Often, a beloved movie seems impossible to describe without making it sound boring or awful. Some of the greatest movies ever made have wild, over-the-top wacky premises that seem downright bad on paper but turn out to be perfect. Bad movie concepts with good execution aren’t rare, but they’re extremely difficult to recommend. The person being addressed will most likely dismiss such a movie if they hear a description.
In a world where amazing movie concepts are executed terribly regularly, the idea of investing in a movie that sounds like a snoozefest isn’t particularly appealing. Marketing departments for most films work tirelessly to make them sound as appealing as possible, but some concepts are too weird to sell. The only thing to do for such films is to remind viewers of other movies that turned out way better than expected and hope that convinces them to try out more bizarre-sounding films based on the statistics and faith in word-of-mouth.
10
The LEGO Movie (2014)
Directed By Phil Lord & Christopher Miller
A kid is playing with LEGOs, but the movie isn’t about him or anything that happens in the real world. Instead, it follows the story he’s acting out in his playtime with the LEGO minifigues. It features iconic pop-culture characters like Batman and C-3PO, but the protagonist is a character who never becomes a competent fighter and makes awkward speeches. He’s supposed to save the world, but his pep talks make people want to give up. The LEGO Movie is a retelling of the hero’s journey, where the bad guy uses glue to steal freedom of will.
Such a concept sounds ludicrous on paper. But, anyone who’s seen the movie will know how much heart there is in the wild narrative that’s buoyed by on-the-nose shenanigans and over-the-top dialogue. As an exploration of the merits of self-belief and personal freedom, it’s a very smart handling that acknowledges people’s growing fear about the control that millionaires and corporations can have over them. Add to that a funny and wise mentor voiced by Morgan Freeman, and one finds a bonafide masterpiece in The LEGO Movie.
9
12 Angry Men (1957)
Directed By Sidney Lumet
The 12 men on a jury sit and discuss the details of a case they’ve just heard. The evidence is damning, the crime is horrendous, and everyone has busy lives they want to go back to. Everyone’s certain about a guilty verdict, save for one quiet gentleman who doesn’t speak up until a significant amount of time has pᴀssed. The conclusion is obvious from the start — his words will make every juror change their verdict, but it takes nearly 100 minutes to get there.
Compared to the fast-paced crime thrillers made every day nowadays, such an idea sounds boring. The crime isn’t even the subject matter, people simply discuss it for an hour and a half. And yet, everyone who’s ever heard of 12 Angry Men knows it’s one of the greatest films in the history of cinema. Its reputation precedes itself as a patiently told narrative about the human condition. People’s worldviews are made bare in a tiny room when 12 men argue back and forth while they try to reach a verdict. Drama doesn’t get more riveting than this.
8
The VelociPastor (2018)
Directed By Brendan Steere
A man can turn into a velociraptor and must fight corrupt church officials who have employed the services of ninjas to distribute drugs among people. Drugs are supposed to make them addicts, which will turn them to church as they look for penance and this will help the church grow its following. The man’s ᴀssisted by a woman who’s a hooker-lawyer-doctor. She hasn’t decided which one she primarily is, but she has the skillsets necessary for each job. The best way to introduce The VelociPastor to people is to read its IMDb blurb out loud:
“After losing his parents, a priest travels to China, where he inherits a mysterious ability that allows him to turn into a dinosaur. At first horrified by this new power, a hooker convinces him to use it to fight crime. And ninjas.”
It is impossible to make the idea sound appealing to someone who isn’t interested in wacky zero-budget filmmaking. Yet, The VelociPastor has a cult following and the scene where a car holding the protagonist’s parents is supposed to blow up, which is just a sH๏τ of an empty street with the words “VFX: Car On Fire” on it, has its own fanbase. It is one of those good movies people have low expectations for, but can’t forget or stop talking about once they’ve watched it.
7
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (2010)
Directed By Edgar Wright
Edgar Wright isn’t known for using the most sane premises for his films. His breakout movie, Shaun of the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ (2004), which tells the story of a jaded middle-class man stuck in a zombie apocalypse, is one of the most hilarious and iconic horror comedy movies ever made. However, even by those standards, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is conceptually a tad over-the-top.
Bᴀss guitarist Scott Pilgrim wants to date Ramona Flowers. However, her baggage from her past relationships has a very literal manifestation — her seven exes will challenge any newcomer to combat, and they have to beat all of them to date her. Such a wacky concept also seems stupid on paper, and for the most part, the film is pretty silly. However, the execution is top-notch. Video game-esque editing, stylish VFX, and a few meaningful heart-to-heart conversations make it an entertaining movie worth everyone’s time.
6
Phone Booth (2002)
Directed By Joel Schumacher
Back in the 1960s, Larry Cohen and Alfred Hitchcock discussed the idea of a movie set entirely inside a phone booth. It took Cohen 30 years to finally create a script and then find the correct director and cast to bring his vision to life. The concept still sounds too far-fetched for an interesting thriller, though. A morally corrupt publicist, played by Colin Farrell, is trapped in a phone booth and forced to confess his erroneous ways by a sniper who threatens to shoot people he cares about if he refuses.
