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Airplane!Rating:
Release Date: 24 October, 2000 Retail Price: $14.98 OUR Price: $10.99 You SAVE: $3.99! Cast: Complete Cast (17 total) |
Airplane! Reviews
My favorite
Great one-liners, puns and sight gags, all played with deadpan perfection. Don't let my simplistic description mislead you, though: this spoof of disaster films is no standup comedy routine. Rather, I find it quite simply the funniest movie I have ever seen. The comedy is innovative and, at the time it was made, unlike any other comedy. While some gags in the movie appear merely silly or sophomoric, to make humor this funny takes a good deal of intelligence. It is almost surreal to see Robert Stack, Leslie Nielsen and Peter Graves deliver such hysterical lines. Often imitated, never equaled.
WILDLY OVER-THE-TOP & SOMEHOW USUALLY VERY FUNNY
PART BURLESQUE - PART VAUDEVILLE -- BUT FUNNY ALTOGETHER
LOOKING BACK --- A NEW KIND OF FILM 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.
SIMPLY STATED -- TACKY, TAWDRY, VULGAR & CLICHE: YET HORRIBLY HYSTERICAL HUMOR
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. One of the keys to "Airplanes" success is in using traditional dramatic actors like Robert Stack, Peter Graves, Lloyd Bridges and most of all Leslie Nielsen as the venerable Dr. Rumack who travels wearing his stethoscope, even when he is sleeping.
SO WHAT IS THE PLOT OF 'AIRPLANE'?
The tightest clump of comedy ever devised is here on DVD.
------ *- WARNING : PLOT SPOILERS BELOW: WARNING *--------------
--*
It goes something like this, but don't be surprised if my account doesn't sound funny at all!
Ted Striker [Robert Hays], is a disaster as a human being. 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, Ted 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".
-* THE FILM IS ALL ABOUT STRIKER REGAINING ELAINE'S RESPECT
Fortunately for Ted Striker fate intervenes, as food poisoning incapacitates the passengers, and crew that had fish for dinner. This includes the entire flight crew. Now only Striker is available to land the plane. Enter Mr. Striker!!! Striker's former commanding officer [Robert Stack], is given the impossible job of talking down Striker, the reluctant hero.
AS THE STORY IS TOLD: PRATFALLS - CLICHES & LAMPOONS OF RECENT DISASTER EPICS ABOUND
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 PLAYERS *-
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
THE DVD -- EXCELLENT WIDESCREEN TRANSFER + ORIGINAL THEATRICAL TRAILER
SPECIAL FEATURES INCLUDE;
WIDESCREEN VERSION ENHANCED FOR 16 X 9 TVs, DOLBY DIGITAL WITH SURROUND 5.1 or FRENCH MONO, ENGLISH SUBTITLES [if needed], INTERACTIVE MENUS, SCENE SELECTION, THEATRICAL TRAILER + COMMENTARY WITH THE DIRECTOR/WRITERS [all of them].
AFTER IT IS ALL SAID & DONE: EVERY MOMENT OF AIRPLANE IS STEEPED IN OVERWHELMING SILLINESS!
To be sure, this is an excellent comedy. However, today, 26 years after its original theatrical release it does seem a little dated as it has been copied, and lampooned all too frequently. "Airplane 2-The Sequel" did nothing to strengthen the franchise as it sought and passed the limit of just how 'over-the-top' the limit of good humor was and still is. Having said all that, this is an adult comedy which is literally over all too soon. A single second is not allowed to elapse without the presence of overwhelming silliness which for the most part, works quite well to further the silly plot and to delight the audience.
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