I watched “Airplane!” an embarrassing number of times as a teenager. I had seen it so many times that I convinced myself it was one of my favorite movies that I would never put on any “Best Of” list ever and that I would be sick of it were I to watch it again.
It’s been several years and I finally watched it again. I can say that it is notoriously stupid and goofy but oh so hilarious. If there was ever a movie you would feel sillier, more childish and immature for loving after watching it, it would be this one.
It is so completely goofy and random and gets a way with murder. There isn’t a moment of “Airplane!” that can be taken seriously. Sight gag after sight gag goes by unchallenged, the movie finds ways to be racist and sexist in more ways than one, it liberally parodies iconic films without any reason for doing so, it is crude, sexual, violent and offensive to an extreme, and its now famous dialogue is not so much clever as it is convenient set ups based on literal translations of common movie cliches and expressions.
In that way, the film shares less in common with the random, ridiculous comedies of its day like Monty Python or Mel Brooks films, but more in common with the movies that all use BIG RED TEXT in their titles today, “films” like “Scary Movie,” “Epic Movie,” “Superhero Movie” or “Meet the Spartans.” Continue reading “Rapid Response: Airplane!”