What movie did you love that had a stupid plot but the execution was excellent?

87 points · 83 comments · view on lemmy.world

83 Comments

graycube@lemmy.world · 64 pts · 318d (2 replies)

Monty Python And The Holy Grail

mitrosus@discuss.tchncs.de · -19 pts · 318d (1 reply)

Highly overrated

cynar@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 318d

It's definitely a product of its time. Some of the humour has become a bit dated, but it still holds up well, as a low budget production.

thesohoriots@lemmy.world · 36 pts · 318d (5 replies)

Bubba Ho-Tep. Nursing home Elvis fights the Mummy? Silly as hell. But they nailed it.

d00phy@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 318d (2 replies)

Saw this at a screening in DC. Bruce Campbell was there for a post movie Q&A.

thesohoriots@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 317d (1 reply)

That’s awesome! I heard that his only question before saying yes to the role was whether or not you’d see Elvis’s penis.

d00phy@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 317d

Don’t remember him talking about that, but I do remember him being asked about making another Evil Dead movie. His answer was, “you’ll have to get Sam to walk away from his multimillion dollar checks for making Spider-Man movies long enough to do another Evil Dead, but I’d be all for it!”

mushroommunk@lemmy.today · 5 pts · 318d (1 reply)

That's been on my list for ages. I really need to watch it

ook@discuss.tchncs.de · 3 pts · 318d
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obinice@lemmy.world · 33 pts · 318d (1 reply)

Pacific Rim. Building giant robots to fight large creatures.... Ridiculous, but fantastic film!

scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech · 19 pts · 318d

Pacific rim was one of those movies that cemented that you can't just say a movie is bad or good. The tomato-meter doesn't have nuance.

There are days I want to come home and experience the perfect sci fi movie with amazing effects, and there are days I want a drama that brings me to tears. Then some days I just want to see giant robots punching the shit out of aliens. All three are good movies for their own merits.

callouscomic@lemmy.zip · 30 pts · 318d (1 reply)

Kung Fury

silasmariner@programming.dev · 2 pts · 317d

Don't know what you mean, plot makes perfect sense. Hard boiled Kung Fu detective fights nazi robots with dinosaurs

scytale@piefed.zip · 26 pts · 318d (2 replies)

Shoot ‘Em Up (2007). Basically Bugs Bunny in action movie form.

coaxil@lemmy.zip · 7 pts · 318d

Fucking love this movie!

TerraRoot@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 317d

Kills a dude in the opening coupla minutes with a carrot, Peak.

UncleArthur@lemmy.world · 26 pts · 318d (1 reply)

The Blues Brothers (1980) or Clue.

Jayb151@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 317d

Clue is legit one of my favorites

RaoulDuke@sh.itjust.works · 24 pts · 317d (3 replies)

Big Lebowski.

Alcoholic stoner on the search for a new rug and gets caught up in a fake kidnapping.

bluesheep@sh.itjust.works · 8 pts · 317d
Pat_Riot@lemmy.today · 8 pts · 317d

That's just like your opinion, man.

Ougie@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 317d

Shut the fuck up Donny

d00phy@lemmy.world · 22 pts · 318d (2 replies)
  • Hudson Hawk
  • Kentucky Fried Movie (multiple stupid plots)
  • Airplane 2 (1 actually had pretty common “disaster movie” plot for the time)
  • Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure
morgan_423@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 317d

Airplane 2 (1 actually had pretty common “disaster movie” plot for the time)

Your fun trivia fact for the day is that Airplane! was actually a remake of a 1950s plane disaster movie called Zero Hour! Same plot, even long stretches where they go same plot points and sometimes even shot for shot...

Airplane! just had a tonal change caused by throwing a bunch of ridiculous gags in, essentially becoming a parody of its origin movie.

If you need a YouTube rabbit hole to fill a couple of hours of dead time at some point, well, there you go.

kayzeekayzee@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 6 pts · 318d

Seconding Hudson Hawk!

Trigger2_2000@sh.itjust.works · 20 pts · 318d

Space Balls

novibe@lemmy.ml · 19 pts · 318d

Tropic Thunder! My favorite comedy. It’s so stupid but so funny.

underreacting@literature.cafe · 19 pts · 317d (7 replies)

Forrest Gump.

