Review of Airplane! (1980) by Thomas S — 26 Jan 2017
Airplane doesn't dare give you a break in its meticulous and ridiculous spoof of contemporary disaster movies. It may be sharp, but you know what it has that most other spoofs have not? Jokes. Hundreds, if not thousands, of jokes.
The Zucker brothers and its B-star cast demand your attention to detail, lest anything fly over your head. I promise you that was unintentional. And yet, Airplane! also allows you to tune in and out at any time.
If you do not find a joke you like, such a joke will find you. We have puns, slapstick, reimagined stereotypes, unexpected forays into the explicit, exaggerations of typically marginal details in the airport / airplane, plain remakes of scenes from contemporary cinema, and (another one that most spoof films miss) a script so well threaded that, if you have been paying attention, you are rewarded with occurrences that slowly reveal themselves as jokes and in-movie references.
Airplane! has only love to give; as do I.
This review of Airplane! (1980) was written by Thomas S on 26 Jan 2017.
Airplane! has generally received very positive reviews.
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