Top 10 Sci-Fi Comedy Films of All Time According to IMDB

 

The Top 10 Science Fiction Comedy Films of All Time, Per IMDB

 

Although it can be challenging to define, there have been several excellent sci-fi comedies throughout cinematic history. Despite the abundance of them in movies, only a small number of them have become classics. Some of them feature aliens, some have parody aspects, a few talk about time travel, and that's just the beginning.

There are some true tentpoles of the difficult-to-perfect genre, including one purposefully schlocky B-movie, a few violent, sarcastic cult favorites, and a very recent ambitious multiverse film.

10 - Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989) - 6.9

The two titular high school students in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure from 1989 travel through time to gather various historical individuals for their history assignment. Other time travel comedies that are ranked higher than the 1980s slacker comedy include Groundhog Day and About Time, although their time travel is supernatural, thus they are more fanciful than sci-fi.

But in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, time travel is accomplished using a modified phone box, making it one of the silliest films ever created about the classic science fiction idea. These caricatures of historical personalities are funny, whether they are the wicked ruler Napoleon or the dangerous bandit Billy the Kid.

9 - Tremors (1990) - 7.1

Despite the fact that the first Tremors movie had a dismal opening weekend, it has amassed a sizable cult following over the past three decades. The film purposefully leaned towards the schlocky premise of a gigantic, worm-like creature that lives underneath and enjoys the taste of people.

The premise of the film is so ludicrous that it would have been an inadvertently amusing "so bad it's good" sci-fi horror if it weren't a comedy. However, Kevin Bacon and his castmates are comically over the top and enjoy the narrative. There are numerous direct-to-video sequels to Tremors, and while even the latter films in the series are entertaining, schlocky B-movies, nothing comes close to the 1990 original.

8 - Spaceballs (1987) - 7.1

Many sci-fi films from the 1980s were influenced by the famous Star Wars, but most of them tried to cash in on the saga's enormous success too late. One, even though it might be as much a spoof as it is an homage to Star Wars, has totally withstood the test of time.

The sci-fi genre is openly parodied in Spaceballs, from Darth Vader's appearance to the protagonists' soap opera-like familial relationships. Numerous films have mimicked Star Wars over the past 45 years, including Family Guy episodes and other sci-fi comedies, but nothing compares to the very first.

7 - They Live (1988) - 7.2

The father of the horror subgenre is John Carpenter. Just a few of the director's many films, including The Thing and the original Halloween, are sufficient to deem him the master of the genre. Despite the fact that the aforementioned movies are utterly horrifying, Carpenter also had a great sense of humor, which can be seen in films like Big Trouble in Little China, a horror comedy, and of course, the alien invasion popcorn movie They Live.

The story centers on a man who discovers a pair of sunglasses that, when worn, reveal that politicians are actually skull-faced aliens who roam the Earth. Jordan Peele should adapt They Live in light of its social commentary content and the way that the government and media are being scrutinized more and more in real life. The satirical vision of the director is ideal for a remake, but it would be challenging to surpass the 1988 masterpiece.

6 - Men in Black (1997) - 7.3

Men in Black is an R-rated sci-fi comedy that is really suitable for kids, unlike many other sci-fi comedies. One of the silliest sci-fi films ever made, the 1997 release still recognizes its limitations. The film's sequels are ideal illustrations of how a movie may lean too heavily on its absurdity.

But Men in Black is equal parts silly buddy-cop comedy and fresh science fiction idea. The comedy and emotional core of the film is provided by K's austere and humorless contrast to J's immature and impulsive nature, and the absence of that in the sequels is precisely why they struggled.

5 - Starship Troopers (1997) - 7.3

With its absurd gore and satire of fascism and militarism, 1997's Starship Troopers, which is about Earth at war with enormous alien insects, might easily give spectators the impression that it was directed by Carpenter. Even an underage viewer of Starship Troopers would believe it to be a somber, shabby sci-fi action movie.

It's entertaining, excessively violent, and packed with visual effects and action scenes. But that is precisely the reason, according to director Paul Verhoeven, that he thinks the picture underperformed at the box office. He accuses the company of misrepresenting the movie and leading audiences to assume that its portrayal of Nazism was grave.

4 - Army of Darkness (1992) - 7.4

The third installment of the Evil Dead series, Sam Raimi's Army of Darkness, is plenty of humor that comes from being a fish out of water and brings the narrative to the Middle Ages. While Evil Dead II, the preceding film in the Evil Dead series, also had plenty of humor, there were no sci-fi components in the horror comedy.

Army of Darkness finishes with the dystopian apocalypse, despite the fact that game is primarily about Ash defending himself and other knights from skeletons, Deadites, and other supernatural monsters. The 1992 movie features two possible conclusions: one has Ash returning to the present and working in a supermarket, and the other has him traveling too far back in time and waking up in a dystopian future. It provided a fantastic foundation for Evil Dead 4, which regrettably never materialized.

3 - Galaxy Quest (1999) - 7.4

As a parody of the entire long-running philosophical sci-fi series, Galaxy Quest is to Star Trek what Spaceballs is to Star Wars in many aspects. It also wouldn't exist if Star Trek hadn't been made. The film centers on a group of TV actors who play characters in a Star Trek-like series who are sought out by aliens who believe the program to be real.

The 1999 film's jokes poke fun at some of Star Trek's most recognizable elements, from the Starship Enterprise's setup and costumes to the alien designs, yet it is evident that the jokes were written by fans of the franchise. Galaxy Quest will be endlessly entertaining for everyone who enjoys the franchise. Aside from the Star Trek allusions, Galaxy Quest accomplishes something that few other parodies have: it still tells a fantastic narrative.

2 - Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) - 8.1

Everything Everywhere All at Once has become the highest-grossing movie in the studio's history and has astounded Redditors with its multiverse movie. Even though the idea of the multiverse has gained so much popularity in Hollywood, no film has used it in a cleverer way than the 2022 release.

Most remarkably, though, the idea hasn't gotten any funnier either. The movie's humor is completely ludicrous, whether it's making a literal everything bagel, eating sausage fingers, or employing incongruous materials to master unrelated abilities like martial arts. However, it still manages to move viewers to tears with a pair of boulders that are perched over a valley.

1 - Back to The Future (1985) - 8.5

There is no better or more accomplished sci-fi comedy than Back to the Future, and the film is unquestionably iconic—whether it's because of the tunes, the time machine, the story, or the fact that it has been endlessly ridiculed. The relationship between Doc and Marty McFly's characters, though, is what makes the movie so humorous. The basis of the comedy is Marty's trust in Doc, however tentative that may be.

The plot and the characters' responses to what is happening alone make the movie as much of a comedy classic as it is a sci-fi classic. The movie doesn't need to make jokes about other sci-fi movies to be funny. The ratings for Part II and Part III are 7.8 and 7.4, respectively, despite the fact that they are not quite as good as the first film. Even though Part II's predictions regarding the course of 2015 were drastically off the mark, the series remains one of the best trilogies of all time.