So there's this middle aged man waiting on a bus and telling his life story to whichever strangers happens to walk by, and he like fought in Vietnam and got a medal from nixon and showed his ass on national television and became a pingis champion and started a successful fishing company and became a millionaire and gave Nike their slogan and ran across the continent and... Oh, and he's mentally disabled and about to meet his son for the first time because the sons mom is dying of aids.

Absolutely bonkers premise, and such a fantastic movie still today.

DrSteveBrule@mander.xyz · 10 pts · 317d (4 replies)

Its even more mind blowing if you read the book. There are a lot more stupid things he does like becoming a wrestler, and an astronaut who goes on a mission in space with a baboon that he can speak with telepathically. They crash land on an uncharted island full of cannibals and they will only let him escape with their lives he he beats them at a game of chess. For whatever reason he has unlimited tries and after several years finally wins a game of chess, so they send him and his baboon on a raft and they eventually get found.

Obviously these things very fortunately didn't make it into the movie, but it's super weird to me that someone read all of that and was inspired to make it into a movie anyway. Somehow it was actually a very good movie too.

underreacting@literature.cafe · 4 pts · 317d (1 reply)

I've heard of the insanity that is the book, but somehow missed the years-long chess games. I'm even more afraid to read it now haha.

I believe this is one clear case where visual media has the upper hand over the story, as when we can see it happen it becomes somehow less unlikely than merely reading about it, because the "proof" is visible right there (though this might be because I don't have a mind visual when reading, it's fully an emotional and mental experience).

Also the lack of communicating with space apes...

jerebear39@slrpnk.net · 2 pts · 317d

I'm the same with reading novels! It's so hard for me to situate things because I don't see images while reading! I found out that's called antaphasia!

silasmariner@programming.dev · 3 pts · 317d

He also has a savant's knack for higher mathematics!

CetaceanNeeded@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 317d

Hmm, let's work shop this. Slice out the island bit and let's make that into its own move.

  • Get rid of the cannibals, let's make the island deserted, there's no one left for the unlimited chess games, so let's have him just go a bit nuts for a few years.
  • Exchange the baboon with a volleyball.
  • Let's get Tom Hanks back.

Oh wait...

wildcardology@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 317d (1 reply)

The film maker already stated that Jenny did not have Aids.

underreacting@literature.cafe · 1 pts · 316d

Huh. I always assumed that based on the time period and how involved the characters were in all the cultural chaos of their times, plus her involvement with drugs and the free love-movement... it probably wasn't actually spelled out in the film though, so that's on me.

mushroommunk@lemmy.today · 18 pts · 318d (1 reply)

Hear me out but Iron sky. A group of Nazis have been hiding on the moon. They're back now. I thought it was a great romp and you could tell the creators cared.

Kung Fury was also 10/10. Time travel Nazi fighting.

I see a theme lol

Postmortal_Pop@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 318d

Iron sky is a masterpiece and anyone who says otherwise is getting the arian treatment.

EvilBit@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 318d (1 reply)

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. I’m a sucker for films that go balls to the wall on a style.

Postmortal_Pop@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 318d

I love this movie so much for exactly the same reason

MotoAsh@piefed.social · 17 pts · 318d (3 replies)

The new Naked Gun, actually. The idea falls in to the same FUCK NO camp as every other god damn nostalgia grab from Hollywood in recent years. The plot is stupid, even compared to some of the old Leslie Nielsen movies that worked the plot developments in to jokes a bit better and naturally had more of their own humor than references .... buuuuut, the execution still had me straight up laughing out loud at quite a lot of it.

themoken@startrek.website · 12 pts · 318d (1 reply)

I put this on expecting a trainwreck and a cash grab too, but it still had me laughing my ass off. It really felt like they understood why the originals were so funny.

laxu@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 316d

I feel like they could have gone much crazier with the premise, but it had some great jokes.

DoGeeseSeeGod@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 10 pts · 318d

I love that one of the first items stolen is literally labeled PLOT Device

JakenVeina@midwest.social · 16 pts · 318d (4 replies)

At the risk of being topical, K-Pop Demon Hunters comes to mind. Like, not really a stupid PLOT but a pretty stupid/ridiculous premise. They make it WORK, though. That movie is SO much better than the title gives it any right to be.

tiramichu@sh.itjust.works · 7 pts · 318d (2 replies)

My seven-year-old niece showed me that movie.

