15 Dumb Movies Which Are Secretly Smart

3. Face/Off

John Woo's unforgettable action classic is a great example of a smartly made movie, and one that could've been a totally inane disaster in the hands of other talents.

After all, on paper the premise - of the hero (John Travolta) and villain (Nicolas Cage) having their faces swapped via surgery - sounds like hokey nonsense, but it's brought screaming to life by the combined Herculean efforts of Woo, Travolta and Cage.

Firstly, the film wouldn't work nearly as well as it does without basically Oscar-worthy work from its two leads, who impersonate one another with a frightening exactitude far in excess of what the movie really needed to work.

This isn't just some phoned-in action gig for these two, and it's clear that a ludicrous amount of effort has been made to replicate the micro-nuances of each other's facial expressions and general physical mannerisms.

And then there's action maestro Woo, who made Face/Off in the midst of his divisive run in Hollywood, where the film was effectively conceived as a heightened parody of both his own absurd filmmaking style and that of stateside actioners themselves.

The script operates on multiple levels, perfectly digestible as a straight-forward genre piece for the popcorn munchers, but is spiced with just enough irony and exaggeration to let more active audiences know that the film's totally in on the joke.

Face/Off's premise is undeniably absurd, even stupid, but its paradoxically intelligent execution has allowed it to endure for over 20 years as a career high-point for all involved.