10 Great Sci-Fi Movies With Terrible Concepts

Okay, so this one seems like a real “come up with the title pun and then work backwards to fill in silly smaller details like plot, characters, etc”.

After all, a sci-fi action thriller where two men swap faces via some convoluted (and presumably completely impossible) surgery is a terrible idea for a film.

But if said film is titled Face/Off? Well, now you've got the sort of insane over-the-top nineties action film conceit that The Simpsons would have joked about.

But John Woo's 1998 hit succeeds solely because it opts to lean in to this absurdity, foregoing any attempts at self seriousness in favour of some broad and self-aware theatrics. The film's action is spectacular, but its premise of a cop and a criminal literally swapping faces with each other is both ludicrous and fun in an agreeably silly way as soon as the film makes it clear that it has no truck with believability.

Woo may have taken this approach too far with the later, pointlessly silly and tension-free Mission Impossible 2, but this film saw his kinetic action and silly sense of humour married perfectly through an idiotic idea which is weirdly ingenious in its unashamed willingness to go totally over the top.