Buy the DVD:

Airplane!

"Roger, Roger; what's your vector, Victor?" This is the spoof to end all spoofs. No topic is safe from this 1980s comedic gem. Robert Hays stars as Ted Striker, a scarred ex-army pilot forced to fly a commercial liner after the entire flight crew, and many of the passengers become violently ill from the fish dinner. The only other unaffected crew member is the stewardess (and Striker's former lover) Elaine (played by Julie Hagerty). Together, they must care for the sick people on board, assist the loony Dr. Rumack (Leslie Nielsen), and find a way to get everyone safely to the ground.

Throughout the flight Striker experiences flashbacks from his life with Elaine. First, they meet in a rough club where Striker is stationed (in a manner from "Saturday Night Fever"). They are next spotted on a beach similar to the one in "From Here To Eternity," but are not nearly as sexy as Deborah Kerr and Burt Lancaster. They then enter the Peace Corps and teach valuable lessons about basketball and Tupperware. Finally, Elaine visits Ted in an army recovery ward where he is tormented with visions of his whole crew going down.

A spoof wouldn't be a spoof without sub-plots, and "Airplane!" is no exception. The co-pilot just happens to be Kareem-Abdul Jabbar, who refuses to accept that everyone thinks he's a basketball player and not a pilot. Captain Oveur fronts a sub-plot about his not-so-subtle homosexual/pedophilic tendencies. Dr. Rumack takes everything literally-–Ted: "Surely you can't be serious!" Dr. Rumack: "I am serious, and don't call me Shirley!"

From the opening scene where an airplane is cutting through the clouds like a shark through water (with the Jaws theme playing in the background), to the high air traffic controller, to a blow-up auto-pilot, the hits just keep on coming. Anyone who loves more recent comedic spoofs such as "Epic Movie," "Scary Movie" or "Dracula: Dead and Loving It" should definitely see the godfather of all parodies.

Written by: Tracy Elledge

Reviewers Rating: 9
Reader's Rating: 0
Reader's Votes: 0

Rate It