A time travel comedy about certain family relations that became the highest-grossing movie of 1985.
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00:00Movies are all about the execution, because no matter how good or bad a film might sound
00:05on paper, it's only an idea until it's actually gone before cameras and been edited
00:10into a releasable end product.
00:12The gulf between a film's basic premise and the final result can be massive, and often
00:17the simple details just don't do justice to a movie's finer details.
00:22Case in point, we have these 10 great movies, each of which, nevertheless, seemed like frankly
00:27terrible ideas at a superficial, conceptual level, but each ended up proving the many
00:32doubters riotously wrong, turning in a terrifically entertaining final movie that soared far above
00:38and beyond what anyone could have expected pre-release.
00:42And so, with that in mind, I'm Ellie with WhatCulture here with 10 Terrible Ideas That
00:47Became Great Movies.
00:4910.
00:50A Movie Based on Lego, The Lego Movie
00:54The moment that a movie based on Lego was announced, many rolled their eyes and immediately
00:59dismissed it as a project doomed to be nothing more than a soulless 90-minute commercial
01:04for the plastic toy bricks.
01:06Despite appearing to epitomise Hollywood's creative bankruptcy on paper, The Lego Movie
01:11had a secret weapon in hand, filmmakers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller.
01:16Lord and Miller took an inherently cynical concept and produced something startlingly
01:21creative, hilarious and beautifully animated.
01:25Thoroughly self-aware of its own torrid potential, while gamely poking fun at the state of modern
01:31blockbusters, The Lego Movie was teeming with invention in every single scene.
01:36The biggest surprise, though, was the risky live-action divergence in the third act, which
01:41only deepened the movie's very earnest, genuine love for toys and play.
01:46To that end, Lord and Miller were able to have their cake and eat it too, producing
01:50a subversive, tongue-in-cheek animated adventure film that still worked as a giddy endorsement
01:55for its titular product.
01:58Everybody won, basically.
01:599.
02:00A Film Set Almost Entirely Inside a Phone Booth
02:03Phone booth.
02:04Movies where characters are trapped in a single location for basically the entire runtime
02:10are always a risk, but at least something like Ryan Reynolds' Buried could sell itself
02:14on the inherent anxiety of being buried alive.
02:18Joel Schumacher's phone booth, however, had the decidedly more pedestrian setting
02:22of a New York City phone booth, where protagonist Drew Shepard was held hostage by a sniper
02:28with a grudge.
02:29You can practically picture a studio executive shaking their head the moment somebody pitched
02:34this to them, because while a single location is an easy way to keep a movie's budget
02:38down, that location generally needs to be cinematically compelling, and a phone booth?
02:45Not so much.
02:46Thankfully, Phone Booth had a hell of a lot going for it.
02:49Schumacher's dynamic direction, which regularly deploys 24-style split screens, a tight, witty
02:55script and a superb central performance from Colin Farrell, who dominates the screen in
03:00basically every single shot.
03:02And 20 years on, it remains one of the all-time best single location thrillers, proving how
03:08smart filmmaking and strong acting can make the most of an unassuming setting.
03:138.
03:14A Jumanji Sequel Without Robin Williams
03:17Jumanji Welcome to the Jungle
03:19It cannot be overstated just how much of a fuss Jumanji fans kicked up when a sequel
03:25was announced less than a year after Robin Williams' tragic death.
03:29Beyond some deeming it too soon to mount a Jumanji sequel following Williams' passing,
03:34there was the obvious opposition to a new film which couldn't feature him at all.
03:38And by the time it was confirmed that the new Jumanji would switch out the board game
03:42for a video game, most had readily dismissed it as a soulless, soft reboot nobody was asking
03:48for.
03:49But what a pleasant surprise Jumanji Welcome to the Jungle turned out to be, largely due
03:54to its inspired central gimmick, the players being embodied by larger-than-life avatars
03:59within the game, crossed with a hilarious body swap element.
04:03The chemistry between the in-game cast was terrific.
04:07Jack Black genuinely gave one of the finest performances of his career, it was relentlessly
04:12fun and action-packed and even circled back to the original Jumanji in a way that sincerely
04:17honoured it.
