26 Exceptional Examples Of Absurd Movies!
If you are a big fan of comedy movies that are absurd, this list is for you!
From Austin Powers to Police Academy, here are some of the best examples of surreal humor!
***Movie storylines were taken from the IMDb.
1. Kung Pow: Enter the Fist (2002) | IMDb 6.2
Kung Pow: Enter the Fist
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0240468
Kung Pow: Enter the Fist is a movie within a movie, created to spoof the martial arts genre. Writer/director Steve Oedekerk uses contemporary characters and splices them into a 1970s kung-fu film, weaving the new and old together. As the main character, The Chosen One, Oedekerk sets off to avenge the deaths of his parents at the hands of kung-fu legend Master Pain. Along the way, he encounters some strange characters, one of which is a cow trained in the martial arts.
2. Scary Movie (2000) | IMDb 6.2
Scary Movie
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0175142
A group of teenagers including Cindy Campbell and Bobby Prinze, accidentally hit a man when driving, and dispose of the body, but now they are being stalked by a very recognisable masked killer. The victim count increases, whilst Cindy must survive the carnage that has she has seen in so many films before.
3. Mars Attacks! (1996) | IMDb 6.3
Mars Attacks!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116996
It is a normal day for everyone, until the President of the United States announces Martians have been spotted circling Earth. The Martians land and a meeting is arranged, but not everything goes to plan, and the Martians seem to have other plans for Earth. Are they just misunderstood beings or do they really want to destroy all of humanity?
4. The Other Guys (2010) | IMDb 6.7
The Other Guys
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1386588
Terry Hoitz's past mistakes in the line of duty and Allen Gamble's reluctance to take risks have landed them the roles of the 'Other Guys', disgraced New York City police detectives relegated to filling out paperwork for cocky hero cops Danson and Highsmith. The mismatched duo must look past their differences when they take on a high-profile investigation of shady capitalist David Ershon and attempt to fill the shoes of the notoriously reckless officers they idolize.
5. Hot Shots! (1991) | IMDb 6.7
Hot Shots!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102059
Topper Harley, a top gun fighter pilot, is recalled to serve on the SS Essess. Topper's mission is to destroy Saddam Hussein's nuclear plants. Unfortunately, Topper is psychologically imbalanced and is sure to crack under pressure.
6. Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993) | IMDb 6.7
Robin Hood: Men in Tights
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107977
The standard story of Robin Hood: Evil Prince John is oppressing the people while good King Richard is away on the Crusades. Robin steals from the tax collectors, wins an archery contest, defeats the Sheriff, and rescues Maid Marian. In this version, however, Mel Brooks adds his own personal touch, parodying traditional adventure films, romance films, and the whole idea of men running around the woods in tights.
7. Police Academy (1984) | IMDb 6.7
Police Academy
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087928
The year is 1984 and the mayoress has removed set personal criteria form the requirements to join the police force. No longer is sex, weight, height and orientation a factor. This now allows for an insurgence of people applying. The Police Academy series follows a select group of misfits in their quest to become police men and women. The first film of the series follows these misfits in their time at the Police Academy. The main focus is on a petty criminal called Mahoney. Mahoney is busted for criminal damage and as punishment is forced to go to Police Academy. Mahoney initially feels that this isn't the right place for him and he makes it his mission to be thrown out as he is not allowed to quit. As the classes go by and the training exercises are played out, Mahoney soon realizes that he is actually enjoying the academy and does want to become a police officer.
8. Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask (1972) | IMDb 6.8
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068555
Seven segments related to one another only in that they all purport to be based on sections of the book by David Reuben. The segments range from 'Do Aphrodisiacs Work?' in which a court jester gives an aphrodisiac to the Queen and is, in the end, beheaded to 'What Happens During Ejaculation?' in which we watch 'control central' during a successful seduction.
9. Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997) | IMDb 7.0
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118655
Austin Powers is a 60's spy who is cryonically frozen and released in the 1990's. The world is a very different place for Powers. Unfortunately for Austin, everyone is no longer sex-mad. Although he may be in a different decade, his mission is still the same. He has teamed up with Vanessa Kensington to stop the evil Dr. Evil, who was also frozen in the past. Dr. Evil stole a nuclear weapon and is demanding a payment of (when he realises its the 90's) 100 billion dollars. Can Austin Powers stop this madman? or will he caught up with Evil's henchman, with names like Alotta Fagina and Random Task?
