Airplane!

Rating:
Summary: Classic comedy
Review: Airplane is one of the classic, definitive comedies of the 1970's. It does almost everything right, and hardly any of its jokes even seem dated at all. In fact, the reality is that most of the jokes here would never make their way into a final cut of any movie today.

Rating:
Summary: Hilarious, seventh grade humor style.
Review: I was having a birthday party,a nd 3 of my friends and I had no idea what to watch, as it was midnight, and Adult Swim was some crazy All-metal Alchemist thing (o_O). Anyhow, my dad had rented all of his favorite movies from back when he was young. I could've sworn that he would've gotten us Lassie, or something crappy like that. However, out of the Blockbuster bag fell about eight Monty Python movies, and Airplane!. Only Mary and I found Monty Python to be absolutly hilarious. So, we put in Airplane!. We ahd no idea what to expect, what was so funny about airplanes? Anyhow, the main point is, we figured it would be boring.
The first scene opened up with a lady going into an airport, and two people arguing via loudspeaker. It seemed as funny as I Dream of Genie is now. Later, however, we were all rolling on the floor, choking on our tounges with laughter. In a few later scenes, though, we sat bolt upright, looks of disgust on our faces, and eyes wide as tennis balls.
Allow me to mention a few of those scenes. In one, close to the ebginning, the captain is talking to a young maybe 6 year old boy about naked men (??????). THEN, an elderly lady is talking to a guy about how lovely this one lady is. "Why she's got a lovely figure, a pretty smile, firm thighs..." and taht's when we just about barfed. THEN (I'm afraid my list must continue) there were some mild scenes of female nudity, quite scary indeed. Then there's a lady sleeping (and I mean like you adults do) with a horse. AND THEN (the list goes on and on, I'm just hitting on the ones I found and remembered) there's an incredibly nasty inflatable auto-pilot. Of course there's more.
However, as seventh graders, none of this really actually bothered us, except for the fact that ypu really don't want to have children younger thyan 13 in the room (there's this one SCENE, and my little sister who is 10 didn't understand it. As you all can guess, I was in no position to explain to my little sister what a blo-job was).
IN CONCLUSION: this film in nothing but hilaious. But do not be fooled by the PG rating. It deserves a PG-13 for female nudity, sex metaphors, and a bit of language. This only adds to the fact taht it has got to be the funniest, or at least one of, movies I've ever seen. Also, Monty Python is pure gold.

Rating:
Summary: I love this movie too
Review: I've seen it many times. I used to get the jokes occasionally mixed up with it's somewhat inferior sequel, Airplane 2, but I have learned which joks are from which. The film has a modern but still timeless feeling to it and the comic deadpan delivery by otherwise very dramatic actors is excellent. A winner.

Rating:
Summary: Classic satire
Review: Anyone who has ever seen one of a host of abysmal 1970's disaster flicks could have predicted that they were ripe for a satire, but I doubt anyone could have predicted that "Airplane" would have set the gold standard for the spoof. In addition, since it appears on TV so often, seeing it on DVD is almost a new experience because all of the scenes that were cut for content seem like new jokes.

I can't imagine anyone is unfamiliar with the plot (such as it is), but by way of a brief summary, a passenger jet is in trouble when the entire flight crew, and many of the passengers, fall ill from the in flight meal. It's up to Ted Striker to bring down the plane safely; but there's just one problem, he hasn't been able to fly since his last abortive raid during "the war". Oh, and his estranged girlfriend is one of the stewardesses. However, where a disaster film would turn this into an overwrought melodrama, absolutely nothing, and I do mean nothing, is taken seriously in "Airplane".

In fact, it is almost remarkable how much is packed into this film. Literally every scene contains a joke or a sight gag or a double entendre. There's so much going on that in spite of dozens of viewings, I still find something new more often than not. Eve the sound effects are a gag, as all of the exterior shots of the plane (which is a model that is so fake it's hilarious) feature the sound of a prop plane even though it is obviously a jet.

The DVD doesn't have much to recommend it other than the film, but that's to be expected from an older, relatively low budget movie; and those who have seen it would agree, there can't have been much left on the cutting room floor to make up extra features. The image and sound are fine, if not spectacular, but then neither needs to be. However, having the film in widescreen is nice because some of the wide angle shots now contain people that weren't visible in the fullscreen version familiar to TV viewers.

In the end, "Airplane" may very well be the king of movie satires. From start to finish it is a non-stop joke reel, and the amazing thing is that they are all still funny years after the first viewing. Fans of the movie will find this DVD to be adequate, as the transfer and sound are fine, but don't count on any new material or amazing extras. However, as I said before, I don't think this is a movie that needs a lot of extras, and the film alone is well worth the very reasonable price.

Jake Mohlman.