Airplane II (1982) a retrospective
Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the departure lounge!
Despite being a “child of the 70's” I was too young to fully appreciate the two Airplane films released in 1980 and the sequel here two years later or indeed the Police Squad (later Naked Gun) franchises from whom these films clearly took their inspiration for the sight gags and silly in-jokes that litter this film so brilliantly. 43 years later the special effects are lame, dated and shoddy (but then again, I guess they always were!) but what will continue to charm you are the scattergun array of wonderfully silly jokes that dare I say would hit the cutting room floor quicker than a lunar shuttle heading for the moon but taking a wrong turn towards the sun before crash landing into the lap of Star Trek’s William Shatner! For that’s what happens to the “Mayflower One” but to steal a line often quoted in the film(s) “that’s not important right now”.
What is far more pressing in the mind of “Ted Striker” (Robert Hays) and after escaping from the “Ronald Reagan Hospital For The Mentally Ill”, is the relighting of the flame of love with “Elaine Dickinson” (Julie Hagerty) and concerns for the safety and viability of the lunar shuttle above and beyond the terrorists who wandered through the security checks carrying a vast array in weaponry and even the lonely lunatic who purchased a bomb from the airport gift shop! Lost on the way to the moon and heading for the sun, these are just two of the on-going gags that would never make it into a film today, together perhaps with the x-ray scanners showing the passengers naked bodies as they pass through or the heavily armed terrorists who waltz through security as elderly ladies are thrust against the wall for interrogation or the baby placed in the hold as the passenger has exceeded their baggage allowance or indeed the “Iran Air Courtesy Bus” dropping blindfolded hostages at the entrance to the airport! ET phones home. “Mission Control” is a mix of weather forecasters, music DJ’s and a child inadvertently playing a real life video game with real life consequences. The gags come thick and fast (the examples quoted here are all before the lunar shuttle has even taken off!) and between the Star Wars crawl and the Battlestar Galactica theme tune at the beginning (Jaws opens the 1980 original) and the lunar shuttle crash landing into the strange life of Captain James T Kirk, sorry, “Commander Buck Murdock” (William Shatner) is a marvel of a film that although critically panned at the time (leading to the cancellation of Airplane III), had me smiling and roaring with laughter for 85 minutes.
Thanks for reading. I hope this message in a bottle in The Matrix finds you well, prospering, and the right way up in an upside down world.
Whilst you’re here I may as well brag about the release of my two recently self-published books. Both are free to read if you subscribe to Amazon Kindle “Unlimited” or reasonably priced in both paperback and hardback. Go on, treat yourself or a loved one and help out an Indie Author! Buy the books if you’re financially able to. They also look far, far better in print!
We HAVE to keep the spirit of reading books alive and well.
Thanks.
"still life, with gooseberry" - link to Amazon
"Rasputin and Raspberry Jam" - link to Amazon
The movies once again
More accurate
About reality
Than most realize
and equally absurd
as the real thing