Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

How this movie managed to get a rating as high as 4.1 is beyond me. This as got to be one of the worst movies ever.Joe Patroni after being an executive in the first sequel, which could have been logical, is now a pilot. Not only that but a pilot for more than 30 years when he told in the first movie that he was licensed only for taxiing.The plot is so exaggerated it becomes boring and makes no sense at all.Almost every action scene is bad but that stupid idea where you can, (roll the drums) Open a window, flying at Mach 2, to shoot a flare gun at a fighter plane is the most insane. By far the most idiotic move ever seen in whatever movie from whatever country in history, period. No C-list horror movies ever went that low. Compared to that, Jason Vhoorhees's seventh resurrection seems like something you'd see every week in your local newspaper.Finally, everyone and I do mean everyone who knows anything about a plane will tell you that nothing in this movies remotely make sense.I almost forget to tell you about the fakest special effects in the decade. I think they add explosion with more realism on Sesame Street.My only fear is that somebody would sees this without having seen the first one, and think that the series is entirely like this. It already a shame that the original airport has anything to do with this, it would be even worse that people interested in good disaster movies would not see it because they seen airport 79 first.

Have you ever watched unintentional comedy? Well, this is it. There are so many absurdities, I couldn't keep track. The best scenes are when Robert Wagner decides to shoot down the plane with missiles and pass it off as a mechanical failure, Charo tries to smuggle a Chichiauah on the plane and, when it's discovered, claims it's her seeing eye dog, John Davidson's hair stays in place when the plane flies upside down, when a missile gets close to the plane, pilot George Kennedy rolls down the pilot's seat window (at the speed of sound) to shoot at it, Jimmy Walker smokes weed in the bathroom stall, and when stewardess Sylvia Crystal says seductively "You pilots are such men!", Kennedy replies, "They don't call it a cock-pit for nothing!" What floors me is that after the first disaster, the plane takes off for another flight and the passengers get back on! If I were a passenger, no way would I board that plane! All this is backed up by special effects that wouldn't pass for an episode of "Bewitched." If you can find this movie in the 99 cent section, I recommend it. I laughed more than I had laughed in weeks. It's great entertainment in the worst way possible.

I remember walking out of an Australian movie theatre in 1980 and saying to my brother..."That was a disaster movie but what was the disaster?". Granted, I was a child at the time.This Airport movie is different to the other three, no big sea dive or big collision, Airport '79 just seemed to be all over the place! However, the film has improved with age and two recent viewings have been very much enjoyed. It has a touch of The Towering Inferno (1974) with Robert Wagner still being up to no good, the miniature effects work of the Concorde itself is pleasing to my eyes and the film starts with a very uplifting Lalo Schifrin theme tune.Perhaps Schifrin was trying to be the new disaster movie composer as in 1980 he would score Irwin Allen's When Time Ran Out as well.There was to be a 5th Airport movie but the poor box office takings for Airport '79 put an end to all that. Too bad as all four Airport films are a special part of the 1970s and still survive repeat viewings to this day.

'The Concorde...Airport 79' was the last of the quartet of disaster movies that began with 'Airport' ( 1970 ), based on Arthur Hailey's novel. By the time this one appeared, the genre had run out of puff, as 'Meteor' and 'Beyond The Poseidon Adventure' clearly proved. Crusading television reporter Maggie Whelan ( Susan Blakely ) is given incriminating documents that prove beyond a doubt her lover, Dr.Kevin Harrison ( Robert Wagner ), is implicated in illegal arms sales. He decides to bump her off. Now, if you and I wanted to murder someone, we'd probably hire a hit-man. But that's too simple for Harrison. A real villain through and through; had the make-up department issued him with a false moustache, he'd probably be twirling it like there's no tomorrow.No sooner is Maggie's Concorde in the air than he dispatches robot drones and then armed Phantom jets to blow it to pieces. Luckily the plane is being flown by three brilliant, sex-obsessed men ( played by George Kennedy, Alain Delon, and British actor David Warner ) and they skilfully avoid destruction, before touching down in Paris where the Kennedy character ( 'Joe Patroni' - the only one to appear in all four movies ) makes out with a hooker! Maggie fails to connect the attacks on the plane with the importance of the documents on her person ( some reporter! ), and boards it again to fly to the U.S.S.R. Harrison insists he is innocent and pleads with her not to go. Does she listen? No way! Does he think to shoot her on the spot and spare the passengers his insane revenge plot? No way! The plane decompresses in mid flight and has to touch down in the snowy Russian wastes. Watching this on television, Harrison shoots himself in the head. End of film.Eric Roth ( who later wrote 'Forrest Gump' - another load of cinematic blue ice ) should have blushed with shame for taking the pay check for this farrago, while David Lowell Rich's direction is about as satisfying as airline food. Some fun to be had from the cast though, who include old-timers Eddie Albert and Martha Raye, and a few 'promising-newcomers-who-never-made-it' such as Andrea Marcovicci and John Davidson ( the latter's character seems to have been the inspiration for 'Ted Stryker' of 'Airplane!' ). You will howl at the sheer absurdity of it all, and the sight of a black guy ( Jimmie Walker ) wandering round the plane playing the saxophone while Martha Raye's pensioner forever dashes back and forth to the toilet only adds to the fun. Sylvia Kristel, a.k.a. 'Emmanuelle', looks tasty as the stewardess. You half expect her to rip her clothes off to use the material to make bandages. What David Warner is doing in all this is anybody's guess. He makes an inane speech about a giant banana at one point, and you wonder why his co-pilots feel safe flying with him.As it did not get released in Britain until a year after it was made, it was shiftly retitled 'Airport 80 - The Concorde'. That same year, 'Airplane!' arrived. The 'Airport' series had gotten so unintentionally farcical it must have been hard to tell the difference.I'll leave the last word to Joe Petroni. When the stewardess admires the pilots' masculinity, he replies ( probably the film's single most memorable moment ): "They don't call it a cockpit for nothing, honey!".