15 More Dumb Movies Which Are Secretly Smart

There are few things more aggravating than a movie that thinks it's way smarter than it actually is. Sadly, from The Tree of Life to Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, there are plenty of examples of this.

And then, you've got the other side of the coin - films that look dumb but actually have more going on beneath the surface than you were expecting. Those films, in stark contrast, are uproariously satisfying and pleasantly surprising. It's lovely to go into something expecting nothing more than light entertainment, and then come away with plenty to think about.

The following 15 movies are excellent examples of this. They vary a lot in terms of genre and content, but what unites them all is that, regardless of their outward appearances, they are (at least to some extent) intelligently written and thought-provoking films deserving of credit.

That's not to say that these are smart movies in the same vein as 2001: A Space Odyssey or the filmography of Andrei Tarkovsky, but they're certainly a hell of a lot cleverer than they look.

This is probably going to be the most contentious entry on the list. Halloween Ends is no great movie and it made many mistakes, but it did actually have some really interesting ideas.

The film's decision to focus so heavily on a new killer - Corey Cunningham, played by Rohan Campbell - was a bold move, and not one that always paid off. Nonetheless, this was an interesting way of showing the cyclical nature of evil and trauma. Even though Michael Myers was nearly gone, something similar would take his place - that's always been the way of the world. One terrible thing dies - something else will eventually replace it.

Additionally, one key issue with Michael Myers has always been his invulnerability. He's often presented as an ordinary man but seems to have supernatural abilities of some sort. Well, Ends heavily implies that yes, there has always been something supernatural about Myers. He seems to pass something on to Corey during their initial encounter and Corey was beginning to inherit Myers' ability to resurrect after things that should've killed him, so the film does at least offer a solution of sorts to that long-standing plot foible.

So yes, the execution was messy, but Halloween Ends was nowhere near as unintelligent as many accused it of being. It really doesn't deserve the level of hate that it gets.