Airplane! still holds a special movie memory for me as the hardest I have ever laughed in a theatre. Back in 1980, no one had ever really done this rapid fire style "throw everything at the wall" style comedy spoof. Of course since then the Abrahams/Zuckers have done it brilliantly in the Naked Gun series and the underrated "Top Secret" to name just a few.
They take the classic airliner in disaster formula of "Airport" and "High & The Mighty" and add a million jokes. You have to also credit their brilliance in taking serious actors and putting them in very funny roles that they all play 100% straight. Who can forget Lloyd Bridges "Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue...", Robert Stack and his multiple pairs of sunglasses, Peter Graves "Have you ever seen a grown man naked, Joey?", and the brilliant Leslie Nielsen in his first comic role after many years in Hollywood as a serious actor. "Surely you can't be serious, Dr." "I am serious and don't call me Shirley." So many LOL moments, the best of which for me are Julie Haggerty blowing back up Otto the inflatable auto pilot and anything air traffic controller Johnny (Stephen Stucker) says. "Auntie Em! Auntie Em! It's a twister!" LOL. Comedy movies don't get any faster paced, funnier and laugh out loud enjoyable than this monster 1980 hit. Followed by a lesser comedy sequel set on the space shuttle. Airplane! is comedy gold and gets an A.
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