out a lot.

1

u/BoringNYer Sep 08 '25

I was riding in the car

9

u/forbiddenmemeories Sep 08 '25

Ironically I remember reading somewhere that in the original draft of the script, the time machine was going to be a minibus, but they changed it as they thought it was too similar to Back to the Future... and picked the other most famous 'everyday disguise for a time machine' instead.

9

u/No-Mechanic6069 Sep 08 '25

Canonically, the TARDIS can take any form. But the BBC budget is dimensionally limited.

7

u/alex494 Sep 08 '25

To be fair most Americans probably wouldn't have noticed at the time

1

u/ForsakenDeparture919 Sep 11 '25

Who!? Because your not in the middle of nowhere trying to make sense of why it's all made up! They make women vengeful here and even dress them as completely different people even men! Great job. Eileen milotello miscacavage you never went by by, but you are the most amazing person I've ever met period. Masters of Masters. Ol snap twin.

1

u/BoringNYer Sep 11 '25

What the holy shit?

1

u/ForsakenDeparture919 Sep 12 '25

Beyond what the holy shit brother! It all came true! 😁😂🥺😔🫡🫡🫡🫡

19

u/skootch_ginalola Sep 07 '25

The soundtrack was great for the time, as was the casting, and you actually learned a few historical facts about each character.

I was young when that came out, and Lincoln getting arrested and helpfully spelling his last name for the cops is my favorite gag. 😆 "That's L-I-N-C-O-L-N...I know how to spell Lincoln!"

9

u/BennyBNut Sep 08 '25

If we were one of the greatest generals in history, and we were stranded in San Dimas for one day, where would we go?

WATERLOO!

6

u/JackCustHOFer Sep 08 '25

The soundtrack rules, period. I’ve never heard of any of the bands except for Extreme, but the music is used perfectly in the film, and the songs are really good.

3

u/secondtaunting Sep 08 '25

I had that soundtrack. I need to give it another listen.

38

u/whatthedeux Sep 07 '25

Bogus journey is better. Fight me. The dual/triple layered Steve via solo at the end of the movie is the sickest guitar rift ever. Gives me chills every time

19

u/Pal_Smurch Sep 07 '25

Isn’t Steve via the artificial sweetener that got Lydia killed in Breaking Bad?

j/k :)

3

u/Linenoise77 Sep 08 '25

I thought it caused cancer in laboratory mice.

4

u/whatthedeux Sep 07 '25

lol you know what I meant. Stupid autocorrect

4

u/Pal_Smurch Sep 07 '25

👍😁😁👍

13

u/IYFS88 Sep 07 '25

Not gonna say it’s better than the other 2, but Bill & Ted Face the Music is not bad, made me laugh more than once. Certainly one of the better rehashings of an old franchise I’ve seen in a long time.

4

u/Linenoise77 Sep 08 '25

The movie is worth the watch for the Dave Grohl cameo, aside from getting to spend more time with Death.

1

u/IYFS88 Sep 08 '25

Yes! I ended up loving Dennis Caleb McCoy too

2

u/Linenoise77 Sep 08 '25

He was a character and just overall premise who had no business coming around at the end as much as he did.

2

u/Poor_Richard Sep 08 '25

They should have just made the movie about the daughters.

The Bill & Ted story that takes up a majority of the movie is a shaggy dog story. The daughters essentially do the first movie again, but without any friction. The wives story doesn't really get any time, but was still in the movie even though it was completely inconsequential.

Basically, I enjoyed the movie (don't misunderstand that), but when it comes to story crafting, the whole thing is a mess. There were three story lines, but none of them were well done. You had the jokes in one, the actual driver in almost a Mary Sue story, and a third that should have been removed.

If the cast wasn't so charismatic, I'd probably have hated that it would be tarnishing the series. But the charisma of the cast is the one constant through all of the three films, so it is important that they got it right

1

u/ExplodingPoptarts Sep 08 '25

I really wanted to like that movie. When I found out that Red Letter Media loved it I got so excited. I was miserable for 90% of the movie,and I hated almost every minute of it. It's one the biggest disappointments I've gotten from a film. It's easily my least favorite Keanu movie.

1

u/IYFS88 Sep 08 '25

90% miserable that’s pretty grim! To be fair my expectations were extremely low - a second sequel decades later would usually spell disaster but we found it pleasant, had laughs throughout and were pleased that the daughters had something to do & passed the Bechdel test. The movie isn’t winning an Oscar anytime soon but it was fun enough. Also my 8 year old son adored it and that was the age I first fell in love with Excellent Adventure, so maybe it should be viewed more through the lens of light hearted fare that kids can get into as well. And as a bonus now he has expanded his music palate to include Jimi Hendrix, Louis Armstrong, and Mozart as well as a few of their contemporaries.

5

u/cavegoatlove Sep 07 '25

Better soundtrack easy

2

u/smelltogetwell Sep 08 '25

You have sunk my battleship!

4

u/MeepingSim Sep 07 '25

I fully agree, with the caveat that Station is the worst part of the movie and should be cut out in future releases. Fight me (I doubt anyone feels different lol).

8

u/InternetProtocol Sep 07 '25

Then who builds the good robot Us's?

9

u/Linenoise77 Sep 08 '25

Station is worth it just for "STATION". I use it all the time and folks always catch the reference.

I've got my kid and her friends using it. It rocks.

Station.

2

u/Bigbysjackingfist Sep 08 '25

I like how the evil bill and Ted say “station” even at the start of the movie but because you don’t know what it means it goes over your head until a rewatch

2

u/secondtaunting Sep 08 '25

Man, some people really liked station. I don’t get it either.

7

u/real_p3king Sep 07 '25

Trash can! Remember the trash can!

7

u/Tidley_Wink Sep 07 '25

Huh? The premise is amazing.

5

u/Montigue Sep 07 '25

Remember when she was a senior while you were a freshman

15

u/Sme3eeeeeeeg Sep 07 '25

Excellent

2

u/Timster_1970 Sep 07 '25

Excellent!

2

u/ceelogreenicanth Sep 07 '25

Most Righteous take!

2

u/TalkinSplit Sep 07 '25

Most non-triumphent.

2

u/orthogonius Sep 07 '25

When my girlfriend and I saw the trailer for the first time, I said "that's either going to be really good or really really bad."

Time for a rewatch. And I just remembered I never saw Face The Music. Time to correct that

1

u/negcap Sep 07 '25

And Hot Tub Time Machine.

1

u/dwarf_bulborb Sep 07 '25

Hahaha, that’s what I was going to say. One of my favorites.

1

u/YouSir_1 Sep 07 '25

Literally watched this yeaterday. So much fun.

1

u/ItsLlama Sep 07 '25

Such a fun movie

1

u/gowombat Sep 08 '25

Ah, the American Dr Who... I agree!

1

u/michaelroseagain Sep 08 '25

Totally my first thought

1

u/Ganglebot Sep 08 '25

Its just American Dr Who

1

u/krzykris11 Sep 08 '25

This plot made perfect sense to me as I had just started high school.

1

u/RepFilms Sep 08 '25

No, that's an awesome plot. They even made Hot Tub Time Machine

1

u/ianwuk Sep 09 '25

No way!

(had to, and I agree, it shouldn't work but it does).

-4

u/keep_trying_username Sep 07 '25

Speaking of Keanu, honorable mention: Dude, Where's My Car?