The best romances begin by taking a step into the dark
together. So the best first date often involves watching a really great science
fiction or fantasy movie — one that contains not just romance, but boundless
possibility. Here are our 12 favorite “first date” movies.
1. Safety not Guaranteed
There’s just one truly great story about someone responding to
a personal ad and having a brilliant adventure, and it’s not Must Love Dogs. In this film, Aubrey
Plaza is sent to get the dirt on a guy who put an ad in the newspaper looking
for someone to travel through time with him (Mark Duplass.) Instead of a story,
she finds a fellow outcast who helps her confront her own issues with the past.
2. Seeking a Friend For the End of the World
Yes it’s a little schmaltzy, but this moving has a pretty
daring premise: What would happen to two loners searching for love in the final
weeks before the world ends? It’s the kind of movie that would normally be
science fiction horror, with impending doom unleashing riots and mayhem. And we
do see some of that — but mostly, we focus on Steve Carell, who delivers a
funny/sad performance as a man who just wants to connect with another human
being. That person turns out, improbably, to be Keira Knightley. Somehow their
bizarre coupling works, partly because they know they won’t have to worry about
maintaining a long-term relationship. This is a love story that’s funny,
melancholy, and delightfully weird.
3. The Princess Bride
This list is in no particular order — but this movie is
probably the best first-date film of
all time. Sure, it’s a kid-friendly movie, in which Columbo reads choice bits
of an adventure story to his sick grandson. But it’s also a great romance, all
about the undying love between Buttercup and Wesley, with that titular “Bride”
being the centerpiece of a wedding that absolutely must not go forward, no
matter how much swashbuckling has to take place to prevent it.
4. Cherry 2000
This is your typical story of a man who wrecks his beloved sex
doll by having sex with her in water — and then has to save her mechanical
life by going on a quest for the one missing part that will repair her in the
post-apocalyptic wastelands. Of course the only person who can lead him on this
quest is a bounty hunter played by Melanie Griffith, in full spike-haired
1980s-era hotness. What happens when this city boy with his sex doll has to
deal with a real woman? You’ll find out, and love the cheesy zingers in this
late-twentieth century classic.
5. Bedazzled
No, not the 2000 remake with Brendan Fraser and Elizabeth
Hurley — hell no, in fact — but rather, the 1967 original, with the classic
comedy duo of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. Cook is the Devil, who offers Moore
seven wishes in exchange for his soul, in this theologically astute comedy. If
your date doesn’t get all of the sly in-jokes, that could be a bad sign. But
this film’s also a terrifically sardonic love story, in which Moore’s character
keeps trying to warp reality to win the heart of the girl he loves (Eleanor
Bron), only to find her outside his grasp every time.
6. Were the World Mine
A musical romance about a teenager dealing with homophobia in a
small town who stars in a high-school production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
And then he discovers that he has access to the same power as the faerie Puck in the
play — he can make people fall in love with the first person they see, using
drops from a magic flower. Soon enough, the town is full of same-sex couples…
but can our hero find true (non-magically-induced) love? It’s a fantasy of gay
acceptance that turns into a sweet love story.
7. Earth Girls Are Easy
This is another 1980s classic, complete with song-and-dance
numbers with MTV comedian Julie Brown, and the most adorable human-alien romance ever
— between real-life sweeties Geena Davis and Jeff Goldblum. Aliens crash-land
on Earth looking for ladies. To blend in, they need the aid of beauticians
Davis and Brown, who shave all the aliens’ muppet fur off to reveal Goldblum,
Jim Carey, and Damon Wayans. Hijinks ensue! Including a very 80s dance club
sequence. Yes, this movie has it all. Just watch it and you’ll be ready to fall
in love with the universe again.
8. Time After Time
In this time travel tale, HG Wells (Malcolm McDowell) actually
invents a time machine. Unfortunately, his best friend (the hammily wonderful
David Warner) steals it and zooms forward in time to the 1970s — which is when
this movie was made. In the future, Warner reveals that he’s actually Jack the
Ripper and would love to get his knives into some of these groovy future
ladies. Wells pursues him, and somehow meets the woman of his dreams along the
way. This movie is a thriller with a sweet romantic thread.
9. Love in Space
This movie was a huge hit in China, and tells the story of
three sisters looking for love in the near future — one in Hong Kong, one in
Australia, and one on the International Space Station. Each has a career
(including astronaut!) but each also longs for old-fashioned romance with a man
who understands her. It’s a light romantic comedy, whose vision of tomorrow
will remind you of a William Gibson novel where cultures mix into something
utterly new and completely recognizable as our own.
10. Thor: The Dark World
The second Thor outing is a great date movie, and not just
because it explores the relationship between Thor and Jane Foster, and the
things that keep them apart. It’s also just so much crazy fun, with bonkers
action sequences involving the walls of reality breaking down and loads of Tom
Hiddleston eye candy. You and your date will walk out of this movie feeling as
though anything is possible. Anything.
11. Kiki’s Delivery Service
A young witch goes to live in a new town to begin a mandatory
year of living on her own, and starts using her flying broom to create a
delivery service. You’ll bond over loving the cat, and you’ll gain a new
insight into creativity and the power of believing in yourself from Kiki’s
friendship with a young painter, Ursula. But there’s also a really sweet
romance with a boy named Tombo, who invents a flying bicycle to go with Kiki’s
flying broom. The sweetest movie ever, even though it goes to some kind of dark
places.
12. Underworld
Sometimes you just need a gothy story about the forbidden love
between vampire and werewolf in a future world run by people who wear spandex.
Full of awesome action and Kate Beckinsale in a corset, this movie is the tale
of an ancient feud between the aristocratic vampires and the proletarian werewolves
who once served them. Can love bring the two tribes together again? You’ll find
out! And maybe you’ll make out, too.
