“Airplane!” is a satirical comedy movie that not only parodies the disaster film genre, but goes on to poke fun at numerous other areas of motion picture and television culture. It is also loaded with sight gags, puns, and fast-paced slapstick comedy.
Directors-screenwriters Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker even used various celebrities going against type or caricaturing themselves, such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar defending his basketball play to a young boy, Barbara Billingsley speaking “jive,” and Robert Stack, Lloyd Bridges, Leslie Nielsen, and Peter Graves in comedic versions of roles that made them famous in tv and movies.
Paramount Pictures and producers Jon Davison and Howard W. Koch also employed numerous others in the movie. Robert Hays and Julie Hagerty were the leading couple. Ethel Merman made her last film appearance in “Airplane!” Supporting cast also includes Lorna Patterson, Joyce Bulifant, Maureen McGovern, Kenneth Tobey, Jonathan Banks, Jill Whelan, Jimmie Walker, and anti-tax crusader Howard Jarvis stuck in a cab at the airport, apparently enjoying the non-stop comedy in the box office success “Airplane!”
Airplane! (1980)
cinema
My Review
“Airplane!” is a satirical comedy movie that not only parodies the disaster film genre, but goes on to poke fun at numerous other areas of motion picture and television culture. It is also loaded with sight gags, puns, and fast-paced slapstick comedy.
Directors-screenwriters Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker even used various celebrities going against type or caricaturing themselves, such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar defending his basketball play to a young boy, Barbara Billingsley speaking “jive,” and Robert Stack, Lloyd Bridges, Leslie Nielsen, and Peter Graves in comedic versions of roles that made them famous in tv and movies.
Paramount Pictures and producers Jon Davison and Howard W. Koch also employed numerous others in the movie. Robert Hays and Julie Hagerty were the leading couple. Ethel Merman made her last film appearance in “Airplane!” Supporting cast also includes Lorna Patterson, Joyce Bulifant, Maureen McGovern, Kenneth Tobey, Jonathan Banks, Jill Whelan, Jimmie Walker, and anti-tax crusader Howard Jarvis stuck in a cab at the airport, apparently enjoying the non-stop comedy in the box office success “Airplane!”