Airplane!

Rating:
Summary: A Comic Gem!
Review: Hard to believe that this movie is almost 25 years old, but it is still very funny, even if some of the topical gags miss the mark with a more up to date audience.
The movie that seemingly spawned a multitude of imitations, and paved the way for comedies like Police Squad, Naked Gun, and many more, remains a timeless classic of the almost anarchic comedy genre.
A totally implausible story strewn with punny lines, and shameless sideswiping of almost EVERY other disaster movie of the era finds, Robert Hayes, Julie Hagerty, and Leslie Nielsen (prior to his screen rebirth in a comic capacity) aboard flight 209 to Chicago, encumbered with just about every possible disaster from food poisoning to strung out air traffic controllers, they must somehow save the plane and passengers. Subplots a plenty ensue and look out for brilliant cameos from Lloyd Bridges, and Robert Stack playing such ridiculous characters with deadpan sincerity, it's all enough to make you laugh out loud. The sight gags come thick and fast and you will find yourself watching this movie over and over and seeing things you have missed in previous viewings, from the sublime to the ridiculous. Rightfully named in a recent poll of top comedy movies, this is perhaps one of the best offerings from the Abrahams / Zucker / Zucker team, who arguably peeked with this movie, albeit one of their first. Some minor references to drugs and some visual innuendo which is probably tame by today's standards, gave this a PG rather than general audience certificate, but there isn't too much to get offended about. You'll be too busy laughing anyway! Enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: Hilarious!
Review: This movie was awesome! Sure the visual effects are corny as hell, but that's not what matters, it's the comedy that does. This movie is, and will probably be for a long time, one of the best comedies I have ever seen.

Since the movie's extremely old, you can probably get it dirt cheap, and I advise you do so. No matter what the price, this movie is definitely without a doubt worth it!

Rating:
Summary: What is Airplane? It's a movie that's funny and worth.......
Review: Airplane is one of those movies that was created by people who truly understood the parody process and just plain comic genius. The jokes in the film are funny, delivered well, and when worn out are, for the most part, moved on. The movie does not have to be held together by bad running jokes, because there are so many new, good ones all the time. Not only are the jokes timed so perfectly, but the humor itself is just plain witty, and, my favorite, literal. I mean, the movie is about a sickness that debilitates the pilots and half, or at least whoever ate fish, of the passengers. That is not funny, as it would normally stand, but if you throw in the creativity of the jokes then it is very funny, and should be to anybody. Even the ones that, once we tap into the writer's literal comedic minds, seem obvious are still funny and fresh. Now I admit, that I do not find it perfect in everyway, but that is probably an oversight on my part. I honestly wanted even more laughs, but I maybe am just too hard to please. Either way, it is a good movie to watch. With deserved cult-comedy classic status, Airplane is a movie for the ages, just as Monty Python and the Holy Grail has turned out to be.

Rating:
Summary: Funniest Movie Ever?
Review: I have a hard time deciding which is funnier, Airplane! or Animal House. I bought this DVD for $9.99 at Circuit City and I'm glad I did. I hadn't seen Airplane for 6 years until I saw it yesterday, right after I bought it. Airplane! is a movie filled with outrageous humor and I definetly recommend it to any comedy fan(I must warn you though the only features are trailer and commentary).

Rating:
Summary: Still The Funniest Movie Ever Made!!!!!!!!!!
Review: The collaborative comedy writing team of Jerry Zucker-Jim Abrahams-David Zucker (also known as Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker or, alternatively, "The ZAZ Boys"), who had previously written the hilarious and irreverent THE KENTUCKY FRIED MOVIE (1977), made its directorial debut in 1980 with the even more hysterical AIRPLANE! (which they, of course, also wrote). To say that this team made the single biggest mark on feature comedy since the Marx brothers is no exaggeration. It was a new type of comedy whose only close approximations up to that point were the zany (and also incredibly funny) Mel Brooks films THE PRODUCERS (1968), BLAZING SADDLES (1974), YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (also 1974), SILENT MOVIE (1976) and HIGH ANXIETY (1978). However, with AIRPLANE! the ZAZ boys delivered a comedy that was more rapid-fire, that had literally a gag or two per second (sometimes several), that not only did it make people's sides ache, but also made it impossible for everybody to catch all of the gags in one viewing, especially because they were too busy laughing out loud to notice much of the crazy stuff going on in the background!

