A few minutes into this movie, Becca turned to me and said, "There isn't anyone good in this one like the others." I disagreed. This film is filled with some of my favorite people and while it's the worst film in the series, it's also my favorite. If they ever make a blu ray of it, I demand to do a commentary track for it!
Directed by David Lowell Rich (Satan's School for Girls, Eye of the Cat), this film is quite relevant today, as it's rife with corrupt corporations, drone planes and media scandals. You've got Robert Wagner playing a corrupt arms dealer who is in love with Susan Blakely, yet he keeps trying to kill her.
For the ladies, there's Alain Delon as the dashing captain. And for the men, there's Sylvia Kristel as the gorgeous airline hostess. And for the fans of The Omen, there's David Warner as a henpecked flight officer.
There may never be a movie as sexist as this one. Just look at the way the character of Patroni has changed. He's no longer a ground crew guy who will kick a pilot out of his own plane. Now, he's flying the plane while making sexist jokes at every opportunity To wit:
Isabelle: You pilots are such... men.
Capt. Joe Patroni: They don't call it the cockpit for nothing, honey.
Or when he asks Delon's character about Vietnam:
Capt. Joe Patroni: Gee, I remember this Eurasian gal. She had these great big blue eyes. They called her the tarantula. You ever run into her?
Capt. Paul Metrand: No, I don't think so.
Capt. Joe Patroni: You'd remember if you did. She was a real ball breaker!
That makes me wonder - how was Patroni in Vietnam? Wasn't he already working in the Chicago airport back in the original? Well, now his wife is dead, his son is in college and he's ready to party. In fact, when they get to Paris, he gets set up with a prostitute and has the night of his life. Is he mad when the ruse is revealed? Hell no! It makes him overjoyed as he slaps his pal's back!
Then there's Eddie Albert as a rich businessman and Sybil Danning as his wife, to which Patroni comments "She's his fourth wife. There's this story that back in the 20's when he was barnstorming he made a bet that he could put it to this good lookin' wing walker. He boffed her right out on the wing a thousand miles above El Paso. His ass got so sunburned he couldn't sit down a week!"
What is happening with this film? I literally yelled at loud several times during it, shocked at how raw it seems in the world of political correctness. But this isn't Blazing Saddles, a film that uses non-PC language for comic effect. This is a scummy cash-in, the final film of a once high prestige franchise. And I loved every minute of this strange bird!
Martha Raye gets locked in a bathroom as a plane faces turbulence! Jimmie "Dynomite" Walker smokes up and carries his saxophone everywhere! Cicely Tyson just wants to get her son a new heart! John Davidson performs his own marriage ceremony to a Russian gymnast! Mercedes McCambridge, the voice of Pazuzu, is in this! And Charo is in the credits and has around thirty seconds of screen time, thirty seconds which had me screaming in pure joy!
Have you realized yet how much I adore this movie? How can you not love a film where a heat sinking missile is defeated by rolling down the window of a supersonic airplane and shooting a flare gun out the window? And after the plane went through such chaos between New York and Paris, why would anyone allow it to fly again the next day? Why wouldn't security be increased? And why not crash land the Concorde in the alps? Why would they even get on the plane in the first place?
Even better, there's a news report earlier in the film that sounds like it came straight out of The Simpsons, a strange piece of comedy in a film that has been serious so far. That's because that voice belongs to Harry Shearer!
Obviously, we wouldn't have Airplane! without these films. But after watching the last two films, it's pretty hard to parody what has become a parody.
Directed by David Lowell Rich (Satan's School for Girls, Eye of the Cat), this film is quite relevant today, as it's rife with corrupt corporations, drone planes and media scandals. You've got Robert Wagner playing a corrupt arms dealer who is in love with Susan Blakely, yet he keeps trying to kill her.
For the ladies, there's Alain Delon as the dashing captain. And for the men, there's Sylvia Kristel as the gorgeous airline hostess. And for the fans of The Omen, there's David Warner as a henpecked flight officer.
There may never be a movie as sexist as this one. Just look at the way the character of Patroni has changed. He's no longer a ground crew guy who will kick a pilot out of his own plane. Now, he's flying the plane while making sexist jokes at every opportunity To wit:
Isabelle: You pilots are such... men.
Capt. Joe Patroni: They don't call it the cockpit for nothing, honey.
Or when he asks Delon's character about Vietnam:
Capt. Joe Patroni: Gee, I remember this Eurasian gal. She had these great big blue eyes. They called her the tarantula. You ever run into her?
Capt. Paul Metrand: No, I don't think so.
Capt. Joe Patroni: You'd remember if you did. She was a real ball breaker!
That makes me wonder - how was Patroni in Vietnam? Wasn't he already working in the Chicago airport back in the original? Well, now his wife is dead, his son is in college and he's ready to party. In fact, when they get to Paris, he gets set up with a prostitute and has the night of his life. Is he mad when the ruse is revealed? Hell no! It makes him overjoyed as he slaps his pal's back!
Then there's Eddie Albert as a rich businessman and Sybil Danning as his wife, to which Patroni comments "She's his fourth wife. There's this story that back in the 20's when he was barnstorming he made a bet that he could put it to this good lookin' wing walker. He boffed her right out on the wing a thousand miles above El Paso. His ass got so sunburned he couldn't sit down a week!"
What is happening with this film? I literally yelled at loud several times during it, shocked at how raw it seems in the world of political correctness. But this isn't Blazing Saddles, a film that uses non-PC language for comic effect. This is a scummy cash-in, the final film of a once high prestige franchise. And I loved every minute of this strange bird!
Martha Raye gets locked in a bathroom as a plane faces turbulence! Jimmie "Dynomite" Walker smokes up and carries his saxophone everywhere! Cicely Tyson just wants to get her son a new heart! John Davidson performs his own marriage ceremony to a Russian gymnast! Mercedes McCambridge, the voice of Pazuzu, is in this! And Charo is in the credits and has around thirty seconds of screen time, thirty seconds which had me screaming in pure joy!
Have you realized yet how much I adore this movie? How can you not love a film where a heat sinking missile is defeated by rolling down the window of a supersonic airplane and shooting a flare gun out the window? And after the plane went through such chaos between New York and Paris, why would anyone allow it to fly again the next day? Why wouldn't security be increased? And why not crash land the Concorde in the alps? Why would they even get on the plane in the first place?
Even better, there's a news report earlier in the film that sounds like it came straight out of The Simpsons, a strange piece of comedy in a film that has been serious so far. That's because that voice belongs to Harry Shearer!
Obviously, we wouldn't have Airplane! without these films. But after watching the last two films, it's pretty hard to parody what has become a parody.