Skip to main content

Airplane! (1980)


Directed by Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, & Jerry Zucker
Released July 2, 1980
Written by Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, & Jerry Zucker

Movie Synopsis Courtesy of IMDB

"A man afraid to fly must ensure that a plane lands safely after the pilots become sick."

Well this blog, to say the least (literally), is going to be a short one. There is not much to talk about in this movie because well, I don't think it is a very good one. Now that's just my opinion, I know a lot of people out there who like this kind of humor (like my friend Tim Fluga), but it just doesn't sit with me. Therefore, I don't have much to say about it.

I don't think I even laughed at one of the jokes in the movie. That is because everything in this movie is too over the top and too predictable that it almost seemed like a middle school play where kids are trying too hard to be funny. This movie is full of nothing but cheese and corniness.




It is just too much. They are trying too hard to be funny. And yes I know it is suppose to be a satire film: the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues. But can't they make it a little less obvious? Can't they use a little bit of finesse?

I think the other reason why I knew I wasn't going to like this film is that I am not a huge fan of Lesile Nielsen. I have seen him in The Naked Gun movies and those movies were the same as this one. Forced jokes delivered in a deadpan that makes the actors seems like they are awful and can't show any genuine emotion.

Let's talk about the logistics here a minute because many of them are ridicules. Like the idea that a few minutes before the plane is suppose to leave Ted is able to get a plane ticket no problem. Or how he kept moving seats in every scene, moving to talk to a new passenger. There should not be that many open seats on a plane! Then there is the fact that when the plane takes off they don't realize or care that one of the doors is still open because some guy is saying goodbye. 




Frankly, I don't think there is much more that I can say about this movie that would be new. I clearly didn't enjoy the movie and I don't really understand why it is considered as much of a success as it is. But, I am clearly in the minority of people who didn't enjoy it so I guess my opinion doesn't matter too much. 

Let me know what you think about this movie and if you can explain why it is such a classic even though it is so cheesy.

Rumack: "You'd better tell the Captain we've got to land as soon as we can. This woman has to be gotten to a hospital."
Elaine Dickinson: " A hospital? What is it?
Rumack: "It's a big building with patients, but that's not important right now."

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

Directed by John Hughes Released June 11, 1986 Screenplay by John Hughes Movie Synopsis Courtesy of IMDB “A high school wise guy is determined to have a day off from school, despite what the Principal thinks of that.” Now this blog is going to be extra hard to write, in terms of trying not to write a novel on this movie. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is probably my favorite movie of all time. It never gets old to me and there are way too many quotable moments in this movie. On top of that, the characters are perfect and I for once do not have a real problem with any of them (only slightly with one, but we will get to that). The first thing that I want to throw out there is that if you love this movie as much as I do, never ever read the screenplay.   It is completely different from the movie and in my opinion if the movie was made how the screenplay was written it wouldn’t have been as successful. For those of you curious, here are the biggest diff
2 comments
Read more

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)

Directed by Stephen Herek Released February 17, 1989 Written by Chris Matheson & Ed Solomon Movie Synopsis Courtesy of IMDB "Two seemingly dumb teens set off on a quest to prepare the ultimate historical presentation with the help of a time machine." So the easiest way to explain this film is to just watch this honest trailer. There we go, blog done. That's all you need to know. Well the trailer is pretty accurate in terms of the kind of movie this is. In simple terms, it is a typical "dude" film. Not in terms of it being two guys together, but in the stereotyping and characterization of the high school slacker/dumb/surfer/stoner/band guy. Where the word dude is used more than actual words out of the character's mouth. It is the type of film that needs very little brain power and a lot of reliance on jokes based on stupidity. Now that isn't me saying that the film is necessarily stupid, I just mean in terms of joke
Post a Comment
Read more

Footloose (1984)

Directed by Herbert Ross Released February 17th, 1984 Written by Dean Pitchford Movie Synopsis Courtesy of IMDB "A city teenager moves to a small town where rock music and dancing have been banned, and his rebellious spirit shakes up the populace." I am going to start today's entry by going on a little bit of a rant here. That is because I can't stand (for the most part) remakes! Now I have never seen the remake of Footloose, I just want to put that out there so I don't sound like a hypocrite. What is the point of remakes?! I am not just talking about this movie, I mean all remakes. These movies were such a success because of the actors, the crew, the director, and the story itself. You do a remake and pretty much everything from the original is stripped away except the story line. So that means you could never make the remake as good as the original, and very seldom they are. It is rare for someone to say the remake was better than the origina
2 comments
Read more