What more can I really say about AIRPLANE!? It is the laughs, including the peripheral ones, that have kept comedy film fans coming back for more since 1980. Not only are there people who have seen AIRPLANE! literally hundreds of times on VHS and DVD (and claim to still find new things in it that they never before noticed), but this movie's immense popularity (the DVD is currently the 318th most popular item on Amazon; now, that's what I call staying power!) spawned a new wave of zany "spoof comedies" by the ZAZ team (TOP SECRET, 1984; THE NAKED GUN films in 1988, 1991 and 1994, respectively), Jim Abrahams solo (HOT SHOTS!, 1991; HOT SHOTS! PART DEUX, 1993; MAFIA!, 1998), Garry Marshall (YOUNG DOCTORS IN LOVE, 1982), the Wayans brothers (SCARY MOVIE, 2000; SCARY MOVIE 2, 2001) and many poor imitators. Some of these films are nearly as funny and inventive (see THE NAKED GUN series), while others are not (see YOUNG DOCTORS IN LOVE---or, better yet, don't see it); however, most of us will agree that the hits far outweigh the misses, and make us grateful that this type of comedy exists. It may be overdone sometimes, but that's Hollywood for you! (By the way, I'm not among those who have seen it hundreds of times; although I do find something new in AIRPLANE! every time I watch it, I've probably seen it on a total of only about ten occasions.)

Besides creating new, fertile breeding ground for the spoof sub-genre of comedy, AIRPLANE! provided a most plum starring role for the then-relatively-unknown Robert Hays (who had just come out of the failed 1979 Donna Pescow-starring TV sitcom "Angie"), who completely shines here in his hilarious deadpan role of Ted Striker, an old fighter pilot with 'a drinking problem' who boards a big passenger airplane on which his ex-girlfriend Elaine (a wonderful Julie Hagerty) works as a flight attendant, and who has recurring nightmares of when he served under Captain Rex Kramer (a hilariously deadpan Robert Stack), and...I could go on and on, and I won't because it's beside any point. Let's just say that the extremely diverse cast (Lloyd Bridges, Leslie Nielsen, Peter Graves, basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, June Cleaver legend Barbara Billingsley, etc.), who combine to spoof the AIRPORT and other airline-disaster films of the '70's out of existence, are used to such incredible effect that it makes me want to hug the ZAZ guys for all their brilliantly twisted filmmaking talents.

Unfortunately, this DVD version doesn't give us anything new. That's okay, though, as AIRPLANE! is one of those rare movies that doesn't actually "need" special features (although it still would have been nice). If you haven't seen this film in a long time, then I encourage you to revisit it. Feel free to show it to your kids (just keep in mind that this movie was a hard "PG" in its day and would have easily earned a PG-13 rating today, with its raunchy language and partial nudity, so it's not really for most kids under the age of 10). As for you, it's bound to make you roll on the floor laughing again, and brighten up your day!

MOST RECOMMENDED

Rating:
Summary: Take a flight on Airplane and laugh.
Review: If you have seen all of the dramatic all-star cast "Airport" movies, (Airport [1970], Airport 1975 [1974], Airport '77 [1977], The Concorde--Airport '79 [1979]) then sit down with some popcorn and get ready to laugh and enjoy Airplane! (1980). Made as a comedy and made for those who have seen the "Airport" films. There is an all-star cast with so many sight gags and jokes going on, you might have to see this film twice...maybe thrice. All star cast includes: Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, Lorna Patterson, with David Leisure, Peter Graves, Kareem Abdul-Jabar, Ann M. Nelson, Joyce Bulifant, Jill Whelan, Maureen McGovern, Ethel Merman, James Hong, Leslie Nielsen, Lloyd Bridges, Barbara Stuart, Robert Stack, James Emmett, Barbara Billingsly and many more. Filmed in Metrocolor like Airport (1970) was. Followed by AIRPLANE II: THE SEQUEL (1982).