I didn't have high expectations going in but it's an absolute banger, largely because of the excellent songs. It is, fundamentally, a musical.

And yes it's silly, but not in the ways that matter.

I remember watching an anime years back which has an anthropomorhpic bread bun who is depressed because he came out the oven burnt. He spends his days working a miserable office job and his evenings getting 'drunk' on 'milk', wishing he wasn't burnt so he could dare ask out the girl of his dreams, the beautiful and perfect strawberry bread.

The guy is literally bread. The premise is as silly as they come, but the characters are real and their feelings are intensely relatable, so it works.

Demon Hunters is the same show. Main girl is trying to make it with her band, but is secretly worried and self-conscious because she's hiding a terrible secret that she knows would tear her friendships and her life apart. And the movie is about how she comes to terms with herself.

So yes it's got unbelievable fights, and earth-protecting barriers that are somehow powered by music, and a group of demons that for some reason decide to form a shit-hot boy band (they're very good). But that's not the movie, that's just the vehicle.

cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 4 pts · 318d

FWIW, the honmoon isn't powered by music. It's powered by the consciousness/mood of the populace, which is influenced with music. The demons are trying to steal souls so they can attack it directly. Ostensibly, what they've been trying before — such as terrorist attacks on planes as shown in the beginning — hasn't been as effective. So they're trying something else.

It's supposed to be about how music brings people together.

Now, how the demons take souls by getting people to listen to this other band... that's not as clear. I'd think Soda Pop bringing people together would have the exact same effect on the honmoon as Golden bringing people together, but what do I know?

Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 316d

I remember watching an anime years back which has an anthropomorhpic bread bun

Wait until you hear about 'Bernd das Brot'.
A animated handpuppet that runs the evening program on a children tv channel.
Thing is: The bread is depressed, is a connoisseur (translated term) for woodchip wallpaper and always tries to get away from the show.

cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 318d

I think whether KPDH has a stupid/ridiculous premise depends on how well it fits with the Korean stuff it's based on. I'm not Korean, I don't know anything about that stuff, so I just accept it at face value and it's fine.

hbar@lemmy.ml · 15 pts · 318d (1 reply)

Dude, where's my car

RaoulDuke@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 317d

Dude, where’s your car?

humanamerican@lemmy.zip · 14 pts · 318d

Cocaine Bear

Pulptastic@midwest.social · 14 pts · 317d

The Transporter. Dude is a professional delivery driver for bad guys. But the music is perfect, the driving is fun, the fight scenes are creative and exciting. The love scenes suck… but all in all it was way better than I expected and is still my favorite JS movie.

Infrapink@thebrainbin.org · 12 pts · 318d (2 replies)

Snakes on a Plane

lichtmetzger@discuss.tchncs.de · 4 pts · 317d (1 reply)

So over the top that it's fun again. Throughout the movie, the snakes get progressively bigger until these MASSIVE snake-like schlongs get sucked out of the plane at the end. :D So unrealistic and ridiculous!

And of course, a snake had to bite into a nipple.

They wanted to make really funny and entertaining trash and they did.

Infrapink@thebrainbin.org · 4 pts · 317d

You can tell everybody involved knew they were making a movie called Snakes on a Plane and just embraced it.

Also, the blonde flight attendant who is long of leg and short of skirt? Pretty cool she spends the entire movie being effective and competent, and is never a panicky damsel.

luciferofastora@feddit.org · 12 pts · 316d (1 reply)

There was some Jason Statham flick, Crank, where he has to keep his heart rate up after being poisoned, so he goes on one hell of a adrenaline-junkie-spree, from picking fights over reckless driving and illegal drugs to public sex. Also, there's some generic mafia gang triad war stuff going on, with kidnappings and all, but really, "you're gonna die if you stop doing stupid shit" is about as dumb a premise as it gets.

But damn if it didn't entertain me to watch.

hbar@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 314d

This movie was an instant classic! I enjoyed the second one too, Crank 2 High Voltage

dharmacurious@slrpnk.net · 11 pts · 318d

Kung Pow Enter the Fist

friend_of_satan@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 318d (1 reply)

What's Up Tiger Lily

Allen took footage from a Japanese spy film, International Secret Police: Key of Keys (1965), and overdubbed it with completely original dialogue that had nothing to do with the plot of the original film. He both put in new scenes and rearranged the order of existing scenes, producing a one-hour movie from the 93 minutes of the original film. He completely changed the tone of the film from a James Bond clone into a comedy about the search for the world's best egg salad recipe.

