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Fiction is stranger than life in these movies that had no right being as good as they were.
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00:00Now, movies come in all shapes and sizes, from the crowd-pleasers to the arthouse darlings,
00:05the indies to the Hollywood blockbusters. They're generally made with an audience in mind,
00:10and usually, a trailer alone is enough to discern if that is you. But some movies,
00:14however, seem to be designed to alienate viewers before their bums have even touched the seats.
00:18Often, a bizarre high-concept premise mingles with the fear of the unknown to leave potential
00:23audiences with a feeling of bemusement rather than excitement. But you know what? Sometimes,
00:27they still absolutely worked. And that's what we're here to talk about today as I'm Jules,
00:31this is WhatCulture.com, and these are 10 movies that worked despite their absurd premise.
00:3610. Crank High Voltage
00:38Now, the duology of crank movies have never ever claimed to be high art. The directors instead
00:43conceived of a premise perfect for facilitating non-stop high-octane action. The first movie
00:49saw Jason Statham's Chev injected with a drug that slowed his adrenaline to a crawl. On a vengeful
00:54tirade, he was forced to keep his adrenaline up by doing things such as getting into fights with
00:58policemen and having intercourse in public. But the sequel is where the writers really swung for
01:03the fences, though. Waking up in a daze following the previous movie's climax,
01:07Chev discovers that his heart has been replaced with an artificial one. He soon finds out that he
01:11must keep his new organ charged while he hunts for those who took his original beatmaker.
01:15And how does he do this? Well, jumper cables attached to a car battery, live wires atop a utility pole,
01:20and yes, having intercourse on a racetrack to generate static energy. And I know what you're
01:24thinking, that sounds really dumb. And it was. But it was also brilliant. And after a climax that
01:28has to be seen to be believed, Crank High Voltage cements itself as a deliriously silly movie that
01:34just wants the audience to have fun. And it succeeded.
01:379. Speed
01:39Get ready for rush hour, Speed's tagline reads. And if that coupled with the premise doesn't tell
01:44you everything that you need to know about this movie's tone, then nothing will. Keanu Reeves plays the
01:49role of Jack, an LAPD SWAT officer that finds himself in the middle of a high-stakes bomb plot
01:54aboard a speeding bus. The bomb, attached to the vehicle's underside, is rigged to detonate should
01:59the bus ever drop below 50 miles per hour. It's a plot that's designed around the idea of non-stop
02:04action and constant tension. And when considering the runtime of close to two hours, however,
02:08it is a miracle that such a simple concept managed to keep the audience entertained throughout.
02:14The movie does so with slightly silly developments such as a localized bomb that kills one passenger,
02:18along with very, very silly developments such as a freeway that is as yet incomplete,
02:23necessitating that the bus ratchet up the top speed in order to jump the gap.
02:27The director Jean de Bont, famous for Twister and a Lara Croft Tomb Raider cradle of life,
02:32truly understood the appeal of this potentially paper-thin concept and tapped into audience anxiety
02:38to create a fast-paced, endlessly enjoyable film that has since gone down in the pantheon of action
02:43greats.
02:448. The Lego Movie
02:46Before anyone gets angry, it should be made clear that the absurdity of this movie lies in what it
02:50represents rather than what it is. For what it's worth, the film tells a sincere story of overcoming
02:55the odds, managing to subvert expectations along the way, and leaves audiences with an important
03:00message about conformity and having an individual voice. What's absurd about that then? Well, the
03:06movie's runaway success and genuinely great writing make it easy to forget that this is a Lego movie,
03:12a film about those unassuming little bricks that everybody wanted between the ages of four and
03:16well, 99, has played with at some point in their life. Upon its reveal, it's easy to dismiss this
03:21as a shameless advertisement with a runtime of 100 minutes. But what audiences found, however,
03:26was a heartfelt, passionately made adventure with gags both visual and verbal being fired out at an
03:32impossible pace. Topped off with a beautiful message that captured the spirit of the source material and
03:37felt invaluable to the target audience, the Lego movie was much more than an advert. What I'm trying
03:42to say is that this was not the Lego Ninjago movie. 7. Weekend at Bernie's
03:49Now, Weekend at Bernie's tells the story of two hapless employees who were invited to their boss's
03:54beach house for Labor Day weekend, but unbeknownst to them, the boss, Bernie, is conspiring to have them
03:58killed after they unwittingly uncover fraud within the company. This doesn't exactly go to plan,
04:03as Bernie dies before the two men can arrive. To abridge an exceedingly silly plot, the two decide
04:09to puppet the corpse of their former boss in order to enjoy their weekend of partying and cover up
04:13their fast-expanding web of lies. While the movie didn't set the world on fire upon its release with
04:18critics, the movie has since gone on to become a cult classic, fondly remembered by those who watched
04:23it at the time. With comedy geared towards a younger audience, the laughs were consistent enough and
04:28the slapstick silliness fun enough to keep audiences engaged throughout. Coming in at over 90 minutes,
04:33though, it can be and was argued that the premise would have been better suited to a comedy sketch,
04:38and that was definitely before the dubious sequels wheeled out four years later.
