Airplane! (Don't Call Me Shirley! Edition)

Buy This Item Airplane! (Don't Call Me Shirley! Edition) by Paramount  Available from Amazon  $9.99  on 8-31-2008     The quintessential movie spoof that spawned an entire genre of parody films, the original <I>Airplane!</I> still holds up as one of the brightest comedic gems of the '80s, not to mention of cinema itself (it ranked in the top 5 of <i>Entertainment Weekly</i>'s list of the 100 funniest movies ever made). The humor may be low and obvious at times, but the jokes keep coming at a rapid-fire clip and its targets--primarily the lesser lights of '70s cinema, from disco films to star-studded disaster epics--are more than worthy for send-up. If you've seen even one of the overblown <I>Airport</I> movies then you know the plot: the crew of a filled-to-capacity jetliner is wiped out and it's up to a plucky stewardess and a shell-shocked fighter pilot to land the plane. Robert Hays and Julie Hagerty are the heroes who have a history that includes a meet-cute à la <I>Saturday Night Fever</I>, a surf scene right out of <I>From Here to Eternity</I>, a Peace Corps trip to Africa to teach the natives the benefits of Tupperware and basketball, a war-ravaged recovery room with a G.I. who thinks he's Ethel Merman (a hilarious cameo)--and those are just the flashbacks! The jokes gleefully skirt the boundaries of bad taste (pilot Peter Graves to a juvenile cockpit visitor: "Joey, have you ever seen a grown man naked?"), with the high (low?) point being Hagerty's intimate involvement with the blow-up automatic pilot doll, but they'll have you rolling on the floor. The film launched the careers of collaborators Jim Abrahams (<I>Big Business</I>), David Zucker (<I>Ruthless People</I>), and Jerry Zucker (<I>Ghost</I>), as well as revitalized such B-movie actors as Lloyd Bridges, Peter Graves, Robert Stack, and Leslie Nielsen, who built a second career on films like this. A vital part of any video collection. <I>--Mark Englehart</I> Reader Reviews I went to the cinema to see this with my mum in 1978 and we were both in tears of laughter, and still quaking with giggles the next day. Now I still find this film a complete riot - perfect for when you've had an utter miserable and tedious day. I guarantee you'll feel immeasurably better. Hilarious script, sight gags, blink-and-you-miss-it moments just come at you relentlessly. A comedy classic!

Airplane! (Don't Call Me Shirley! Edition) Available from Amazon Price: $9.99 Updated on 8-31-2008.

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