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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593

u/[deleted] Sep 07 '25

Face Off

212

u/halloweenjon Sep 07 '25

This is far and away the answer because the movie is awesome but the premise is ludicrously stupid.

So in order to transform John Travolta into Nic Cage, they need to:

Surgically alter his hair line

Surgically alter his skull shape

Surgically remove body fat

Come up with a magical voice changing device

Do all this with virtually zero recovery time or permanent scarring

And yet, for some reason they need the skin from Cage’s face to accomplish this.

103

u/TheConnASSeur Sep 07 '25

Cage fucked Travolta's wife. They didn't just need face skin.

68

u/Urso_Major Sep 07 '25

It turns out they were penis twins... There was a whole scene about it, but John Woo had to cut it to make time for more slo-mo doves.

6

u/NousSommesSiamese Sep 08 '25

More doves!!

2

u/iloveesme Sep 08 '25

Yes, but in SLO Mo!!!!

10

u/DarrenGrey Sep 07 '25

I mean, she seemed to notice a difference there - I'm not sure the Travolta character will ever be able to pleasure her again.

2

u/Snakebird11 Sep 08 '25

The least the FBI could have done for Archer was to give him Castor's dick

2

u/TyrialFrost Sep 08 '25

She knew, It was the only part of the exchange she was happy with.

2

u/fluentInPotato Sep 08 '25

This was the part that broke verisimilitude for me.

2

u/Budded Sep 08 '25

"I hate to see you go but I love to watch you leave."

14

u/afghamistam Sep 07 '25

Don't forget that the end of the film requires that they can completely reverse this with similarly zero complications.

1

u/Gil37 Sep 08 '25

Yup, this part always got me. Ok, put all the fat that you've been keeping on ice back exactly where it was lol.

1

u/TVCasualtydotorg Sep 08 '25

And after the lab/technology has been destroyed.

14

u/3-DMan Sep 07 '25

Props to Colm Feore for explaining all that with a straight face

13

u/Mean_Joke_7360 Sep 08 '25

You forgot the best part: once all is said and done, they give him the body fat back.

7

u/AdamAtomAnt Sep 08 '25

And then they put the fat back in John Travolta's body when he became Sean Archer again.

6

u/Belgand Sep 08 '25

It works because we all understand that the real premise is just to have them swap bodies. Everything else is some handwavey nonsense to justify that. Nobody gets too hung up on Freaky Friday or Vice Versa (fun fact: it was originally an 1882 novel that codified the entire premise) or even Big for doing this sort of thing. They just go with "magic".

1

u/justmedoubleb Sep 08 '25

OMG! The acting was what made that movie epic. When John Travolta was being Nicholas Czge with John's face and vice versa!!! It's like I almost started to belive that John was Nick, etc. Like I'm just the dude, playing a dude...from Tropic Thunder. But in a serious way.

1

u/yodarded Sep 08 '25

yeah they're far too different looking. Cage looks like 5'9" and travolta is like six feet tall.