04:18And beyond that, despite releasing mere days after Star Wars The Last Jedi, it still grossed
04:23almost $1 billion globally.
04:26Who could have seen any of that coming?
04:287.
04:29Keanu Reeves avenges his murdered dog, John Wick
04:34Keanu Reeves' career may be back on top right now, but around the time of the first
04:38John Wick's release, he'd been in a serious slump for the better part of a decade following
04:43the end of the original Matrix trilogy.
04:45The critical and or commercial duds were numerous, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Henry's Crime,
04:51and most infamously, the calamitous box office bomb 47 Ronin in 2013.
04:57And so when Reeves was announced to be starring in a new action thriller as an assassin seeking
05:01to avenge his murdered puppy, of course the knee-jerk response was to laugh.
05:06Many predicted it might score 0% on Rotten Tomatoes before release, that's how lacking
05:11in momentum Reeves' career was at the time.
05:15This had glorified video-on-demand movie that somehow secured a theatrical release vibes
05:19all over it.
05:21But oh, how wrong we all were.
05:23John Wick ultimately released so strong reviews and turned a hefty profit at the box office,
05:28largely due to its impressively nuanced world-building, darkly humorous script, killer ensemble cast,
05:34and sharply staged stylish action.
05:37In turn, John Wick revitalized Reeves' career, ensuring he's appeared in countless quality
05:42projects since, including three increasingly impressive John Wick sequels.
05:47I mean, that's definitely a turnaround.
05:50Number 6.
05:51The Facebook biopic, The Social Network.
05:54So many film lovers groaned loudly when Fox announced development of a film about the
05:58creation of Facebook, because who honestly would be interested in watching a movie about
06:03something so mundane?
06:04Yet, betting against David Fincher is a fool's errand at this point.
06:09Because paired with a screenplay from a never-better Aaron Sorkin and a superb ensemble cast, The
06:14Social Network wasn't just a good or even great movie, it's one of the best of the last
06:2020 years.
06:21Fincher's film is so much more than the Facebook movie.
06:24It's a fascinating examination of entrepreneurship in the internet era, a gripping courtroom
06:30drama that questions the nature of IP ownership, and a razor-sharp character study of Facebook's
06:36controversial figurehead Mark Zuckerberg, brilliantly played by Jesse Eisenberg.
06:41Fincher and Sorkin do about as much with this concept as any filmmakers possibly could,
06:47transforming a potentially dry tale of empire-building into a towering drama about one of the most
06:52pivotal creations of the 21st century.
06:56That it lost both Best Picture and Best Director Oscars to The King's Speech, a fine film,
07:01mind, is a decision that's aged like milk left out in the sun all day long.
07:05Number 5.
07:06A talking raccoon and tree monster become superheroes, Guardians of the Galaxy
07:12Guardians of the Galaxy marked a concerted effort by Marvel Studios to expand the storytelling
07:17ambition of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, venturing beyond the more basic origin stories
07:22for its focal superheroes and delving into weirder, riskier territory.
07:26And let's be honest, on paper, it's easy to appreciate just how much of a gamble James
07:31Gunn movie was, being adapted from a niche Marvel comic general audiences had no knowledge
07:37of, which counted among its team a talking raccoon and a sentient tree monster.
07:42In the wrong hands, this could have been an absolute bust, an unwielding mess which felt
07:47at odds with the rest of the MCU and consequently failed to connect with audiences.
07:53Had it bombed at the box office, would anyone have really been surprised?
07:56But Kevin Feige was smart to hire Gunn for the job, who was able to translate the comic
08:01book to the cinematic medium with wit, panache and, most of all, heart.
08:07Guardians ended up netting almost $800 million globally, making it the third highest grossing
08:12MCU film at the time, behind only The Avengers and Iron Man 3, an impressive feat for a film
08:18so many were readily and understandably betting against.
08:224.
08:23A Stranded Man Befriends a Farting Corpse – Swiss Army Man
08:27Generally speaking, first-time directors are advised to set their sights modestly and tackle
08:32a more familiar genre film before venturing into more ambitious territory on their sophomore
08:37feature.