04:416. Hot Rod
04:43In 2007, hit internet comedy band Lonely Island came together to release their first movie.
04:48Hot Rod was a silly, subversive, and extremely funny movie that unfortunately bombed at the box
04:53office. However, time has been kind to it and its cast, becoming solidified as a bona fide classic
04:58and launching a movie career that is still going today. Now, things seem innocuous at first.
05:02Rod is a helpless, drifting, amateur stuntman who wants nothing more than to earn the respect of
05:07his stepfather, played by the brilliant Ian McShane. In order to do that, he has one simple
05:12task – beat his new dad in a physical fight. Things quickly take a turn, though, as Frank falls
05:17seriously ill, and Rod vows to rack up enough cash with his stunts to pay for Frank's life-saging
05:22surgery so that when he's better, he can then beat him half to death. It's a plot that perfectly
05:26matches the movie's light, surreal tone and sense of humour. It manages to simultaneously have
05:31stakes both low and high, facilitating a consistent stream of absurd gags and laugh-out-loud slapstick.
05:38Filled with a great cast, unexpected sincerity, and pacing that doesn't allow for boredom,
05:42Hot Rod was indeed a triumph.
05:445. Rubber
05:45What's left to say about a movie that has gained mass recognition purely due to the absurdity of
05:51its premise? By now, almost everybody has heard of Rubber and is familiar, at least loosely,
05:55with the movie's deranged concept. For those that aren't, however, Rubber is a French comedy horror
06:00about a car tyre that gains consciousness and soon discovers it has telekinetic powers. And what does
06:05it decide to do with these newfound abilities? Well, go on a murderous rampage, exploding helpless
06:10victims' heads on his path to pursue a woman who's become the object of his obsession, of course.
06:15Robert, and yes, the tyre does have a name, by the way, is followed by Lieutenant Chad,
06:20a sheriff who consistently ruminates on the idea of things happening for no reason in movies.
06:24When Chad isn't taking part in the events of Rubber, he's actually seen commenting on them,
06:28along with an in-film audience who are also watching things unfold. A subplot soon emerges
06:33about those audience members who are being murdered with poisoned food. Now, perhaps Rubber may have
06:38benefited from losing this bloat, with the general opinion being that the schlocky action is great
06:43fun, but the pretentious commentary on cinema serves only to hamper proceedings. But still,
06:47it is a fun ride throughout.
06:494. Swiss Army Man
06:50Swiss Army Man is a movie that made headlines upon its announcement, thanks in part to its ridiculous
06:56premise. It tells the story of a man marooned on a desert island. At the peak of his hopelessness,
07:01he discovers a corpse that washes up on the beach. His hopes for survival are renewed when he discovers
07:06that the body has a bizarre penchant for particularly strong flatulence, and proceeds to use it as a
07:11makeshift raft, propelled by its farts. Other odysseys include the corpse slowly regaining
07:16consciousness and the ability to talk in simple sentences, a swimsuit magazine being used to fuel an
07:21erection compass and a tussle with a bear that culminates in an ignited toot. It's as balls-to-the-wall
07:27bizarre as it sounds, which makes for a sort of unhinged castaway for the modern age. Yet most
07:32impressively, despite how juvenile and strange it all sounds, the movie works. It's in turns laugh-out-loud
07:38funny, tender, and a surprisingly effective deranged romance. This is topped off with two lead performers
07:43that are giving their all to this seemingly unsalvageable concept. Much like Radcliffe's Manny,
07:48Swiss Army man appears to be dead on arrival, but in reality is brimming with life.
