Shirely

Airplane! (1980)

The 70s saw the growth of the disaster movie genre but Airplane! has come to over shadow many of the films it is spoofing. Interestingly Airplane! did really badly in what Hollywood likes to call it's "test screening" process. Basically a bunch of random people give scores on a film and do focus group work, then studio execuatives that financed the film panic based on those responses and try to wrestle control of the film away from the creative team behind it and try to recut it so as to save themselves. Luckly for us in this case the film was released as is despite it's poor test results. It seems that no one wanted to admit to liking the level of humour in Airplane! but then told all thier friends to go and see it. You would think that Hollywood might learn from such a great success coming from poor testing but apparently they have not.

There are some classic jokes in this film and great performances from the cast. What Airplane! does well is stay on topic. That might seem strange to say but the problem a lot of spoofs seem to have is that they do not work as a whole movie because there is not enough material to sustain the full run time. There are a number of spoof films that come across as a load of sketches loosely stuck together to pad out a weak plot. We have one spoofish aside in Airplane! but other than that it sticks to the main thrust of disaster film wackyness. Some jokes may come across as offensive and juvenille, and they probably are, but they are still funny and come in at a fast enough pace to keep the film going.

I give Airplane! a 4/5