Airplane! (1980) USA
Airplane! Image Cover
Additional Images
Director:David Zucker, Jerry Zucker
Studio:Paramount
Producer:Howard W. Koch, Jon Davison
Writer:Jim Abrahams, David Zucker
Rating:4.5
Rated:PG
Date Added:2006-08-06
Purchased On:2006-06-08
ASIN:B00004Y62W
UPC:0097360130546
Price:$14.98
Awards:Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 1 win & 5 nominations
Genre:Nothing Goes Right
Release:2005-12-12
IMDb:0080339
Duration:88
Picture Format:Widescreen
Aspect Ratio:1.85:1
Sound:Dolby
Languages:English, Dolby Digital 5.1, English, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround, French, Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono, Commentary by producer Jon Davison and writer/directors Jim Abrahams, Jerry Zucker, and David Zucker, Unknown
Subtitles:English, Spanish
Features:Anamorphic
David Zucker, Jerry Zucker  ...  (Director)
Jim Abrahams, David Zucker  ...  (Writer)
 
Julie Hagerty  ...  Elaine
Robert Hays  ...  Ted Striker
David Zucker  ...  
Jerry Zucker  ...  
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar  ...  Murdock
Frank Ashmore  ...  Victor Basta
Jonathan Banks  ...  Gunderson
Craig Berenson  ...  Paul Carey
Barbara Billingsley  ...  Jive Lady
Lloyd Bridges  ...  McCroskey
Lee Bryant  ...  
Joyce Bulifant  ...  
Mae E. Campbell  ...  
Peter Graves  ...  Captain Oveur
Leslie Nielsen  ...  Dr. Rumack
Otto (III)  ...  
Lorna Patterson  ...  Randy
Robert Stack  ...  Rex Kramer
Stephen Stucker  ...  Johnny
Otto  ...  Himself
Jim Abrahams  ...  Religious zealot #6
Comments: What's slower than a speeding bullet, and able to hit tall buildings at a single bound?

Summary: The quintessential movie spoof that spawned an entire genre of parody films, the original Airplane! still holds up as one of the brightest comedic gems of the '80s, not to mention of cinema itself (it ranked in the top 5 of Entertainment Weekly's list of the 100 funniest movies ever made). The humor may be low and obvious at times, but the jokes keep coming at a rapid-fire clip and its targets--primarily the lesser lights of '70s cinema, from disco films to star-studded disaster epics--are more than worthy for send-up. If you've seen even one of the overblown Airport movies then you know the plot: the crew of a filled-to-capacity jetliner is wiped out and it's up to a plucky stewardess and a shell-shocked fighter pilot to land the plane. Robert Hays and Julie Hagerty are the heroes who have a history that includes a meet-cute à la Saturday Night Fever, a surf scene right out of From Here to Eternity, a Peace Corps trip to Africa to teach the natives the benefits of Tupperware and basketball, a war-ravaged recovery room with a G.I. who thinks he's Ethel Merman (a hilarious cameo)--and those are just the flashbacks! The jokes gleefully skirt the boundaries of bad taste (pilot Peter Graves to a juvenile cockpit visitor: "Joey, have you ever seen a grown man naked?"), with the high (low?) point being Hagerty's intimate involvement with the blow-up automatic pilot doll, but they'll have you rolling on the floor. The film launched the careers of collaborators Jim Abrahams (Big Business), David Zucker (Ruthless People), and Jerry Zucker (Ghost), as well as revitalized such B-movie actors as Lloyd Bridges, Peter Graves, Robert Stack, and Leslie Nielsen, who built a second career on films like this. A vital part of any video collection. --Mark Englehart