10. Spaceballs (1987) | IMDb 7.1
Spaceballs
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094012
Austin Powers is a 60's spy who is cryonically frozen and released in the 1990's. The world is a very different place for Powers. Unfortunately for Austin, everyone is no longer sex-mad. Although he may be in a different decade, his mission is still the same. He has teamed up with Vanessa Kensington to stop the evil Dr. Evil, who was also frozen in the past. Dr. Evil stole a nuclear weapon and is demanding a payment of (when he realises its the 90's) 100 billion dollars. Can Austin Powers stop this madman? or will he caught up with Evil's henchman, with names like Alotta Fagina and Random Task? Only time will tell!
11. Top Secret! (1984) | IMDb 7.2
Top Secret!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088286
This time Zucker and Abrahams are spoofing, most notably, Elvis films and WWII spy movies. Val Kilmer stars as Nick Rivers, a handsome American 50s-style rock and roll singer. While performing in East Germany, he falls in love with a beautiful heroine and becomes involved with the French Resistance.
12. The Jerk (1979) | IMDb 7.2
The Jerk
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079367
Navin is an idiot. He grew up in Mississippi as adopted son of a black family but on his 18th birthday he feels he wants to discover the rest of the world and sets out to St. Louis. There everyone exploits his naivety, but then a simple invention brings him a fortune.
13. Shaolin Soccer (2001) | IMDb 7.3
Siu lam juk kau
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0286112
This time Zucker and Abrahams are spoofing, most notably, Elvis films and WWII spy movies. Val Kilmer stars as Nick Rivers, a handsome American 50s-style rock and roll singer. While performing in East Germany, he falls in love with a beautiful heroine and becomes involved with the French Resistance.
14. Dogma (1999) | IMDb 7.4
An abortion clinic worker with a special heritage is enlisted to prevent two angels from reentering Heaven and thus undoing the fabric of the universe. Along the way, she is aided by two prophets, Jay and Silent Bob. With the help of Rufus, the 13th Apostle, they must stop those who stand in their way and prevent the angels from entering Heaven.
15. Beetlejuice (1988) | IMDb 7.5
Beetlejuice
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094721
Adam and Barbara are a normal couple...who happen to be dead. They have given their precious time to decorate their house and make it their own, but unfortunately a family is moving in, and not quietly. Adam and Barbara try to scare them out, but end up becoming the main attraction to the money making family. They call upon Beetlejuice to help, but Beetlejuice has more in mind than just helping.
16. Animal House (1978) | IMDb 7.6
Animal House
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077975
Faber College has one frat house so disreputable it will take anyone. It has a second one full of white, anglo-saxon, rich young men who are so sanctimonious no one can stand them except Dean Wormer. The dean enlists the help of the second frat to get the boys of Delta House off campus. The dean's plan comes into play just before the homecoming parade to end all parades for all time.
17. The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988) | IMDb 7.6
The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095705
A re-run of many of the gags from the original TV series 'Police Squad'. An Airplane type spoof, this time with the an incompetent lieutenant (Drebin) who always 'gets his man'. Visual gags come thick and fast, and it's impossible to catch them all with one viewing. The plot.. Queen Elizabeth II of England is coming to town, and Vincent Ludwig has plans to assassinate her using a brainwashed baseball player.
18. Delicatessen (1991) | IMDb 7.7
Delicatessen
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101700
The story is centered on a microcosm of a post-apocalyptic society where food is so rare it's invaluable and is used as currency. The story centers on an apartment building with a delicatessen on the ground floor. The owner of the eatery also owns the apartment building and he is in need of a new maintenance man since the original 'mysteriously' disappeared. A former clown applies for the job and the butcher's intent is to have him work for a little while and then serve him to quirky tenants who pay the butcher in, of course, grain. The clown and butcher's daughter fall in love and she tries to foil her father's plans by contacting the 'troglodytes', a grain eating sub-group of society who live entirely underground. The 'trogs' are possibly the most sensible of the lot, as they see food as food and not money.
