1) Star Wars (IV V VI)
2) Starship Trooper (surpirsed that it did not come earlier)
3) Alien 1&3
4) Serenity (just because I saw it not long ago and I liked the series)
5) Total Recall

Spaceballs is painful to watch? It's bloody hilarious.

By looking at these lists and making my own, I realized that there aren't actually that many good "space" movies. There are a bunch of good sci-fi movies that wouldn't qualify as space movies, though, like Blade Runner or The Terminator.

In no particular order:

Star Wars: A New Hope
Event Horizon
Alien
2001 A Space Odyssey
Star Trek 2: Wrath of Khan

This concept is new to me.

As a part of Brooks' series of films, it was a negative sign of things to come, and as a film on it's own it's an immature piece of comedy relying on simplistic slapstick humour. There are worse films out there (Brooks' "Robin Hood: Men In Tights" for one), but that doesn't give "Spaceballs" an excuse for what it is. "Spaceballs", put simply, is a film that every child will love, but which eventually we will all grow out of.

The CNN-list was absolutely rediculus to me. My top 5 would be

Alien
2001: A Space Odyssey
Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back
Moon
Wall-E

Honorables:

Silent Running
Forbidden Planet
5th Element

I never liked Aliens, and while I really like Star Wars: A new hope, I find it strange that someone would chose it over Empire Strikes back. Perhaps i need to re-watch.

I don't want to build a list of TOP but one of the best I saw:
"Enemy Mine" (1985) by W. Petersen based on Barry Longyear, "Enemy Mine". Novel is better than movie but movie is also excellent. Highly recommended.

Thank you, finally a sane person. I've never understood why this cheap piece of childish slapstick humor is considered a cult classic by so many people. I actually find it embarrassing to watch.

My top five

1 Star Wars (apsolute best sci fi series)
2 Serenity (I thought it was cool)
3 Pitch Black (the beginning of reddick)
4 Enemy Mine (its a clasic hard to forget)
5 Moon (enjoyable movie)

can't think of any other worthwhile space movies... that i like anyways

I enjoy Spaceballs for the very reason that it is simplistic, slapstick humor. A guy can be wealthy enough to afford filet mignon for dinner. But every so often, he just wants a hamburger. Same idea with movies. Every so often, I just want to watch something stupid and mindless. Spaceballs fills the bill.

Edit: And kudos to those who mentioned Outland. It's not in my top five; but it makes my top ten.

Sure, I respect that. I also watch stupid, mindless movies for that very reason. But I don't get the constant praise for Spaceballs as one of the best comedy movies ever made. Surely no one would claim that the Big Mac is one of the finest food items you will ever eat.

They are different I think. Ep V is darker and the setting is in place while IV is an introduction and looks less blockbuster (to me)

My heart always goes from one to the other every time I listen to them