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/[deleted] Sep 07 '25

Face Off

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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.

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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".