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Film premises that shouldn’t have worked but did: From The Lobster to Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Also featuring Star Wars, Ant-Man and Beetlejuice

Jack Shepherd
Tuesday 19 April 2016 11:13 EDT
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Some of the best films releases have completely bonkers premises. Just think about Star Wars for a second.

In the early 70s, if you had told someone to watch a film that featured Wookies, droids, and Darth Vader, you would have wondered what on earth they were talking about.

It’s not just sci-fi films that have increasingly strange premises. Look at Groundhog Day - a comedy about a weather man who relives the same day over and over again. Why would that be fun?

Luckily, thanks to brilliant direction, both films have turned into classics. Here are 14 films with premises that shouldn’t have worked but did.

There are dozens of others that could have featured on the list, but we tried to not feature those based on novels (except Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs which is just outright bonkers).

If there are any big ones we missed let us know in the comments. And Tim Burton, if you ever read this, never change.

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