Well Deserved Praise

The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Airplane from the team of Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker is a hilarious treat. It takes place on a, er, airplane and has every comic trope available on board. Robert hays and Julie Hagerty play ex-lovers who bump into each other on the plane amidst chaos. Everything from gaffes to slapstick humor works like a charm and the presence of Leslie Neilson and Llyod Bridges only adds to the sheen. This film is considered a classic of the genre today and if you love comedy than there is no better option than to sit with a copy of Airplane tonight.

While nowadays the style of humor pioneered by the Zucker brothers and Jim Abrahams is passé - and, some would argue, practically ruined by its overbaked usage in some of their subsequent projects including the Scary Movie franchise - back then their humor was fresh, and most of the jokes in this film do indeed hold up today.There's double entendres, lots of one-liners, plenty of sight gags, a bit of politically incorrect racism and sexism, some absurd violence, the legendary scene where Barbara Billingsley says, "Oh stewardess, I speak jive," a deadpan Leslie Nielsen, and more. My favorite actor in the movie was and still is Stephen Stucker as Johnny; every time he pops up to give some anarchic and ridiculous line, it puts a smile on my face.What always struck me about this movie was that, despite all the absurd humor, the central love story does actually take itself rather seriously; Robert Hays and Julie Hagerty are perfectly cast. There's also real suspense when Hays attempts to pilot the passenger plane to safety in a storm; even with all the jokes the movie knows when to give the audience some genuine emotional beats. That was one of the biggest problems the sequel had - it jumped the shark early and often, provoking many viewers to ask "what's the point?"This one, though, is still a fun watch in 2018.

Available on Blu-ray Disc (Region B)USA 1980 English (Colour); Comedy/Adventure (Paramount); 88 minutes (15 certificate)Crew includes: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker (Directors/Screenwriters/Executive Producers, adapting Screenplay ZERO HOUR! by Arthur Hailey, Hall Bartlett, John C. Champion (all uncredited) ***½ [7/10]); Jon Davison, Howard W. Koch (Producers); Joseph Biroc (Cinematographer); Ward Preston (Production Designer); Patrick Kennedy (Editor); Elmer Bernstein (Composer)Cast includes: Robert Hays (Ted Striker), Julie Hagerty (Elaine Dickinson), Leslie Nielsen (Dr Rumack), Lloyd Bridges (Steve McCroskey), Robert Stack (Captain Rex Kramer), Peter Graves (Captain Clarence Oveur), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Roger Murdock), Lorna Patterson (Randy), Stephen Stucker (Johnny Henshaw); Ethel Merman (Lieutenant Hurwitz)BAFTA nomination: Screenplay; Golden Globe nomination: Picture - Musical/Comedy"The plane's going to Chicago. The pilot's going to New York. The passengers are going to pieces!"A traumatised, ex-fighter pilot (Hays) is forced to take over the controls of a stricken airliner when its flight crew and passengers succumb to food poisoning, assisted by his ditsy stewardess girlfriend (Hagerty).Uproarious spoof of AIRPORT-type disaster flicks, specifically a little-known 1957 B-picture, brilliantly employing heretofore serious actors (Bridges, Graves, Stack) to play po-faced characters and spout idiotic dialogue.Nielsen suddenly became best-known for wacky comedy (whose late-career peaked with the NAKED GUN films), and the tremendous success of AIRPLANE! led to countless other, mostly inferior movie send-ups (though its own, ZAZ-less sequel was a really not-bad effort, which recycled many of the same jokes but with clever variations).Blu-ray Extras: Commentary, Deleted Scenes, Interviews, Trivia Track, Trailer. ***½ (7/10)

I was looking forward to watching this, as it always seems to have had such a good reputation, but I found myself rather disappointed. Whilst there are certainly plenty of funny moments, and some classic lines that haven't lost their impact, the film feels like an extended set of hammy sketches thrown together like one of those shapeless pieces of knitting beloved of a certain generation of grandmothers. I know this is partly because of its nature as a spoof, but it meant that a lot of the jokes either came across as forced or extremely predictable. None of this would matter if the film as a whole could be said to be genuinely funny, but I fear that, whilst it may have been hilarious and innovative when it came out, the years have not been kind to the style, the editing, or rather a lot of the humour. I am glad I have seen it, and there was enough entertainment to keep me watching, but I think this one has seen better days.