Try The Irresponsible Captain Tylor – my favourite anime series. It’s a space opera with a sense of humour. Perfect for your mood.
Oh. Never mind.
But the TV series was pretty good.
Hawk the Slayer
It has a whip fishing dwarf, a rapid-fire elf, rubber bouncy ball spells, and most importantly, Jack Palance as the evil warlord.
I had fun watching both seasons of “Legend of the Seeker.” I’ve heard those who read the books it’s based on were disappointed, but I never read the books and enjoyed the two seasons. Complete with sword fights, wizardry, magic and romance.
If animated series’ are okay, I’ll suggest…Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040. Which is a remake of an earlier anime series, which is considered a classic, though I haven’t seen the whole thing. Odd title aside, it’s actually more like Blade Runner than anything else (intentionally—they take a lot of inspiration, in story and setting, from Blade Runner). BGC 2040 is an old favorite of mine—neat story and setting, and it’s a non-comedy sci-fi anime that doesn’t make me feel like mainlining prozac after the finale.
For western animation, I’ll suggest Avatar: The Last Airbender under the “fantasy” category (not the movie, though). It’s just superb, and it’s still being rerun on TV, so you can easily catch an episode to try out. (I mean, yeah, like it’s hard to find a way to watch a video clip nowadays, right? 
)
Not great animation, but I liked both *Wizards *and Fire and Ice, both Ralph Bakshi, the latter also with Frank Frazetta.
The 1980 film Flash Gordon has already been nominated.
Also worth a mention are the 1979 animated TV series Flash Gordon, and the three matinee serials starring Buster Crabbe:
1936 Flash Gordon: Space Soldiers
1938 Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars
1940 Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe.
1974’s Flesh Gordon is cheesy but funny.
1989’s Flesh Gordon 2: Flesh Gordon Meets the Cosmic Cheerleaders has a few good moments, but is mostly bad.
On the sword-and-sorcery front there is Hearts and Armour, a cheesy, low-budget tale of knights in shining armor. Plus, Tanya Roberts naked!
I wish every movie description could end with these words.
The original. uncut Flesh Gordon (not available, alas) also had excellent stop motion effects and was better in every sense (except for the soundtrack) than the 1980 version.
I’m not sure I’d recommend the version now out - it is quite inferior to the real thing.
In spite of the hate it often gets, I’ll suggest The Golden Child. Made back when Eddie Murphy was still funny, and I’ve always loved Charles Dance.
IMDb has it listed under comedy, romance, sci fi
And it has LASERs!
Besides, you have to watch it. It’s a moral imperative.
Highway to Hell-The film was released in 91 but it’s 80s schlock in a good way. It’s got a weird selection of cameos (Amy, Ben, and Jerry Stiller with Anne Meara, Gilbert Gottfried as Hitler and Lita Ford too). The plot is nicely summed here:
The movie is so stupid it makes the way around to being fun.
This time I read your post more carefully.
If you want epic adventure, swords and sorcery, be aware that HBO is about to begin showing the first season of “A Game of Thrones,” the epic sword and sorcery novel by George RR Martin. Many people think “A Song of Ice and Fire,” of which this is the first book, is the best fantasy series ever written.
Since I haven’t read every fantasy series, I can’t comment on that. What I can tell you is it’s the best I’ve ever read, and I’ve read many of them.
I’ll second Legend of the Seeker. I was a huge fan of the books, and once I got past being pissed off about the changes, I was able to enjoy it as a show, too.
Thanks for the additional suggestions, keep them coming!
Going over the list, however, I wonder why it looks like there are so many shlocky, cheesy C-grade movies compared to higher quality ones in science fiction and fantasy. I know that there are just as many mediocre movies in other genres - drama, comedy and whatnot - but there are so many more good ones in those categories, while there are so few really good sci fi and fantasy titles, and I can’t understand why.
So does your CD player. 
Now this I agree with. I know it is set in CalTech, but I knew people at MIT just like many of the characters. Plus, just before I showed up some of them convinced the Boston press that they had made snow in our hall shower.
I’d hate to derail, but is there a pattern or something so I can know when to get said DVDs?
They were (maybe still) available on Hulu but I sure wouldn’t mind a decent hard copy.
Already have Serenity by the way.
Agreed. The beginning of “Game of Thrones” is strangely (for the author) poorly written. Specifically a certain dwarf doing some sort of handspring. Always bugged me.
As a series, it’s awesome.
It’s also unfinished, and may not be finished. The author is taking his time for sure.
So, invest your time in an awesome fantasy series at your own caution. You may be like me, forced to wait forever for the rest.
Hmmm…my guess? It’s easier to make a shlocky, c-grade movie in one of those genres, and harder to make a good one?
Actually, it might be more basic than that. It is/was easier to make a profit with a shlocky, c-grade movie in one of these genres, so they crowd out the market?