{"id":8931,"date":"2024-11-24T10:47:21","date_gmt":"2024-11-24T15:47:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=8931"},"modified":"2024-11-24T10:47:21","modified_gmt":"2024-11-24T15:47:21","slug":"airplane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/11\/24\/airplane\/","title":{"rendered":"Airplane!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Airplane!<\/strong> (1980)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paramount\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 87 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (language, crude and vulgar sexual humor, brief nudity, comic violence, brief drug use)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Elmer Bernstein\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Joseph Biroc\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 2, 1980 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, Leslie Nielsen, Peter Graves, Lloyd Bridges, Robert Stack, Lorna Patterson, Stephen Stucker, Kenneth Tobey, Barbara Stuart, Frank Ashmore, Jonathan Banks, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Barbara Billingsley, Norman Alexander Gibbs, Al White, Joyce Bulifant, Nicholas Pryor, Lee Bryant, Rossie Harris, Maureen McGovern, Jill Whelan, David Hollander, Michelle Stacy, Jason Wingreen, David Leisure, Ethel Merman, Otto.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $83.4M (US)<\/p>\n

\u00a0There’s no two ways about it, Airplane<\/strong> is one of the most insanely funny movies of all time. It\u2019s a landmark in the comedy genre. It put Team ZAZ (writer-directors Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker) on the map and for good reason. It\u2019s brilliant! At once, it\u2019s a spoof of the disaster movies of the 70s (the Airport series, in particular) and the 1957 adventure drama Zero Hour. It\u2019s rightfully considered a high-water mark in the spoof genre. Nobody has managed to duplicate the comedic perfection it achieves in the four decades since its release. That goes for the 1982 sequel as well.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Most of the action is set aboard a TWA Boeing 707 plane flying from Los Angeles to Chicago. Ex-fighter pilot Ted Striker (Hays, TV\u2019s Angie) hasn\u2019t been near an airplane since he lost almost all of the men he was leading on a mission during some unnamed war. His girlfriend, stewardess Elaine Dickinson (Hagerty, What About Bob?) has just left him because she can\u2019t deal with his problems anymore, especially his \u201cdrinking problem\u201d. Determined to get her back, he buys a ticket and boards the flight even though the thought of flying terrifies him.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Soon after takeoff, the entire crew and several passengers are stricken with food poisoning. With nobody else on board capable of flying a plane, Ted is forced back into the pilot\u2019s seat in order to land safely and get the sick passengers to a hospital. To do this, he\u2019ll need the help of the crew at Chicago\u2019s control tower. Upon learning who\u2019s piloting the aircraft, supervisor Steve McCroskey (Bridges, High Noon) calls in Ted\u2019s former CO Rex Kramer (Stack, The Untouchables) to talk him through the crisis.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It sounds like a standard disaster scenario, but Team ZAZ takes it to dizzying new heights with their zany brand of humor. They take all of the familiar conventions and turn them upside down with positively hilarious results.<\/p>\n

\u00a0One of the best things about Airplane<\/strong> is its impressive roster of supporting actors similar to the genre its spoofing. Most filmmakers would fill the roles with actors known to be funny. Not Team ZAZ! They cast actors known for serious roles and have them play it completely straight. It\u2019s a big gamble that pays off in a big way. It\u2019s a hell of a lot funnier watching serious actors do comedy than their comedic counterparts. Leslie Nielsen (Forbidden Planet) is cast against type as a doctor with the most deadpan bedside manner you\u2019ve ever seen. Near the end, he delivers a pep talk right out of Knute Rockne All American. PLUS, we mustn\u2019t forget his immortal line \u201cAnd don\u2019t call me Shirley.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0In the cockpit, you\u2019ll find Peter Graves (Mission: Impossible) at the wheel and basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar sitting beside him in the co-pilot\u2019s seat. Graves asking a young boy visiting the cockpit a series of inappropriate questions is as funny as it is wrong. Maureen McGovern, whose theme from The Poseidon Adventure (\u201cThe Morning After\u201d) won the Oscar for Best Song, plays a nun with a guitar. Jill Whelan of The Love Boat is a young heart transplant patient heading to Chicago for the procedure. Barbara Billingsley (Leave It to Beaver) is an old lady fluent in jive which comes in handy in dealing with two black dudes (Norman Alexander Gibbs and Al White) speaking in subtitled jive. Did she learn it from Wally or the Beaver? David Leisure, better known as future TV spokesman Joe Isuzu (“He’s lying!”), plays a happy Hare Krishna. They\u2019re all great, but the zaniest of them all is flamboyant air traffic controller Johnny played to nutty perfection by the late, great Stephen Stucker (The Kentucky Fried Movie). His scenes will have you rolling on the floor, laughing your ass off! Whether he’s pulling the plug on the runway’s landing lights (“Just kidding.”) or getting excited about a sale at Penney’s, this guy is a riot!<\/p>\n

\u00a0As you can see, there’s a lot going on in Airplane<\/strong>. Team ZAZ crams a lot of humor into 87 minutes. They\u2019re good enough to make it all seem so effortless. The same goes for Hays who\u2019s perfectly cast as the reluctant hero of the farce. He too takes the goofy material seriously. Hagerty delivers her melodramatic dialogue with just the right amount of OTT.<\/p>\n

\u00a0As great as the cast is, it\u2019s the LPH (Laughs Per Minute) that really fuels Airplane<\/strong>. It\u2019s a collection of sight gags, puns, sexual humor, corny jokes and goofs on other movies- e.g. Saturday Night Fever, Casablanca, From Here to Eternity, Jaws, etc. Everybody has their favorite bit. Mine involves the inflatable autopilot Otto. He should have won on Oscar for his work here.<\/p>\n

\u00a0To be fair, not every single joke lands, but for every one that doesn\u2019t, there\u2019s a dozen that hit the mark dead-on. They come at you fast and with a vengeance. There are so many jokes and gags that the movie demands multiple viewings. I guarantee you\u2019ll always spot something you missed before. The jokes don\u2019t even stop when it\u2019s over. Watch the end credits carefully for joke titles (Worst Boy- Adolph Hitler). There\u2019s even a post-credits scene to top it all off.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Even though it isn’t on my Top 10 list, Airplane <\/strong>is a comedy masterpiece. It hits the ground running and doesn\u2019t stop. Team ZAZ doesn\u2019t know when to stop. They maintain a perfect momentum throughout. By the end, you\u2019ll be completely exhausted from giggling, chuckling and laughing out loud. It\u2019s one of the greats, but I\u2019m sure you already know this.\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Airplane! (1980)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paramount\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 87 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (language, crude and vulgar sexual humor, brief nudity, comic violence, brief drug use)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Elmer Bernstein\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Joseph Biroc\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 2, 1980 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, Leslie […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9071,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies","category-thats-some-funny-stuff"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Airplane-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8931"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9073,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8931\/revisions\/9073"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}