From Steven Spielberg to Mel Gibson, many prominent people in the industry had shown interest in Phone Booth before Joel Schumacher and Colin Farrell were confirmed because Larry Cohen refused to compromise on the concept that he and Hitchcock had conceived of years ago.
If the idea itself seems paper-thin, the knowledge that the movie doesn’t feature any flashbacks and is almost entirely filmed in and around the phone booth makes it even harder to take it seriously. However, Phone Booth‘s single-location real-time style of storytelling does wonders. It’s a tense thriller with nothing to distract from the suspense as the action unfolds at the same time as they’re being shown. Farrell’s underrated performance will get under viewers’ skins and leave them gasping for air when the film ends.
5
Megamind (2010)
Directed By Tom McGrath
A supervillain with a literally oversized head containing his huge brain that’s a testament to his superior intellect, defeats his biggest rival, the main superhero in their city, but then gets bored. Out of boredom from having no one to fight, he makes another superhero, but he becomes evil instead. The farther one goes into describing the plot of Megamind, the harder it gets for listeners to take it seriously. However, anyone who’s watched Megamind knows how uniquely energetic, poetic, and stylish it is.
The тιтular character has an impeccable fashion sense, the humor of the movie is always on point, and the story explores the driving philosophy behind heroism as a concept. Megamind is a tale of rehabilitation, where a man who decided he was destined for villainy because of the ostracism he faced once develops a nuanced worldview and changes his ways. With stunning animation and unforgettable one-liners, it’s one of the best animated movies currently streaming on Netflix.
4
Her (2013)
Directed By Spike Jonze
A lonely man who writes letters for a living falls in love with an A.I. This blurb sounds less and less ridiculous the more A.I. gets developed, but at the time of its release, Her‘s premise seemed rather dystopian without much substance to it. It sounds too self-indulgent to create a holistic and meaningful experience for a viewer. It didn’t help that the film had gained a reputation for being a fictional reimagination of Spike Jonze’s relationship with Sofia Coppola, who’d earlier directed Scarlett Johansson in Lost in Translation, another film said to be about their relationship.
Johansson’s voice as the тιтular character and Joaquin Phoenix’s beautifully repressed performance as the lonely protagonist make it more than worth the time. As an exploration of what intimacy means on physical and emotional levels, Her does a fantastic job of portraying the loneliness that plagues people in a world where even personal letter writing has to be outsourced to a corporation. In today’s world, it’s even more meaningful. An A.I. expert recently ᴀssessed that Her‘s technology isn’t very far from being a reality.
3
Trainspotting (1996)
Directed By Danny Boyle
Let alone difficult to pitch as a good time, Trainspotting is hard to describe as a movie per se. Ewan McGregor’s character attempts to get sober and fails many times, leading to more and more catastrophic outcomes each time. That’s all there is to the plot if one were to explain it in broad strokes. It wouldn’t help to add that the movie is atmospheric in terms of depicting the depravity of drug addiction or that McGregor goes on an extended monologue about why being Scottish is shameful.
Danny Boyle’s film is one of those movies where every character is horrible, and yet, it’s undoubtedly an entertaining watch. The imaginative dream sequences that the film uses to explore the fragile and disrupted states of mind of the addicts are impossible to describe in words. One must experience Trainspotting in all its shocking and disgusting depth to grasp why it has stood the test of time as one of the best movies about drug addiction. The bizarre balance of comedy and horror in what is actually a drama only makes sense when one watches the film.
2
Ratatouille (2007)
Directed By Brad Bird
Even by Disney Pixar standards, who have made movies about talking cars and toys coming to life, a film about a rat controlling a man by his hair like a puppeteer to successfully become an excellent chef, seems too dubious of an idea to work. The very thought of a rodent in the kitchen is gross, and even through the lens of Pixar’s animation, which makes everything adorable and wholesome, this seems like a bad idea.
Ratatouille was nominated in four different categories and even won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2008.
Not only does it work, but Ratatouille also belongs in the hall of fame of animated movies as one of the greatest ever made. A story with more heart in it than the premise promises and an enchanting visual design that brings out Paris’ romanticism, it takes the seemingly disgusting idea and tells a story about friendship. The cute rat is a beloved character all around the world, and even a food expert recommends Ratatouille as one of the best movies set in a restaurant.
1
Swiss Army Man (2016)
Directed By Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert
The Daniels have now become household names for directing Everything Everywhere All at Once, one of the best martial arts adventure movies, which received 11 nominations and seven wins at the Academy Awards in 2023. However, before that, they once made a movie that had one of the weirdest premises of all time. A man is about to hang himself after being marooned on an island, when a corpse washes up on shore, which can fart so powerfully, that the man can ride it like a jetski across the ocean.
The body humor is lovely to watch on screen because it is hilarious, but it also sets up the unlikely bond between the man and the corpse, who is practically animated and capable of speaking. When described, the movie sounds silly to the point of being meaningless, especially with details like drinking water from the corpse. However, the performances and the Daniels’ self-aware humorous direction add an unexpected amount of weight to this seemingly ludicrous concept.
