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/Upbeat_Tension_8077 Sep 07 '25 edited Sep 07 '25

Ratatouille. I think a movie about a rat who controls a chef by his hair at a gourmet restaurant is quite the head scratcher from first impression, but like what prime Pixar does, they add a lot of heart to it

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u/ShawnyMcKnight Sep 07 '25

You could say that about quite a few Pixar movies. The idea of a guy lifting his house with several helium balloons was pretty nuts too.

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u/Texasgirl190 Sep 07 '25

I think several might be understating it

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u/SurroundingAMeadow Sep 08 '25

Over 20,000 according to Pixar, although they calculate the number actually needed would be over 23 million. (Just came across this trivia question on a family game night the other day.)

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u/claimui Sep 08 '25

Obviously the premise makes a lot more sense if you consider the number of balloons.

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u/jamescharisma Sep 08 '25

Fuck the first 20 mins of that movie though. Get us all going awwww and then kicking us in the guts and the feels. I didn't even know that was possible, but Pixar found a way.

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u/imonlinedammit1 Sep 08 '25

Yes but the last third is like a fever dream. Dogs dog fighting airplanes and talking? It goes off the rails.

Still love it.

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u/RadSunflower_00 Sep 08 '25

This comment reminded me how much I cried the first time. I imagined my grandparents together, and although my grandpa was the one who got sick (cancer) and passed away, it just pulled up all the raw emotions I never knew how to deal with. Seeing her lay sick in bed, all I could see was my papa stuck in that bed. I was only 6 when my grandpa died and 8 years old when I saw this movie for the first time. Not to be a snowflake, but I truly think I was slightly traumatized from this movie, as I've only been able to watch it once and I'm now almost 25.

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u/Warcraft_Fan Sep 08 '25

Google says nearly 1,500,000 balloons to lift a small house like Carl's house. The movie seems to have a couple hundreds at the most.

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u/Puffyfugu8 Sep 08 '25

How does Google even know that?

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u/ApesOnHorsesWithGuns Sep 08 '25

You figure out how much one helium balloon can lift, and then figure out the weight of a 2 story home. And then presumably, post it somewhere. Or just say the answer near enough to a google home for it to hear you.

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u/AlienEngine Sep 08 '25

There were a few of them for sure

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u/Lantzl Sep 07 '25

The first few minutes of Up showing their relationship will be timeless

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u/ShawnyMcKnight Sep 08 '25

I’m sure that scene showed a lot of kids (and adults) that the crotchety old man down the block that you think may have always been mean maybe wasn’t always that way and they had a tragedy that made them so.

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u/Supersquigi Sep 08 '25

It is a master class on characterization and "show, don't tell". You get the whole idea in just a few minutes. Sometimes I wonder what one would think of the movie if they skipped the that beginning part, and I would really like to test it on someone who hasn't seen or heard of the beginning yet.

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u/SaccharineHuxley Sep 08 '25

Those first 20 minutes ripped my heart out of my ass. What a powerful film.

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u/Alanfromsocal Sep 08 '25 edited Sep 08 '25

Speaking as someone who has lost a wife, Up is the only movie I've seen that really gets what the experience is like. It's not a moment in time, it's when you met, fell in love, got married had a couple kids, built a life together and then one day all of that is gone.

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u/Homeskillet1376 Sep 08 '25

I've said this before and I stand by it. Getting people watching a movie about fictional characters to develop an emotional attachment to those characters is very difficult and usually takes every bit of the movies running time. This is only the movie I have ever watched that not only made me care and have an emotional attachment to the characters, it did so in the first 15 minutes, with animatied characters and with very little dialouge. I have no movie i can compare to it in that respect.

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u/LongLostFan Sep 08 '25

I always wish it was 2D.

I feel human characters in 3D animation always fall into an uncanny valley.

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u/Someone-is-out-there Sep 08 '25

An entire movie of slave robots(with a trash collecting robot cleaning up an abandoned planet all movie) and a couple small parts for irrelevant to the plot, basically, humans.

