5.0 out of 5 stars
PART BURLESQUE - PART VAUDEVILLE -- BUT FUNNY ALTOGETHER, March 26, 2006
This review is from: Airplane! (DVD)
FIRST THOUGHTS: ONE OF A KIND IN 1980
When this film was first released I recall seeing the ads on TV, and the reviews with film clips. What I remember most is the scene of an hysterical woman on board the plane being shaken by the doctor [Leslie Neilsen] who was called away to the phone. Then another person took over the slapping while the cameras slowly panned toward the now forming line where people were carrying huge wrenches, pistols, baseball bats and crowbars - all oversized, to help aid this poor passenger in her moment of hysteria. This really sets the tone of what "AIRPLANE" is all about.
IN A NUTSHELL: TACKY - TAWDRY - VULGAR - CLICHE: BUT TERRIBLY FUNNY ON A GUT LEVEL
When "Airplane" was first released in 1980 it was unbelievably funny from beginning to end. Yes, funny enough to forgive the recurring bouts of poor taste that would have sunk a lesser comedy.
WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT: 5-STAR COMEDIC EPIC FROM 1980
The most economical chunk of comedy ever devised is here on DVD.
------ *- PLOT SPOILERS BELOW *---------------------------------
--*It goes something like this: FUNNY HOW IT DOESN'T SOUND AT ALL FUNNY!
Ted Striker [Robert Hays], is a mess. He is an alcoholic former single-engine fighter pilot who now has a total phobia of flying because of his war-time trauma where most of his squadron died while under his ill-fated command. Nevertheless, Striker boards a jet airliner in an attempt to plead his way back to the good graces of his stewardess girlfriend [Julie Hagerty] who states, "I can't live with a man I don't respect".
-- SO THE REST OF THE FILM IS ALL ABOUT STRIKER REGAINING ELAINE'S RESPECT
FORTUNATELY FOR STRIKER: Fate intervines, as food poisoning incapacitates the passengers and crew that had fish for dinner, including the entire flight crew. Now only Striker is available to land the plane. Striker's former commanding officer [Robert Stack], is given the impossible job of talking down Striker, the reluctant hero.
ALONG THE WAY:
We meet a gaggle of disaster movie cliches, that we call passengers. They include the guitar-strumming nun, a sick little girl who needs a heart transplant, the frightened woman who gets it from a line of bat weilding passengers, and two African-American male passengers who speak "jive" and who have their words subtitled throughout. We also have Dr. Rumack [Leslie Nielsen] who takes everything literally and who states "You can tell me -- I'm a doctor" to equally straight Capt. Oveur [Peter Graves] the overtly pedophilic pilot.
--* THE CAST *--
Robert Hays - Ted Striker
Julie Hagerty - Elaine Dickinson
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar - Murdock
Lloyd Bridges - McCroskey
Peter Graves - Capt. Oveur
Leslie Nielsen - Dr. Rumack
Robert Stack - Kramer
Lorna Patterson - Randy
Stephen Stucker - Johnny
Barbara Billingsley - Jive Lady
Maureen McGovern - Nun
Jill Whelan - Lisa Davis
Jonathan Banks - Gunderson
-- *THE PRODUCTION CREW *NOMINATED FOR GOLDEN GLOBE -BEST PICTURE MUSICAL OR COMEDY* 1980
Jim Abrahams - Director / Executive Producer / Screenwriter
David Zucker - Director / Executive Producer / Screenwriter
Jerry Zucker - Director / Executive Producer / Screenwriter
Jon Davison - Producer
Howard W. Koch, Jr. - Producer
Joseph Biroc - Cinematographer
Elmer Bernstein - Composer (Music Score)
Patrick Kennedy - Editor
Ward Preston - Production Designer
Hunt Lowry - Associate Producer
Anne McCulley - Set Designer
Rosanna Norton - Costume Designer
Tom Overton - Sound/Sound Designer
Bruce Logan - Special Effects
ABOUT THE DVD: EXCELLENT WIDESCREEN TRANSFER + ORIGINAL THEATRICAL TRAILER
BOTTOM LINE: EVERY MOMENT OF AIRPLANE IS STEEPED IN OVERWHELMING SILLINESS!
Excellent comedy, but it does seem a little dated as it has been copied, and lampooned all too frequently, including in "Airplane 2-The Sequel". Nevertheless, this is an adult comedy which is literally over all too soon, and where a single second is not allowed to elapse without the presence of overwhelming silliness.
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