Often times, a great science fiction film can make us look at ourselves in the mirror and see where we are as a people and where we could be going. Or it’s just a great, gripping adventure. There are also other times, where the movie is complete shlock - fodder for Mystery Science Theater 3000 and dollar bins at a Swap Meet. Science fiction movies have been around, almost as long as film itself, with 1902’s French film, Le Voyage dans la Lune (The Voyage To The Moon).
While movies have been derivative of one another also since just about the beginning of movies themselves, something happened in the seventies that gave birth to the strange space sagas of the eighties. Star Wars success gave way to just about every Tom, Dick, and Harry trying to create their own saga or coming out with some nonsense, hoping it would catch on as those movies did.
Good B-movies are hard to come by. The “So Bad It's Good” category is amongst the most subjective in film, perhaps. Here are 15 80s Sci-Fi Films That Are Garbage (And 5 Everyone Should See).
20 Garbage: Howard The Duck
The Marvel Cinematic Universe begins right here! But seriously, the guy who brought us Star Wars, George Lucas himself produced this epically bad comic book movie. The smoking, magazine-reading duck heads to Earth to save us all from the Dark Overlord Of The Universe. The thanks he gets - Howard The Duck was nominated for seven Razzie awards.
19 Garbage: Maximum Overdrive
One good thing about Steven King’s only directorial effort was the soundtrack was mostly AC/DC songs. Another good thing about Maximum Overdrive was the credits signaling the movie was over! The film answers a question nobody wanted answered – what would happen if Steven King made Transformers, since machines come to life in this strange movie. Poor Marvel, they okayed not only Howard The Duck, but using the Green Goblin face in this movie.
18 Garbage: Mac And Me
Mac And Me is one of the films that famously and habitually has a zero rating on RottenTomatoes. Essentially the movie is a complete and utter rip-off of E.T. While plenty of films rip-off or borrow from other films, at least they bring something new to the table. This one is pretty much the same plot, just different product placement. Instead of Reese’s, we get Coca-Cola.
17 Not-So-Bad: Back To The Future
Marty McFly is accidentally flung back thirty years into the past and had to repair time. One of the coolest things about the great science fiction and fantasy films of the eighties is that a lot of them are also pop-culture phenomenons. One of the only ones that is universally lauded and fun for the whole family is Back To The Future. The original film is still the best one. However, that doesn’t mean the whole trilogy isn’t awesome.
16 Garbage: Killer Klowns From Outer Space
While all of the trash on this list have their cult followings, Killer Klowns is the cultiest of the cult movies, just by its very nature of having evil clowns as the film’s titular antagonists. If you’ve never seen it, the movie’s plot is probably exactly what you think it made. The titular clowns descend on our planet looking to turn humans into – what else? – yummy cotton candy.
15 Garbage: Leonard, Part 6
It could have been a pretty funny spy comedy, starring one of the funniest men in America (at the time). But Leonard Part 6 wound up becoming one of the worst films ever made. But the premise was so rife for things to go wrong that nothing went right. Leonard is tasked with saving the world again (hence “Part 6). This time from an evil vegan who has trained animals to eliminate humans.
14 Garbage: 2019: After The Fall Of New York
Anytime a movie is a complete copy of another cult classic, it’s bound to head straight to the bargain bin at the Flea Market. Submitted for your disapproval – 2019: After The Fall Of New York. If you’ve ever see or heard about the Kurt Russell movie, Escape From New York, then you’ve already seen a movie just like Fall, only the original and far superior version. In a nuclear war-ravaged world, our biker hero, Parsifal, is looking for the last fertile female, being held captive in New York City.
13 Not-So-Bad: Aliens
Ridley Scott gave the world Alien. It was and still is one of the best horror movies you’ll ever see. But why stop at just one Xenomorph, when you have dozens running around a ship. James Cameron crafted one of the best sci-fi/war/horror movies you’ll ever see with the follow-up, Aliens. Ripley is found floating in space 57 years after the events of the first film. With everyone she knew gone, she has to convince a ship full of trigger happy marines that they don’t stand a chance against these acid-bleeding aliens.
12 Garbage: Galaxina
One would assume that no one was trying to make high art casting untested-as-an-actress Playboy Playmate, Dorothy Stratten to play a female robot in the intentionally campy Galaxina. While the movie was intentionally campy and a parody of science-fiction films, the tight 20-day shooing schedule made for an abysmal mess. There are better produced late-night parodies with playmates on cable than this film.
11 Garbage: Ewoks: The Battle For Endor
What’s that? There are no bad Star Wars movies until the prequels, you say? You say wrong, good sir! After Return Of The Jedi, someone (re: George Lucas) got the bright idea to launch his cute and cuddly teddy bear Ewoks into their own franchise. He did this not once, but twice!
The Battle For Endor is nearly unwatchable and it's even set before Jedi, which meant all sorts of human and lizard characters needed to be written off the planet before the Empire could come to the forest moon and take it over.
