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Post Parasite , there was always a chance that Bong Joon-ho would have gone all serious and incomprehensible. However, his follow-up to the multiple Oscar winner, Mickey 17 , is that happy film that reminds us of the fun to be had at the movies..
. before they became solemn expositions on the meaning of life. Mickey 17 tells the tale of an “Expendable” (a brilliant Robert Pattinson), who is printed out every time he dies performing dangerous tasks in space.
The movie reminded one of the happy, blockbuster sci-fi movies old and new that offered a complete package of thrills, humour and an all-round good time. If the movies made one ponder the state of the world while wiping away tears of laughter, so much the better. What better start for our exploration into fun sci-fi than Bad Taste ? The 1987 splatter-fest marked the feature film debut of the lord of Middle Earth, Peter Jackson.
The story of not-very-clever aliens killing humans in a small New Zealand town for their fast food franchise (how is that for satire?) was as hilarious as it was gory — that decapitation, swinging spinal cord and all, is burnt in the brain forever. Robert Zemeckis’ Back to the Future trilogy, about a time-travelling teenager Marty McFly (Michael J Fox), was a blast. The franchise featured Christopher Lloyd as the eccentric Doc Brown whose experiments with time travel in a modified DeLorean sends Marty from 1985 to 1955 in the first film, to the future in 2015 in the second, and to the Wild West, 1885, in the third.
Einstein, Doc Brown’s shaggy dog, is part of his experiments, while bully Biff (Thomas F Wilson), with his hatred for manure, gets his just desserts in each iteration. This image released by A24 Films shows, from left, Stephanie Hsu, Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan in a scene from, “Everything Everywhere All At Once.” | Photo Credit: Allyson Riggs The goofy inventor is a sci-fi standard from Rick Moranis’ Wayne Szalinski in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989) to Robin Williams in Flubber (1997).
Miniaturisation was at the core of Joe Dante’s Innerspace (1987). Mel Brooks’ Star Wars parody, Spaceballs (1987), is good for laughs, including Moranis as the heavy-breathing Lord Dark Helmet whipping off said helmet complaining he cannot breathe in it and Pizza the Hutt (Dom DeLuise) eating himself to death. Ghostbusters (1984) with Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis gave us spooky laughs as well as a catchy theme song from Ray Parker Jr.
The new millennium has a bunch of Marvel-stamped fun sci-fi superhero films including the Guardians of the Galaxy and Thor films. There was also the multiple-award-winning Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022), Jim Carrey unleashed as Dr Robotnik in the Sonic The Hedgehog films and the slacker film Hot Tub Time Machine (2010). The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005), while not as much fun as Douglas Adams’ original books, was jolly good.
This image released by Netflix shows Jonah Hill as Jason Orlean, Leonardo DiCaprio as Dr. Randall Mindy, Meryl Streep as President Janie Orlean and Jennifer Lawrence as Kate Dibiasky in a scene from “Don’t Look Up.” | Photo Credit: NIKO TAVERNISE Adam McKay’s star-studded Don’t Look Up (2021) was a darkly comic satire on politics and climate change.
Ryan Reynolds was a bank teller/video game NPC in Shawn Levy’s riotous Free Guy (2021) and a time pilot in Levy’s sweet The Adam Project (2022), while Wes Anderson’s retro-futuristic Asteroid City (2023) was a wild, whimsical trip. Animation has some worthy additions to this cosy genre including Wall-E (2008), Megamind (2010) and Wreck-It Ralph (2012). All these films underscore that time travel and quantum theory need not necessarily be gloomy excursions into questions about life, the universe, and everything (thank you, Mr Adams).
From The Hindu cinema team, a fortnightly column recommending films and shows tied to a mood, theme, or pop-cultural event. Published - March 14, 2025 05:30 pm IST Copy link Email Facebook Twitter Telegram LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit The Hindu MetroPlus / English cinema.