Rating:
Summary: Such a FUNNY Movie!
Review: This is one of the funniest, smartest, and greatest movies I've ever seen. Be ready for the wildest comedic ride of your life!

Rating:
Summary: i love the 80's
Review: This movie is an 80's classic. Everytime you watch it, you notice another hilarious scene. My favorite is when that lady speaks Jive.

Rating:
Summary: Satire at its Finest
Review: Airplane! is a film graced with such tremendous comic energy that it is likely to have even the sternest of audience members reaching for an air bag. Arriving in theaters in 1980, the movie is the ultimate parody of every ridiculous trend and fad of the previous decade, including religious activism, rampant drug use, disco and especially popular disaster films. Although it can't be said to be a technilogically or intellectually advanced film, or even one blessed with a great deal of coherence and tastefulness, directors Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker (the ZAZ team) have filled the screen with enough outrageous jokes, sight gags and offbeat set pieces to make such omissions reasonable, if not entirely forgivable.

The movie's skimpy story is stolen almost verbatim from the numerous disater epics of the 70's: when the entire crew of an airliner is incapacitated, ex-pilot Ted Stryker (Robert Hays) and his former girlfriend Elaine Dickinson (Julie Hagerty) are forced to overcome their differences in an effort to land the plane safely. The filmmakers deserve tremendous credit for taking such a tired and preposterous storyline and reinventing it through several brilliant satiric touches. The flight crew is incapacitated not by typical bombs or explosions, but by a severe case of food poisoning caused by rancid fish. One of the backup pilots called to take over in the pilot's absence is in fact an anthropomorphic blow-up toy with an insatiable appetite for women. And the passengers on board are not predictable screaming harpies, but perhaps the single quirkiest assortment of people ever brought together in one place: two jive talking black men who actually need subtitles to be understood by the audience (except Leave it Beaver's Barbara Billingsley!), a nine year old girl who tells her young suitor that she prefers her coffee 'black, like my men,' a stately old woman who snorts cocaine when no one is looking, and a woman so sick that eggs literally pop out of her mouth.

Several well-known dramatic actors play an assortment of oddballs and lunatics in this film, and their natural dignity makes the absurdity of their characters far more striking and humorous. Llyod Bridges is fantastic as a flight engineer so rattled by the madness in the air that he resorts to drinking, smoking, drug use and glue sniffing just to retain his composure, and Robert Stack shines as a domineering airforce captain who gleefully attacks a bothersome group of religious zealots that prevent him from reaching a control tower. And who could forget Leslie Nielsen launching his comedy career (after 25 years of playing dramatic roles) as the gloriously deadpan Dr. Rumack? My favorite supporting performance still remains Peter Graves' fearless work as Clarence Oveur, a role that required him to barrage a small boy with the most uproarious pedophilic overtures in film history ('Do you enjoy Gladiator movies?').

In addition to all previously mentioned hilarity, this film also contains clever parodies of Saturday Night Fever and From Here to Eternity, a creative interpretation of a "drinking problem," and a cameo by Ethel Merman as a shell-shocked pilot! Ultimately, Airplane! stands as one of those rare motion picture where all the creative components come together to transform an infantile farce into a comedy classic. It is a movie to be enjoyed more than once, first for the sheer enjoyment of the material, and again to revel at the amount of humor and oddness the directors managed to squeeze into every frame.

Rating:
Summary: THEY DON'T GET MUCH FUNNIER...
Review: 23 years later, this movie still maintains the frenetic pace, the countless sight gags, and the manicly sustained performances of actors you never thought could be so funny: Lloyd Bridges, Robert Stack, Peter Graves, specifically. This time around try and catch all the little sight gags: the washing machine at the control boards; the endless control board on the plane that includes stereo equipment; there's so many. And relish in the performances of Stephen Stucker as the manic Johnny; Lorna Patterson as Randy, the other flight attendant; Leslie Nielsen's Dr. Surely. It's a classic and not many other movies have been able to throw so much at us, and lose little in the translation. A gem, a howler, one of the best!