# Movies with blatantly stupid premises **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 7, 2006, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-blatantly-stupid-premises/371823 "2006-09-07T19:51:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![Achren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/898d66/32.png) [@Achren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achren)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2006, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-blatantly-stupid-premises/371823/201 "2006-09-13T12:55:41Z")
[QUOTE=Lemur866] How about all those “romantic comedies” where the protagonist spends the first 95% of the movie lying their ass off to their supposed true love about some crucial fact. At the climax of the movie the asshole reveals the truth, the supposed true love forgives them, and they Live Happily Ever After. In real life, if you find out the guy you were dating was really a girl pretending to be a guy, or was just conducting a science experiment that got too personal, or was really a dyslexic albino big-game hunter pretending to be a amidexterous mulatto touch-typist, you’d probably take out a restraining rather than forgive them. The variation on this is the Terrible Misunderstanding, which could be resolved in 4 seconds if the moronic lovers would only talk to each other like adult humans. “Oh, the corvette? It belongs to my SISTER!” “I had a flat tire, and my cell phone battery died!” “I’m part of a Shakespeare in the Park theater group, we were performing ‘Julius Caesar’. That’s why I was waving a bloody knife and wearing a bedsheet!” [/QUOTE] I think this is the one reason I liked [Alfie](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0375173/) (haven’t seen the Michael Caine one). ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2006, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-blatantly-stupid-premises/371823/202 "2006-09-13T13:59:14Z")
Just remembered a very bad, bad movie… had put it out of my mind until now… **Millineum** ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2006, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-blatantly-stupid-premises/371823/203 "2006-09-13T14:04:19Z")
**Rosemary’s Baby**. And the idea that the coven (and her OB/GYN, who was a member) would let her be walking around NYC four days before her due date was just ridiculous. What if she had gone into labor and delivered in the street or a hospital? ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2006, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-blatantly-stupid-premises/371823/204 "2006-09-13T14:08:03Z")
[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas] **Rosemary’s Baby**. And the idea that the coven (and her OB/GYN, who was a member) would let her be walking around NYC four days before her due date was just ridiculous. What if she had gone into labor and delivered in the street or a hospital? [/QUOTE] In the street? Babies don’t drop out in a couple minutes. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2006, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-blatantly-stupid-premises/371823/205 "2006-09-13T15:12:07Z")
[QUOTE=Ellen Cherry] In the street? Babies don’t drop out in a couple minutes. [/QUOTE] Exactly. I don’t think Annie-Xmas has known many pregnant women. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2006, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-blatantly-stupid-premises/371823/206 "2006-09-13T16:26:50Z")
No, I’m sure that Annie is referring to the possibility that, if Rosemary is out and about, had she gone into labor the pressure to get her to a _hospital_ would be pretty overwhelming. Satan’s baby deserves better than that: like every Dark Host he needed to be born in a fancy NY highrise with fawning, high-dollar admirers surrounding him. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2006, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-blatantly-stupid-premises/371823/207 "2006-09-13T16:27:54Z")
I should’ve italicized “pressure” in the above, not “hospital.” Reads kind of stupid that way. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2006, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-blatantly-stupid-premises/371823/208 "2006-09-13T16:47:18Z")
Good point; I retract my snarky comment. This baby couldn’t be born in a hospital (“what have you done to his eyes??”). ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2006, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-blatantly-stupid-premises/371823/209 "2006-09-13T17:11:44Z")
Yes, and I did know a woman who woke up in labor, started down the stairs, and dropped the child right there. Even if there is a one in a million chance of that happening, when someone is carrying Satan’s child they would not risk it. IRL, the doctor would have put Rosemary on bed rest for the last month, don’t you think? ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2006, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-blatantly-stupid-premises/371823/210 "2006-09-13T23:34:25Z")
[QUOTE=bughunter] The second was [The Shape of Things](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shape_of_Things) starring Rachel Weisz, who also starred in the London stage version. Perhaps as a play, it may have worked. But I can’t believe Ms Weisz’ acting was any better on stage. And again, part of the premise depends on the main characters behaving the way they did, i.e., stupid and unrealistic. [/QUOTE] I agree with you on _Event Horizon_, but I thought (and still think) that _The Shape of Things_ has a cool premise and believable characters. Paul Rudd’s character was never assertive. He had always been pushed around by his Dick of a friend, and now it was just someone else taking that place. He gets all kinds of positive reinforcement for the changes he makes, both from Rachel Weisz and from his friend’s fiancee. And, until way too late, he sees the conflict between Rachel and Dick as one of two strongly willed people, rather than as a direct power struggle over him. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2007, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-blatantly-stupid-premises/371823/211 "2007-03-11T08:40:59Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham] “Well, if we’re being attacked by a tree reanimated by someone out for revenge, why don’t we just douse it with alcohol and set fire to it?” “Because it’s fireproof wood” “Well, how about a bunch of us hold it down and we chop it into little bits?” “You fool! Didn’t you see Mickey Mouse in _The Sorceror’s Apprentice_?” “Do we know every splinter would regenerate?” “No, but why take the chance?” “Well, how about if we weight it down and throw it in the ocean?” “It’s get free.” “We can tie up its arm and legs and hoist it up. Or seal it up in concrete. Or put termites on it. Or…” “You fool! The director wouldn’t allow it!” No, I don’t think a brief conversation is gonna make up for the fundamental stupidity of this one. [/QUOTE] The Tabunga Tree Demon from the movie “From Hell it Came” use to scare us kids. Our older siblings would chase us around the house, threatening to either pinch or tickle us to death. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-blatantly-stupid-premises/371823.md?page=10)