08:38But in their debut Swiss Army Man, filmmakers Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan decided to
08:43take a gigantic swing by making a movie about a man stranded on a desert island – so far
08:49so good – who befriends a flatulent corpse which washes up on the shore.
08:54The potential for disaster speaks for itself here, but Scheinert and Kwan have such a firm
08:58handle on their movie's tone, and Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe commit so fervently to
09:03their roles that the film is able to wring unexpected profundity from a superficially
09:08crude premise.
09:09And without its success, the Daniels almost certainly wouldn't have gone on to give the
09:13world the most recent Best Picture Oscar winner, Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, another
09:18borderline miracle of a movie that could have gone totally awry in different hands.
09:23So no matter what the Daniels make in the future, they've certainly got the benefit
09:26of the doubt at this point.
09:283.
09:29A Father Disguises Himself as a Female Housekeeper to Get Closer to His Kids – Mrs. Doubtfire
09:36Imagine trying to pitch Mrs. Doubtfire today.
09:38It would be laughed out of every office in Hollywood in record time.
09:42A film where a man dresses up as a female housekeeper in order to have greater contact
09:47with his children following his divorce sounds awful when you speak it aloud, suggesting
09:52a kooky comedy where Robin Williams dons a fat suit and frolics around for lowest common
09:57denominator laughs.
09:58But it's a testament to director Chris Columbus that, while an inherent funny concept, Mrs.
10:04Doubtfire is actually an unexpectedly thoughtful, even mature, dramedy about the pain of divorce
10:10and those who always suffer the most, the kids.
10:14Underneath its fundamentally ridiculous premise is a film that has something to say and commits
10:18fully to its emotional ideas, rather than merely serving up a predictably syrupy happy
10:24ending.
10:25It helps that Robin Williams is excellent in the lead role, of course, and while not
10:29every aspect of Mrs. Doubtfire has aged superbly, it remains a tremendously popular film that
10:34transcends its potentially disastrous premise.
10:382.
10:39A Time Travel Comedy About A Man Attempting To Prevent Incest – Back To The Future
10:44Back to the Future may be one of the most beloved movies of all time, but just think
10:48about how insane and even problematic this must have sounded to universal executives
10:53when it was first pitched.
10:55A time travel comedy where a high schooler heads back to 1955, accidentally gets his
10:59teenage mother hot for him and spends the rest of the movie trying to negate her unknowingly
11:03incestual feelings in order to ensure he isn't wiped out of existence.
11:08Yep, that's the highest grossing movie of 1985.
11:11There's obviously far more to the movie than that, but at its core, that's what
11:15it's about, and so it's little surprise that the script was rejected more than 40
11:20times before finally getting the green light.
11:23But thanks to the witty, creative script, excellent performances and fantastic direction,
11:28Back to the Future triumphed, serving up a cheeky what-if for audiences without excessively
11:33luxuriating in the ickier elements of its narrative.
11:361.
11:37Astronauts Try To Restart The Dying Sun With A Nuke – Sunshine
11:42From its logline alone, sci-fi film Sunshine was basically inviting laughter.
11:47A group of astronauts take part in a dangerous mission to reignite the dying sun with a nuke
11:51the size of Manhattan.
11:53Without any other information, this sounds like it sits comfortably alongside The Core
11:57or any number of Roland Emmerich-directed disaster flicks which are high on digital
12:02spectacle but desperately low on brains.
12:05Yet, Sunshine is not that movie at all.
12:08Directed with taut style by Danny Boyle from a tense, character-driven Alex Garland script,
12:13this is a film that manages to make plausible enough sense out of an undeniably absurd premise,
12:19while avoiding the schlocky blockbuster cliches you'd expect.
12:22Though it certainly loses itself a little in the third act, where it turns into a quasi-slasher
12:27movie, for the most part Sunshine keeps its wild concept tethered to some semblance of
12:32reality and, crucially, ensures you won't be tempted to laugh even once.
12:38And that concludes our list.
12:39If you can think of any other examples, then we'd love to see them in the comments down
12:43below.
12:44And while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that notification bell.
12:48Also, head over to Twitter and follow us there, and I can be found across various social medias
12:52just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
12:54I've been Ellie with What Culture, I hope you have a magical day and I'll see you real soon.