Hadriscus@jlai.lu · 3 pts · 318d

That sounds like genius. Will look it up cheers

xavier666@lemmy.umucat.day · 10 pts · 318d

Cocain Bear = Give cocain to a bear

amelia@feddit.org · 9 pts · 318d (1 reply)

The Fall.

Not sure if the plot was stupid but I don't remember anything about it. The cinematography however? Absolutely outstanding.

Damage@feddit.it · 1 pts · 317d

The one with the stuntman telling stories? It was incredible

CookieOfFortune@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 317d

Armageddon! Basically an excuse to have rednecks in space.

the_mighty_kracken@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 318d

Saving Private Ryan. World War II was a terrible idea.

Nemoder@lemmy.ml · 8 pts · 317d (1 reply)

City of Lost Children (1995)
A carnival strongman teams up with a young orphan girl to rescue his little brother from a mad scientist who kidnaps children to steal their dreams in the hope that it will stop him aging.

It's completely nuts but the surreal visual style and editing makes it pretty fun to watch.

Zinck@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 317d

Work of art.

aspidcor@lemmy.ml · 5 pts · 317d

Row (2016)

French horror movie about teenage period of live and about problems and temptations young people meet when they become adult

This is so unintersting for me but im rewatching this movie cous of its vibe

darklamer@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 5 pts · 318d
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trolololol@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 318d (2 replies)

Any movie done in Hollywood has a shitty plot in the last 30 years.

Action movies, many of which I enjoy, are the worst offenders.

Change my mind.

Hadriscus@jlai.lu · 4 pts · 318d

crickets

AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 316d

LorR trilogy had a decent plot, and is widely considered some of the best films ever made. The less said about The Hobbit the better, other than reminding people that The Hobbit is how Hollywood killed off the New Zealand version of SAG.

SaneMartigan@aussie.zone · 4 pts · 317d

Sahara.

ethaver@kbin.earth · 4 pts · 318d

Jupiter Ascending

Move_to_mars@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 318d

Prometheus. I say it's one of the best audio/visual movies, just don't think too hard about what anyone does or why.

VerilyFemme@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 3 pts · 316d

Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey

That plot is batshit wild, and I think it hinges on a bootstrap paradox. But that's the point. It's Bill and Ted, they just deal with it as Bill and Ted do. From robot clones, to Death, to death, to Hell, to Heaven, to Smokey and the Bandit III, it's a perfect film.

Coopr8@kbin.earth · 3 pts · 318d (1 reply)

Smiley Face, truly a stoner classic, basically no plot at all but also excellent.

cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 318d

Smiley Face was made by Greg Araki, who has made some really dark, depressing, and generally fucked-up shit. I mean, he has a movie called "Totally Fucked Up." If not Smiley Face, he may be best known for The Doom Generation. He also made a few movies with James Duval, who was the crop duster's son in Independence Day (his first big film IIRC) and Frank the Bunny in Donnie Darko.

Araki made Smiley Face because his last few movies were so depressing, so he wanted to do something a little brighter. That's why it has "basically no plot," it's a feel-good (ish?) movie.

AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 316d

Hackers 1995.

SnokenKeekaGuard@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 318d (1 reply)

Depends on what stupid means.

Theres a lot of surrealist films I love. Particularly by bunuel and lynch.

bradorsomething@ttrpg.network · 1 pts · 318d

Well that’s just, like, your opinion, man.

Muffi@programming.dev · 2 pts · 317d

"Wristcutters" is such a dumb premise, but the movie is so well made that it just drips thick vibes. Love that movie.

darklamer@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 318d (3 replies)
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njm1314@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 318d (2 replies)

Stupid plot?

darklamer@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 316d (1 reply)
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njm1314@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 316d

If you were really bad at sumerizing i suppose.

teawrecks@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 317d

Spontaneous

For some unknown reason, teenagers in a small town keep randomly exploding in a mess of blood and guts. The rest of the plot is a coming of age black comedy around that premise. I thought it was quite good.