Robot Movies – Comedy Robot Movies

Whether you’re a fan of robot movies or comedy robot movies, I believe the following selection will include more than a few treats for your cinematic sweet tooth. Granted, putting this list together wasn’t easy in the first place, as there’s a disturbing lack of good robot movies featuring one-liners, pratfalls, and situational humor. But I refused to give up, and my Herculean efforts yielded the following results:

  1. Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs (1966) – The film poster offers to introduce you to “the girls with the thermo-nuclear navels,” which was quite sufficient to catch my interest. Vincent Price stars as a deranged scientist who’s teamed up with the Chinese to unleash World War III. This only person who can stop him is former teen idol Fabian, which should give you an idea of how seriously this film takes itself. A hilarious satire on the conventions set forth in the James Bond series.
  2. Short Circuit 2 (1988) – Steve Guttenberg had better things to do, so Fisher Stevens and Johnny 5 have to go it alone in this sequel. They’re in New York this time around, where Ben Jahveri struggles to sell toys in the image of the friendly robot. But when the real Johnny 5 arrives to help out, things take a turn for the delightful (and, yes, I realize just how ridiculous that sentence sounds).
  3. Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964) - Considered one of the worst films ever made, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians still ends up being an unintentional treat due to its sheer crappiness. When two Martians decide that their planet needs a figure like Santa Claus to bring joy to children, they come to Earth and abduct our own. Two Earth kids end up along for the ride with Saint Nick, and the trio have to find a way to escape Mars and return home safely. A favorite on Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Cinematic Titanic. In case you’re wondering how the film ended up in the robot movies category, you’ll need to look no further than some of the dangerous-yet-clunky artificial beings employed by the Martians.
  4. Sleeper (1973) – Woody Allen and Diane Keeton star in this sci-fi comedy about a man from 1973 who finds himself cryogenically frozen for 200 years. Waking up in a bleak dictatorship, he eludes the authorities by disguising himself as a robotic butler for Luna Schlosser (Keeton). It’s not long before both are on the run, and they slowly begin to develop an attraction in between encounters with rebels and severed noses. It’s not Annie Hall, but any film where Woody plays a robot (even temporarily) has to go on my list.
  5. Spaceballs (1987) – Mel Brooks cranks out another brilliant genre spoof, this time taking on the original Star Wars trilogy. Just check out some of these names: Lord Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis), Captain Lone Starr (Bill Pullman), and Yogurt (Mel Brooks). And don’t forget about Joan Rivers as the voice of Dot Matrix, the film’s ode to C-3PO and the reason this one makes the list of comedy robot movies.
  6. Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999) – The second in this Mike Myers series about a swinging spy from the ‘60s with a powerful mojo and terrible teeth. While the film includes a number of sci-fi elements such as time travel and space stations, it makes the list based on the presence of one of Dr. Evil’s kamikaze fembots, a killer android able to fire bullets from its breasts.
  7. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005) – Based on the best-selling books by Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy tells the adventures of Arthur Dent, one of the few remaining Earthlings following the destruction of the planet to make way for a hyperspace expressway. Among the colorful characters he encounters is Marvin the Paranoid Android, a robot 50,000 times smarter than a human. Unfortunately, Marvin (voiced by Alan Rickman and played by Warwick Davis) also suffers from chronic depression, and his bleak proclamations make for some of the film’s funnier moments.
  8. Heartbeeps (1981) – While two robots (Bernadette Peters and Andy Kaufman) await repairs at a factory, they fall in love and decide to run away together. This doesn’t go unnoticed, however, and a law-enforcement droid known as “The Crimebuster” is sent to retrieve them. Randy Quaid, back when he used to pay for hotel rooms, also puts in an appearance.
  9. Making Mr. Right (1987) – John Malkovich has dual roles as Ulysses, an android built for deep space exploration, and Jeff Peters, his emotionless creator, in this offbeat romantic comedy. Before long, Ulysses falls head over heels for a public relations expert (Ann Magnuson), and that predictably creates a number of situations where he must fake his way through common human events (going on a date, shopping, etc.). A fun little addition to our list of comedy robot movies, and one of the few films where Malkovich doesn’t seem somehow menacing.
  10. Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie (1996) – Mike Nelson, a temp from Wisconsin, is trapped on a space station by an evil scientist and forced to watch bad movies, with his only companions being a trio of robots named Gypsy, Crow T. Robot, and Tom Servo. To keep from going crazy, they mercilessly mock the films from their seats, and the movie chosen for the big-screen adaptation is none other than This Island Earth.

So there you have it: 10 comedy robot movies guaranteed to put a smile on your face and a song in your heart. For true fans of the sci-fi genre, here’s another one to check out:

This entry was posted on Friday, November 6th, 2009 at 3:48 pm and is filed under Good Movies, Thoughts on Film. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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