Review of Airplane! (1980) by Nick O — 14 Sep 2011

Easy claim: "Airplane" is a quintessential comedic masterpiece of an entire generation's history of pop culture. Better argument: can a scrappy vision still be called totally realized? The Zucker brothers David and Jerry hit an all-time high with this satirical fortune made for the sake of fun but which gets thrown at you like a conscious graduating with nothing earnest to behold about the present and future but joints dug away in its beard. "Airplane" plays to its own beat, jokes spit never running from massive, all-over style, mini-movies in every one-liner directors Jim Abrahams and the Zuckers are smart to let be, and spinning a narrative effed beyond belief that nearly works as propaganda.

A parody of disaster movies, former navy pilot Ted Striker (Robert Hays) gets dumped by his stewardess girlfriend Elaine (Julie Hargerty) and lovesick follows her aboard a plane in which passengers are soon struck morbidly ill. Imagine a situation where Leslie Nielsen is the closest you'll come to a licensed M.D. and both port steers rank among the fallen. Nielsen works till it hurts to wheeze, but I wouldn't let him anywhere near me in crisis mode. What more? "Airplane" burns through completely unique humor it makes its bitch and renders the whole damned gem immortal. For the pantheon, if only for victims to come.