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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 ten 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 ten terrible ideas that
00:47became great movies.
00:49Number ten, a movie based on Lego, The Lego Movie.
00:53The 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 for
01:04the 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 creative,
01:22hilarious 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 a subversive,
01:51tongue-in-cheek animated adventure film that still worked as a giddy endorsement for its
01:56titular product.
01:57Everybody won, basically.
01:599.
02:00A film set almost entirely inside a phone booth.
02:04Phone booth.
02:05Movies where characters are trapped in a single location for basically the entire runtime are
02:10always a risk.
02:11But at least something like Ryan Reynolds' Buried could sell itself on the inherent anxiety of
02:16being buried alive.
02:17Joel Schumacher's phone booth, however, had the decidedly more pedestrian setting of a
02:23New York City phone booth, where protagonist Jew Shepard was held hostage by a sniper with
02:28a grudge.
02:29You can practically picture a studio executive shaking their head the moment somebody pitched
02:34this to them.
02:35Because while a single location is an easy way to keep a movie's budget down, that location
02:40generally needs to be cinematically compelling.
02:43And a phone booth?
02:44Not 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 smart
03:09filmmaking and strong acting can make the most of an unassuming setting.
03:14Number 8.
03:14A Jumanji sequel without Robin Williams, Jumanji Welcome to the Jungle.
03:19It cannot be overstated just how much of a fuss Jumanji fans kicked up when a sequel was announced
03:25less 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.
03:48But 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 within
03:59the game, crossed with a hilarious body swap element.
04:02The 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.
04:25I mean, who could have seen any of that coming?
04:287.
04:29Keanu Reeves avenges his murdered dog, John Wick
04:33Keanu Reeves' career may be back on top right now, but around the time of the first John
04:38Wick'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 Ronan in 2013.
04:56And 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.
05:11That's how lacking in momentum Reeves' career was at the time.
05:14This had glorified video-on-demand movie that somehow secured a theatrical release vibes
05:19all over it.
05:20But 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.
05:36In turn, John Wick revitalised 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.
05:50The Facebook biopic, The Social Network.
05:53So many film lovers groaned loudly when Fox announced development of a film about the creation
05:59of Facebook, because who honestly would be interested in watching a movie about something
06:03so mundane?
06:04Yet, betting against David Fincher is a fool's errand at this point, because paired with the
06:10screenplay from a never-better Aaron Sorkin and a superb ensemble cast, The Social Network
06:15wasn't just a good or even great movie.
06:17It's one of the best of the last 20 years.
06:20Fincher'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 drama
06:30that 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, transforming
06:47a potentially dry tale of empire-building into a towering drama about one of the most pivotal
06:53creations of the 21st century.
06:55That it lost both Best Picture and Best Director Oscars to The King's Speech, a fine film mind,
07:01is a decision that's aged like milk left out in the sun all day long.
07:055. A talking raccoon and tree monster becomes superheroes, Guardians of the Galaxy.
07:11Guardians 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 for its
07:22focal 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 of,
07:37which counted among its team a talking raccoon and a sentient tree monster.
07:41In 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.
07:52Had 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 book
08:01to the cinematic medium with wit, panache, and most of all, heart.
08:06Guardians 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.
08:22Number 4. A Stranded Man Befriends a Farting Corpse
08:26Swiss 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 feature.
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 so
08:49good, 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
09:03to their roles, but 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,
09:18another borderline 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.
09:28Number 3. A father disguises himself as a female housekeeper
09:32to get closer to his kids.
09:34Mrs. Doubtfire
09:35Imagine 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 a kooky
09:53comedy where Robin Williams dons a fat suit and frolics around for lowest common denominator
09:57laughs.
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 ending.
10:24It helps that Robin Williams is excellent in the lead role, of course, and while not every aspect
10:29of Mrs. Doubtfire has aged superbly, it remains a tremendously popular film that transcends its
10:35potentially disastrous premise.
10:37Number 2. A time travel comedy about a man attempting to prevent incest.
10:42Back to the Future
10:43Back to the Future may be one of the most beloved movies of all time, but just think about how
10:49insane
10:49and even problematic this must have sounded to Universal executives when it was first pitched.
10:54A time travel comedy where a high schooler heads back to 1955, accidentally gets his teenage mother
11:00hot for him and spends the rest of the movie trying to negate her unknowingly incestual feelings
11:05in 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 it's about,
11:16and so it's a little surprised that the script was rejected more than 40 times before finally
11:21getting the green light.
11:22But 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.
11:35Number 1. Astronauts try to restart the dying sun with a nuke, Sunshine.
11:42From its logline alone, sci-fi film Sunshine was basically inviting laughter.
11:46A 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 spectacle
12:03but desperately low on brains.
12:04Yet, 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
12:18while 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 movie,
12:28for the most part, Sunshine keeps its wild concept tethered to some semblance of reality
12:33and, 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 below.
12:43And 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,
12:49and I can be found across various social medias just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
12:53I've been Ellie with WhatCulture.
12:55I hope you have a magical day and I'll see you real soon.
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