Review: Airplane! (1980)

Title: Airplane!
Year: 1980
Starring: Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, Leslie Nielsen, Peter Graves
Genres: Comedy, Romance
MPAA: PG (would definitely be PG-13 and possibly even R if re-rated today)
Kids-In-Mind.com: N/A (approx. 7.3.3)
My Rating: 8.1
Up or Down: Thumb Up
IMDb Rating: 7.8

Synopsis: Ted Striker (Hays), a former Air Force pilot in Vietnam who has a fear of flying, chases after his girlfriend, Elaine (Hagerty), who's a flight attendent, who's leaving him due to her lack of respect for him. As he sits on the plane, he tells the story of how they met in the war to his seat companions, who one by one commit suicide as the story bores them. Bad fish cause many passengers to become violently ill, causing the only doctor aboard, Dr. Rumack (Nielsen), to ask the pilot, Cpt. Oveur (Graves), to land the plane as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the three pilots all had fish for dinner and soon become ill, causing Rumack to ask Striker, the only remotely qualified pilot on board, to land the plane. He does so successfully, winning the love of Elaine.

My Take: Most of the comedy in this film just screamed at me, "You shouldn't like this! It's so stupid!" And stupid it was. But it was probably the funniest stupid I've ever seen. At least half of the jokes in this film are puns, and it makes for quite a good time. The sexual content of the film is quite high for a PG; it would, without a doubt, garner a PG-13 rating if rated after 1984. While it may not be appropriate for children younger than 12 or 13, this is a great film that everyone should watch.

Concerning the rating: The 8.1 puts "Airplane!" in a tie for 57th with nine other films out of 156 rated.

In queue: Pulp Fiction (1994), One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Singin' In The Rain (1952), Across The Universe (2007)

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