Film Review: Airplane!

Director: Jim Abrahams, David and Jerry Zucker

Released in 1980, Airplane set out to mock the slew of disaster movies that were released throughout the 1970's but is mainly based on the 1957 movie Zero Hour! The film went on to be a huge financial and critical success with many lauding it as one of the greatest comedy films of all time. It also opened the door for a whole genre of spoof movies that followed including a less successful sequel released two years later.

The auto-pilot, Elaine and Ted in the cockpit

Ex-fighter pilot Ted Striker (Robert Hays) is dumped by his girlfriend Elaine (Julie Hagerty) for his refusal to move on from the past. Ted is still traumatized by an accident that happened during an unknown war (generally seen to be the Vietnam War) which means he has a pathological fear of flying and has struggled to hold down a job since. He nervously boards a flight to Chicago though to be able to speak to her just as problems start to arise for the passengers and crew.

The jokes range from puns to slapstick and are plentiful throughout the movie with some running gags thrown in for good measure. Leslie Nielsen as Dr. Rumack instinctively has excellent comic timing and Lloyd Bridges produces a performance that instantly put him in the frame as a great comedic actor for future films (Hot Shots films for instance). Bridges is also spoofing his 1970–1971 television role as airport manager Jim Conrad in San Francisco International Airport. My rating is biased as I've always loved this film but its still a classic.

4/4 Hilarious parody movie that created a genre