It may seem like a moot point in a world where The Lego Movie is a revered modern classic, but movies are starting to sound especially ridiculous these days.
With increasing frequency, descriptions of upcoming films read like 'fictional' movies from Entourage or some scathing satire of Hollywood frivolity. These are ideas that are so insanely on the nose that they couldn't really be movies, except they are.
For this blog, I am going to cite several upcoming films that sound too ridiculous to be real. I will also include one made-up film - see if you can spot it amongst the other, actual movies.
Skyscraper
Following a string of recent hits, Dwayne Johnson has finally become the King of the Blockbuster he was always destined to be. His next big project sounds like a made-up movie. Plot details are being kept under wraps but we can discern that this is basically The Towering Inferno + The Rock + China.
More and more blockbusters are incorporating Chinese elements to appeal to the increasingly important market, and this film's Chinese setting is perhaps the biggest gesture yet. San Andreas struggled to seem like a proper movie at times, but Skyscraper is a step beyond. Still, it's totally real.
Moontide
Chris Evans (Captain America) is attached to this high-concept disaster movie, one of a frankly crazy number of upcoming projects driven by moon-centric ideas. The moon is so hot right now.
Moontide's plot concerns a Space-X type private rocket company who are secretly excavating rare minerals from the core of the you-know-what. When an explosion in the mine pushes the the moon ever-so-slightly off its axis, it creates a "super tide" that threatens to flood the entire American continent - from Alaska to Cape Horn. Evans will play a member of the Coast Guard who suddenly no longer has a coast to guard. Sounds ridiculous right? REAL.
Nine Lives
Judd Apatow's film Funny People had a lot of fun in naming the fake movies that its main character, a comedy star named George Simmons (Adam Sandler), supposedly starred in. This upcoming Kevin Spacey movie sounds like one of those fake movies. He plays a workaholic dad who learns parenting lessons after he is magically changed into a cat. What is this? 1971? No. It's 2016 and this is a real movie.
Geostorm
Gerard "Basher" Butler is at his best when kicking or stabbing bad guys in the head. So I just hope he gets to do some of that in this upcoming ecological disaster movie from Independence Day co-creator Dean Devlin. The painfully generic title and concept seem inspired by the fake trailers that opened Ben Stiller's 2008 comedy Tropic Thunder.
Remember Scorcher?
If Geostorm doesn't feature Gerard Butler kicking a tornado in the head, it's existence will not be justified.
Monster Trucks
This is not a film about trucks that are so big you could call them monsters. This isn't even a film about trucks that change into monsterous robots. This is a film about trucks that have big slimy monsters inside them, "driving" them in a vaguely sexual manner. That must've been some brainstorming session. Monster Trucks has the rare distinction of sounding like it's based on a ridiculous toy line or a cartoon, but isn't. It is, however, very real.