19. Zombieland (2009) | IMDb 7.7
Zombieland
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1156398
Searching for family. In the early twenty-first century, zombies have taken over America. A shy and inexperienced college student in Texas has survived by following his 30 rules: such as 'look in the back seat,' 'double-tap,' 'avoid public restrooms.' He decides to travel to Ohio to see if his parents are alive. He gets a ride with a boisterous zombie-hating good-old boy headed for Florida, and soon they confront a young woman whose sister has been bitten by a zombie and wants to be put out of her misery. The sisters were headed to an LA amusement park they've heard is zombie free. Can the kid from Ohio get to his family? And what about rule thirty one?
20. Kung Fu Hustle (2004) | IMDb 7.8
Kung Fu Hustle
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0373074
Set in Canton, China in the 1940s, the story revolves in a town ruled by the Axe Gang, Sing who desperately wants to become a member. He stumbles into a slum ruled by eccentric landlords who turns out to be the greatest kung-fu masters in disguise. Sing's actions eventually cause the Axe Gang and the slumlords to engage in an explosive kung-fu battle. Only one side will win and only one hero will emerge as the greatest kung-fu master of all.
21. Airplane! (1980) | IMDb 7.8
Airplane!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080339
Still craving for the love of his life, Ted Striker follows Elaine onto the flight that she is working on as a member of the cabin crew. Elaine doesn't want to be with Ted anymore, but when the crew and passengers fall ill from food poisoning, all eyes are on Ted.
22. Adam's Apples (2005) | IMDb 7.8
Adams æbler
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418455
Ivan is a priest in a rural church known for the apples that grow on a large tree in front. He's odd: seeing the world through rose-colored glasses, in denial about personal facts, and convinced he's at war with Satan. The rectory is a half-way house for recently paroled convicts. Adam arrives for 12 weeks, a large, tough neo-Nazi, first baffled by Ivan's thick-headed optimism, then angry. He vows to break Ivan's faith. Meanwhile, in exasperation at Ivan's insistence, Adam sets a personal goal: to bake an apple pie. All goes awry for the tree: crows, worms, lightening. The Book of Job gives Adam perverse insight, and his hooligan mates provide the resolution's spring.
23. Shaun of the Death (2004) | IMDb 8.0
Shaun of the Dead
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0365748
Shaun doesn't have a very good day, so he decides to turn his life around by getting his ex to take him back, but he times it for right in the middle of what may be a zombie apocalypse... But for him, it's an opportunity to show everyone he knows how useful he is by saving them all. All he has to do is survive... And get his ex back.
24. Underground (1995) | IMDb 8.1
Underground
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114787
The story follows an underground weapons manufacturer in Belgrade during WWII and evolves into fairly surreal situations. A black marketeer who smuggles the weapons to partisans doesn't mention to the workers that the war is over, and they keep producing. Years later, they break out of their underground 'shelter' --- only to convince themselves that the war is still going on.
25. Life Of Brian (1979) | IMDb 8.1
Life of Brian
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079470
The story of Brian of Nazareth, born on the same day as Jesus of Nazareth, who takes a different path in life that leads to the same conclusion. Brian joins a political resistance movement aiming to get the Romans out of Judea. Brian scores a victory of sorts when he manages to paint political slogans on an entire wall in the city of Jerusalem. The movement is not very effective but somehow Brian becomes a prophet and gathers his own following. His fate is sealed however and he lives a very short life.
26. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) | IMDb 8.3
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071853
History is turned on its comic head when, in 10th century England, King Arthur travels the countryside to find knights who will join him at the Round Table in Camelot. Gathering up the men is a tale in itself but after a bit of a party at Camelot, many decide to leave only to be stopped by God who sends them on a quest: to find the Holy Grail. After a series of individual adventures, the knights are reunited but must face a wizard named Tim, killer rabbits and lessons in the use of holy hand grenades. Their quest comes to an end however when the police intervene - just what you would expect in a Monty Python movie.
Send Comment