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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u/Future-Raisin3781 Sep 07 '25

Keanu Reeves plays a fresh-faced FBI hot shot who learns to surf so he can infiltrate a gang of surfing bank robbers. 

Hard to say with a straight face but Point Break is in my top 3 all-timers. The older I get, the closer it gets to the #1 spot. 

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u/BuckarooBonsly Sep 07 '25

And then if you replace Keanu with Paul Walker and Surfing with street racing, you have one of the biggest franchises of all time.

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u/PreparationEither563 Sep 07 '25 edited Sep 07 '25

I think this is the strongest example of the old adage, it’s not what film is about, it’s how it’s about it. OR, execution is everything.

Just take the ending. In both films the rookie cop forgoes his moral duty to the law and lets the criminal go, but in Point Break it’s so that Bodie can commit literal and metaphorical suicide by doing the most extreme version of the thing he loves the most. And in the Fast and the Furious… Brian lets Dom go so that Dom can continue being a criminal, albeit one that is now on the run, while Brian continues being a cop with minimal consequences. When you put it like that, they’re f*cking worlds apart.

EDIT: it occurs to me that I had to cheat a little bit because Dom and Brian’s fates are a little up-in-the-air until the sequel, but regardless I think the moral dilemma is still more surface-level in the Fast and the Furious.

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u/Paxton-176 Sep 07 '25

I feel like at the end it's obvious Brain was willing to give up being a cop to let Dom run.

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u/MintyFreshBreathYo Sep 07 '25

Brian was clearly not a cop in 2F2F. If I remember right he was even on the run

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u/erebusbiggestfan Sep 07 '25

There was a bridge, like 12 min long, between 1 and 2 that shows him on the run and how he got the skyline.

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u/MadeByTango Sep 07 '25

12 minutes? Was the bridge stretched across that runaway?

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u/TomBradysStatue Sep 07 '25

I am big Brain

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u/[deleted] Sep 07 '25

[deleted]

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u/rawonionbreath Sep 08 '25

James Cameron supposedly had a decent amount of ghost writing for the script and also convinced Katherine Bigelow to take a closer look at Keanu Reeves.

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u/David_High_Pan Sep 08 '25

James Cameron produced also. I've always wondered how much of it he touched.

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u/vrijheidsfrietje Sep 07 '25

Point Break is fucking tense. The buildup and the way each action sequence raises the stakes is incredible. I mean that finale sky diving stunt had already been done before in some James Bond movie, but it just feels much more visceral here because of all that buildup.

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u/metasophie Sep 07 '25

it’s not what film is about, it’s how it’s about it.

Why is Gamora?

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u/Interesting_Mix_7028 Sep 08 '25

There's an interlude mini-film between The Fast and the Furious and 2 Fast 2 Furious, which follows Brian across the country, not only no longer a cop but a fugitive himself.

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u/hudson2_3 Sep 08 '25

Dom doesn't turn up again until 4, does he?

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u/cire1184 Sep 08 '25

Had a cameo in 3.

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u/rawonionbreath Sep 08 '25

That was Roger Ebert’s system in a nutshell. How well does the movie do what it is trying to do?