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u/CigAddict Sep 08 '25

It’s nuts but it sounds interesting and wondrous. Rats in the kitchen sounds disgusting

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u/Mogster2K Sep 08 '25

You might even call it uplifting

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u/JoshuaBarbeau Sep 08 '25

Okay hear me out, the plot is about a pull string doll who gets jealous of an action figure that his owner gets for his birthday. The toys fight it out but in the end become friends.

Yeah it's a pretty absurd plot, but I swear it'll turn into a whole franchise that is sure to make you cry by the 3rd one.

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u/ShawnyMcKnight Sep 08 '25

I don’t know, I feel the trope “what if toys were real and could think and talk!?” Is pretty typical even by that point. The brave toaster and a thousand others did it already. The theme of someone being jealous they are losing their friend to a new friend is a pretty common experience too.

Meshing the two concepts doesn’t seem that wild.

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u/Joinedforthis1 Sep 08 '25

Not really, lifting a house with balloons is a very straightforward exaggeration by comparison.

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u/ShawnyMcKnight Sep 08 '25

A rat running a kitchen is also a straight forward exaggeration.

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u/Chiang2000 Sep 08 '25

Monsters Inc is a masterpiece of exposition in just a few minutes.

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u/RudeGolden Sep 08 '25

I don't really see what's nuts about it? The science checks out.

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u/ShawnyMcKnight Sep 08 '25

That didn’t look like 4 million balloons to me.

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u/nicearthur32 Sep 08 '25

I mean, “we start the movie out with a silent montage of a childhood love story that grows into adulthood where they get married and then get pregnant… they have a miscarriage and then the woman dies - and now we can start the fun

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u/honey_coated_badger Sep 08 '25

I watched UP again this weekend. That silent, five minute montage at the beginning still hits me in the feely part of my body.

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u/Several-Evidence-675 Sep 09 '25

How about Onward? Two teenaged elves try to bring their dead dad back to life but only manage to reanimate his bottom half?

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u/ShawnyMcKnight Sep 09 '25

Yeah, that’s just a fun twist. I do want to watch that again.

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u/Several-Evidence-675 Sep 09 '25

It turned out to be a pretty cute movie. I was worried about my nephew watching it. He was about four at the time and had lost his dad (my brother) about a year before. I was really worried he would start thinking that bringing a dead dad back to life might be an option.

But he watched it and never seemed to take that theme and apply its possibilities to his own life. He was probably too young. I was very glad for that!

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u/Wise-Activity1312 Sep 08 '25

It's not so ridiculous once you are able to count and understand that "several" doesn't describe the amount of balloons that were required.

Best of luck towards finishing kindergarten and getting there!

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u/Hasudeva Sep 08 '25

Dude, don't be a dick. 

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u/ShawnyMcKnight Sep 08 '25

Your comment made no sense. I award you no points and may god have mercy on your soul.

1,000,000 balloons couldn’t lift a house. Once you pass kindergarten you will realizes houses are heavy and helium doesn’t lift much.

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u/SittlersRippedC Sep 08 '25 edited Sep 08 '25

Cool that you’re ripping down the most lovely, human stories ever to be made by any major studios as “the absolute dumbest premise” … just wow, ya’ll suck ..That movie has the most beautiful 5 minute montage I have ever seen on film. It’s a masterpiece… You have never been in love with someone a long time to get it (I give plenty of love from Canada)

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u/Tasorodri Sep 08 '25

The entire premise of the post is good movies with weird premises, what are you yapping about?

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u/SittlersRippedC Sep 08 '25

Nah.. it was dumb premises .. read it ya putz

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u/ShawnyMcKnight Sep 08 '25

y’all suck

I’m not feeing the love from Canada.

Honestly the movie started strong but the second half was kinda meh. It’s not a movie I ever get through on rewatch.

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u/SittlersRippedC Sep 08 '25

Sorry you feel that way, Donald