07:543. Being John Malkovich
07:56With Charlie Kaufman penning the script and Spike Jonze taking on directing duties,
08:00it comes as no surprise that Being John Malkovich is a surreal masterpiece. Helmed by two filmmakers
08:06known for their high-concept yet deeply intimate output, this was always likely to be a hit-and-miss
08:11affair, and definitely going to be strange. The movie tells the story of a puppeteer named Craig,
08:16played by John Cusack. Shortly after taking a job as a file clerk, he stumbles upon a hidden tunnel in
08:21the building. This tunnel, of course, happens to be a portal that leads directly into the
08:25consciousness of the real-world actor John Malkovich. What takes place following this is
08:30a mind-bending series of events that would be near impossible to coherently retell to you here.
08:35From monetizing the discovery for public use to a Malkovich-ception sequence in which the actor
08:40enters his own mind to be met with legions of John Malkoviches, the film takes the concept and runs
08:45with it, introducing new ideas at a breakneck pace. During all of this, though, it never leaves its
08:50characters behind, and instead manages to be tragic, heartfelt, funny, and utterly mind-boggling.
08:56And you know what, there's not much more you can ask for from a cinematic experience, right?
09:002. Face Off
09:01Now, Face Off is so revered as a classic today that it's easy to have developed a sort of
09:05absurdity-blindness to its wild premise. After all, Travolta and Cage calling the shots in a
09:11zany action flick during the height of their careers, well, that's headline enough.
09:15Beginning as a standard cat-and-mouse fare, Travolta plays Sean Archer, an FBI agent with a
09:20personal vendetta, obsessively chasing Cage's caster Troy, a ruthless terrorist. So far,
09:26so any number of action movies from the late 1980s to the 2000s, right? But it's when the
09:30literality of the title comes in that the movie kicks things up a notch. Following a plane crash
09:35with Troy aboard, Archer pursues the truth by taking the only logical step, undergoing mass
09:41surgery to have his face replaced with Troy's in order to go undercover and unearth answers.
09:46Troy awakens shortly after, forcing the surgeon to perform the same operation on him,
09:50giving him the face of Archer. And what ensues is a less traditional game of, well, mouse and cat,
09:56with Travolta and Cage afforded the chance to characterise these personas before switching roles
10:01and then personifying one another. Unbelievably, it made for hugely entertaining viewing,
10:06with action that delivered and a tone that just lent into the ludicrousness of it all.
10:101. Bubba Hotep
10:12It's a tale as old as time. Elvis Presley teams up with a black JFK in order to stop an ancient mummy
10:18from stealing the souls of every resident of the retirement home in which they live.
10:22Almost every aspect of Bubba Hotep's plot seems meticulously designed to elicit utter bemusement,
10:28but the final layer of this bewilderment? It's a goofy, effectively funny screwball comedy that
10:33sees Bruce Campbell unironically portray one of the best depictions of Elvis there has ever been.
10:38The story goes that Presley, sick of life in the spotlight, swapped with an Elvis lookalike so
10:43that he could enjoy some peace and quiet. And why is JFK black now? Well, he had his skin dyed
10:48following an assassination attempt, obviously. Come on. The mummy stuff might take a bit more
10:53explaining, though. And if it all sounds silly, that's because it undoubtedly is.
10:56However, remarkably, Campbell and Ozzie Davis managed to stir up a believable chemistry
11:01amidst all of this chaos, with laugh-out-loud moments aplenty. While audiences lamented the
11:07ineffective horror elements, the rest was just too good and too bizarre of a time to dismiss
11:12or indeed ever forget.
11:14And there we go, my friends. Those were 10 movies that worked despite their absurd premise. I hope
11:18that you enjoyed that, and please let me know what you thought about it down in the comments section
11:21below. As always, I've been Jules. You can go follow me over on Twitter at RetroJ,
11:25but the O is a zero, and it'd be great to chat to you over there.
11:28But before I go, I just want to say one thing. Sometimes in life, we can be told that we have
11:32absurd dreams, but you know what, my friend? Never give up on them. They are what make you you. They
11:37are the drive that makes that creative spark within us all emerge and hopefully blossom into something
11:42brilliant. And you deserve all of the best things in life, like love, happiness, and success. So don't
11:46let anything or anyone else tell you otherwise, all right? You're a massive ledge. Now go out there
11:51and utterly smash it today. I believe in you. As always, I've been Jules. You have been awesome.
11:56Never forget that. And I'll speak to you soon. Bye.
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