When 1980’s Airplane! proved to be a massive hit, becoming one of the highest-grossing films of the year – up there with The Empire Strikes Back and Best Picture winner Kramer vs. Kramer – it was inevitable that it would get a sequel. But how often are comedy sequels good anyway? When have they ever really recaptured the magic and the laughter of the original? Well, Airplane II: The Sequel gave it a go…by basically being the same movie. Except this time around, Zaz wisely opted out, leaving the production without the strong leaders who reinvented the spoof genre. Instead, they got the guy who wrote Grease 2, one of the most notoriously awful sequels ever! So, strap in – no, not to an airplane but a space shuttle – as we find out: Wtf Happened to This Movie?!…The Sequel!
1980’s Airplane! did incredibly well upon release, making just under $85 million on a $3.5 million budget,...
1980’s Airplane! did incredibly well upon release, making just under $85 million on a $3.5 million budget,...
- 4/17/2024
- by Mathew Plale
- JoBlo.com
Most people smile just at the mention of this show … nothing is more healthy than an old fashioned laugh. Zucker, Zucker & Abrahams’ non-stop joke fest finds good fun in movie spoofery without malice, and is populated by a squadron of old pros that once made the originals fly right, no matter how clunky they were. All hail Leslie Nielsen, Lloyd Bridges, Robert Stack and Peter Graves, the veterans of countless ‘keep a straight face and pretend it’s serious’ groaners. It’s a 40th Anniversary new restoration. Now, finally, do I park in the red zone or the white zone?
Airplane!
Blu-ray
Paramount Presents
1980 / Color / 1.78 widescreen / 87 min. / Street Date July 21, 2020 / 22.99
Starring: Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, Lloyd Bridges, Leslie Nielsen, Robert Stack, Peter Graves, Lorna Patterson, Stephen Stucker, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Barbara Billingsley, Ethel Merman, James Hong, Maureen McGovern, Kenneth Tobey, Jimmie Walker, Kitten Natividad.
Cinematography: Joseph F. Biroc
Film Editor: Patrick Kennedy
Visual Effects: Robert Blalack,...
Airplane!
Blu-ray
Paramount Presents
1980 / Color / 1.78 widescreen / 87 min. / Street Date July 21, 2020 / 22.99
Starring: Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, Lloyd Bridges, Leslie Nielsen, Robert Stack, Peter Graves, Lorna Patterson, Stephen Stucker, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Barbara Billingsley, Ethel Merman, James Hong, Maureen McGovern, Kenneth Tobey, Jimmie Walker, Kitten Natividad.
Cinematography: Joseph F. Biroc
Film Editor: Patrick Kennedy
Visual Effects: Robert Blalack,...
- 9/1/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
While romcoms and black comedies may have more sophisticated plots, satires are the films that guarantee us the most laughs. Sometimes you want permission to laugh at movies rather than with them, and satires remind you that familiar movie conventions are strange and sometimes hilarious. We just noticed that one of our all-time favorite Mel Brooks movies has hit Netflix, so without further ado, let's celebrate this nutty genre. "Airplane!": Insanity at 20,000 Feet The bawdy sight gags and astounding one-liners of "Airplane!" run together in a nonstop medley, but I'd like to point out another highpoint of this disaster satire: You can't pick a single Mvp in the ensemble. Every actor is perfectly cast and perfectly effing weird. Robert Hays is stone-eyed and slyly ridiculous. Julie Hagerty is a wide-eyed cuckoo. Robert Stack, Lloyd Bridges, Peter Graves, Leslie Nielsen, Stephen Stucker, Barbara Billingsley, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and even Maureen McGovern (as the singing nun,...
- 3/4/2015
- by Louis Virtel
- Hitfix
Netflix Instant is a wonderland of new treasures and old favorites. Here are five titles you’ll want to scoop up during, say, a particularly chilly Tuesday night.
Sunset Boulevard
For me, the creepiest thing about Sunset Boulevard isn’t Norma Desmond’s clownish, Dee Snider-like expressions or William Holden‘s descent into some seriously gray gardens. It’s that the characters in the film make such casual references to other movie stars of the time — Barbara Stanwyck, Tyrone Power, Alan Ladd, and Betty Hutton all come up — that you feel like you’re listening to modern-day showbiz types in a 1950 movie. These people sound like tamer Nikki Finkes. It’s weird! I’m not used to people in old movies sounding real and current. What if Grace Kelly just turned to the camera in Rear Window and deadpanned, “I don’t find Hannah sympathetic on Girls“? It’s like that!
Sunset Boulevard
For me, the creepiest thing about Sunset Boulevard isn’t Norma Desmond’s clownish, Dee Snider-like expressions or William Holden‘s descent into some seriously gray gardens. It’s that the characters in the film make such casual references to other movie stars of the time — Barbara Stanwyck, Tyrone Power, Alan Ladd, and Betty Hutton all come up — that you feel like you’re listening to modern-day showbiz types in a 1950 movie. These people sound like tamer Nikki Finkes. It’s weird! I’m not used to people in old movies sounding real and current. What if Grace Kelly just turned to the camera in Rear Window and deadpanned, “I don’t find Hannah sympathetic on Girls“? It’s like that!
- 2/4/2014
- by Louis Virtel
- The Backlot
How does one discover a movie like The Wizard of Speed and Time in 2012/2013? Isn’t it antiquated? Isn’t it beyond overdone and dated and doesn’t the premise just fall apart in the face of what we know about Hollywood; the whole movie is one great big farce filled with anti-truths and nonsensical ramblings of a talented special effects man from 1980-whenever? First of all, none of what you have just read is true save that Mike Jittlov is one talented effects man who happens to have a keen eye for film making and a knack for storytelling that touches the heart, inspires and yet delivers a message all at the same time. This is the kind of movie you want you kids to watch if you want them to grow up to be filmmakers like you never became. Follow your dreams. Learn how to accomplish your goals and never give up.
- 2/12/2013
- by Jimmy Terror
- The Liberal Dead
It's rare that a comedy is so funny that describing why it's successful feels daunting, but that's exactly the case with Airplane!, this week's candidate for Best Movie Ever. I'm already panting. You've seen this damn thing, right? It's the sprawling Seurat mural of American spoof comedies: Every viewing reveals different, heretofore unseen nuances -- namely, hilarious jokes -- and you marvel at the amount of attention given to the simplest of flourishes. Plus, the gags about abortion, gayness, oral sex, and glue addiction are killer. The movie is so intractably deadpan that you almost feel as if the actors don't quite realize they're in the nuttiest spoof film of the last century. It's a near-unfathomable weirdness, this flick, and because it's 1) so rewatchable, 2) so full of funny people, and 3) so inimitable, it's a no-brainer addition to our "Best Movie Ever" Hall of Fame. Name the last time you saw...
- 6/26/2012
- by virtel
- The Backlot
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