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.
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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.
You are watching: 10 Great Movies That Sound Awful When You Explain Them To Someone
10
The LEGO Movie (2014)
Directed By Phil Lord & Christopher Miller
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9/10
7.5/10
The Lego Movie
PG
AnimationActionAdventure
The first film in the Lego movie franchise, 2014’s The Lego Movie tells the story of Emmett Brickowski (Chris Pratt), an average construction worker from the Lego city of Bricksburg. After finding the fabled “Piece of Resistance”, Emmett finds himself opposing the plans of the villainous Lord Business (Will Ferrell) with the help of both original characters and licensed ones such as Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman.
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Release Date
February 7, 2014
Cast
Chris Pratt
, Alison Brie
, Channing Tatum
, Nick Offerman
, Liam Neeson
, Will Ferrell
, Cobie Smulders
, Elizabeth Banks
, Will Arnett
, Charlie Day
, Jonah Hill
Director
Phil Lord
, Chris Miller
Writers
Dan Hageman
, Kevin Hageman
, Phil Lord
, Chris Miller
Runtime
100 Minutes
Sequel(s)
The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part
, The Lego Batman Movie
, The LEGO Ninjago Movie
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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
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10/10
9.7/10
12 Angry Men
r
DramaCrime
12 Angry Men is a 1957 drama centering on twelve jurors in New York City who are deciding the verdict of a murder trial. Eleven of the jurors are set on a guilty verdict, but one stubborn juror slowly starts to change the others’ minds with his careful consideration of the evidence.
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Release Date
April 10, 1957
Runtime
96 minutes
Cast
John Fiedler
, Henry Fonda
, Martin Balsam
, Jack Klugman
, Lee J. Cobb
, E.G. Marshall
Director
Sidney Lumet
Writers
Reiginald Rose
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 passed. 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.
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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
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The VelociPastor
HorrorComedyFantasySci-Fi
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Release Date
September 28, 2018
Runtime
75 minutes
Cast
Claire Hsu
, Gregory James Cohan
, Alyssa Kempinski
, Voltaire
, Nicholas M. Garofolo
, Jesse Turits
Director
Brendan Steere
Writers
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 assisted 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 shot 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
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8/10
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
PG-13
ActionAdventureComedyFantasyRomance
Based on Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim series of graphic novels, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World follows the titular slacker musician (Michael Cera) as he strives to earn a record deal by winning the Battle of the Bands organized by music mogul Gideon Graves (Jason Schwartzman). After meeting and falling in love with Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Scott learns that he must also defeat her seven evil exes. Chris Evans, Aubrey Plaza, Brandon Routh, Kieran Culkin, Anna Kendrick, and Brie Larson round out the film’s star-studded and quirky ensemble.
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Release Date
August 12, 2010
Runtime
113 minutes
Cast
Michael Cera
, Alison Pill
, Mark Webber
, Johnny Simmons
, Ellen Wong
, Kieran Culkin
Director
Edgar Wright
Writers
Edgar Wright
, Michael Bacall
Edgar Wright isn’t known for using the most sane premises for his films. His breakout movie, Shaun of the Dead (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.
Bass 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
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8/10
Phone Booth
R
MysteryThriller
Phone Booth, directed by Joel Schumacher, follows a New York publicist who answers a ringing phone in a booth and receives a chilling ultimatum: if he hangs up, he will be killed. The threat is underscored by a laser rifle sight, proving the caller’s deadly seriousness.
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Release Date
April 4, 2003
Runtime
81 minutes
Cast
Colin Farrell
, Kiefer Sutherland
, Forest Whitaker
, Radha Mitchell
, Katie Holmes
, Paula Jai Parker
, Arian Ash
, Tia Texada
, John Enos III
, Richard T. Jones
, Keith Nobbs
, Dell Yount
, James MacDonald
, Josh Pais
, Yorgo Constantine
, Colin Patrick Lynch
, Troy Gilbert
, Seth William Meier
, Svetlana Efremova
, Billy Erb
, Domenick Lombardozzi
, Maile Flanagan
, Tom Reynolds
, Julio Oscar Mechoso
, Karara Muhoro
, Zidu Chen
Director
Joel Schumacher
Writers
Larry Cohen
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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
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6/10
8.3/10
Megamind
PG
ComedyFamily
From Dreamworks Studios, Megamind follows the titular character, played by Will Ferrell, an alien supervillain who, after defeating his arch nemesis Metro Man (Brad Pitt), must do battle with the new superhero he created to replace Metro Man when his powers start to become out of control. Along the way, Megamind struggles to share his true self with Roxanne (Tina Fey), a reporter who has been dating in the disguise of a normal human.
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Release Date
November 11, 2010
Runtime
96minutes
Cast
Will Ferrell
, Ben Stiller
, Brad Pitt
, Jonah Hill
Director
Tom McGrath
Writers
Will Ferrell
, Brad Pitt
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.
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5
The titular 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
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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 titular 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 assessed that Her‘s technology isn’t very far from being a reality.
3
Trainspotting (1996)
Directed By Danny Boyle
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9/10
Trainspotting
R
Drama
Trainspotting is a darkly comedic drama based on the novel by Irvine Welsh. The film follows Mark Renton and his friends, a group of Scottish heroin addicts who journey outside of Edinburgh to find where the grass is greener. Renton attempts to clean up his act as he and his friends find themselves in increasingly absurd situations as they try to find the bright side of life.
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Release Date
August 9, 1996
Runtime
93 minutes
Cast
Ewen Bremner
, Ewan McGregor
, Jonny Lee Miller
, Kevin McKidd
, Robert Carlyle
, Kelly Macdonald
Director
Danny Boyle
Writers
John Hodge
Sequel(s)
Trainspotting 2
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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
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9.8/10
Ratatouille
G
AnimationComedyDrama
Remy the rat dreams of becoming a great chef despite the world’s anti-rodent bias. After moving to Paris to follow his dream, he teams up with kitchen assistant Linguini and shows off his culinary skills in a professional kitchen. But can the pair convince the world’s most notorious food critic that anyone can be a chef?
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Release Date
June 29, 2007
Runtime
111 Minutes
Cast
Patton Oswalt
, Ian Holm
, Lou Romano
, Brad Garrett
, Peter O’Toole
, Janeane Garofalo
, Brian Dennehy
, Peter Sohn
, Will Arnett
Director
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
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6.5/10
Swiss Army Man
R
AdventureComedyDrama
Starring Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe, the 2016 comedy Swiss Army Man follows Hank, a man who befriends a dead body on a deserted island and uses its unexpected abilities to survive. It is the directed by Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan and also features Mary Elizabeth Winstead in its cast.
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Release Date
July 1, 2016
Cast
Timothy Eulich
, Aaron Marshall
, Daniel Radcliffe
, Marika Casteel
, Paul Dano
, Mary Elizabeth Winstead
, Richard Gross
Director
Dan Kwan
, Daniel Scheinert
Writers
Daniel Scheinert
, Dan Kwan
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.
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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.
Source: https://dinhtienhoang.edu.vn
Category: Entertainment