It is a small room at the front of the plane, but that's not important right now. (Airplane! (DVD))

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Product:	Airplane! (DVD)
Date:	03/03/02 (119 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It will have you laughing out loud, Leslie Nielsen, It is a classic

Disadvantages: A bit too silly in places

Airplane what a film a classic, from the very first glimpse of the film (seeing the fin of the plan through the clouds like the shark in ‘Jaws’) you know that you are going to be laughing solidly though out the film. It was nominated for a Golden Globe: Comedy/Musical Picture. Sadly it did not win this award.

"Airplane!" spoofs the "Airport" movies and an old movie from the 50's called "Zero Hour." The pilots are played by Peter Graves and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the doctor on board is played by Leslie Nielsen, and one of the main stewardesses, Eileen, is played by Julie Hagerty. On board the plane is Ted Striker (Robert Hays), a war veteran who is in love with Eileen and wants her back (he is also a cab driver who left his fare at the airport). Also on board is a girl in need of a heart-transplant, some jive-talking dudes, a jive-talking lady and a nun who reads "Boy's Life," a young child who reads "Nun's Life," a Japanese General, David Leisure as a Hare Krishna and so on. The plot deals with the fish menu on board that is tainted and is making all the passengers sick, including the pilots. It is up to Striker to land the plane and for the doctor to cure the passengers.

The jokes in this type of movie are easily hit and miss, and there are lots of hits and a few misses. Watching feces splattered across a fan is not especially funny. A woman running and bumping into every object while saying goodbye to her love aboard the plane was just plain silly.

As for the jokes that hit, I like the dueling voices at the airport for red zone and white zone parking, especially when they argue. I like that the autopilot is actually an inflatable doll who needs air every once in a while, and darling Eileen helps breathe some air into an area that...well, just a moment you have to see to believe. Robert Stack as the solidly calm and determined Captain Kramer who beats the hell out o
f every passing Jehovah's Witness, Krishna and religious zealot is hilarious. And the nods to "Jaws," "Saturday Night Fever" and "From Here to Eternity" bring quite a few smiles. But when Ethel Merman appears as an officer in drag singing "Everything's Coming up Roses," you know you are in for a treat.

There are one or two random scenes such as two children acting like adults and one of them offers his friend some tea and he says ‘Would you like milk with that?’, and she replies with ‘No I like it black like my men’. You will find yourself laughing at the complete strangeness of it.

When you watch the film you may not find yourself laughing but when you think back to some of some of the scenes you will almost be crying. Airplane! is the best movie of its kind, hands down. While some have come close with Top Secret! and the first Naked Gun film, nothing can top this effort. Some might call it stupid and juvenile... I call it a classic.

Some of the lines that make this film a classic:

‘There is a problem at the hospital’
‘What is it?’
‘It is a building where sick people go, but that is not important right now’.

‘I have got to go’
‘Where?’
‘We are attacking some warehouses on the east coast of Japan at 06.00 hours flying low under their radar in B17’s’,
‘When will you be back?’
‘I can’t tell you that it’s classified’.

‘What can you made of this?’ (showing him a weather report)
‘I can make a hat, a vest, a little boat’.

‘What kind of plane is it?’, (Press)
‘A big white one with red stripes’ (Air traffic controller)
‘Ok that’s enough questions, let’s get some pictures’. (The press goes over to the wall and starts
to take some pictures of it)

‘But surely… we could change it?’
‘We couldn’t, and stop calling me Surely.’

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