'Airplane!', the funniest film Mel Brooks never made, came out in 1980, and became one of the year's biggest hits. This wild spoof of '70's disaster movies did not, as some believe, kill the genre ( it had burned itself out well before then ), but certainly made a fitting headstone.
Interviewed at the time, Jim Abrahams said a sequel was in the offing, to be provisionally entitled 'The 747 Strikes Back'. But when it finally appeared two years later, it was called 'Airplane 2: The Sequel' and neither Abrahams nor Jerry and David Zucker had anything to do with it. Ken Finkleman, writer of 'Grease 2', served in the dual capacity of writer and director. He retained most of the original's characters ( except for Leslie Nielsen's 'Dr.Rumack' ).
After the events of the original film, Ted Stryker ( Robert Hays ) became a moon pilot, but got incarcerated in a lunatic asylum ( named after Ronald Reagan ) following a major screw-up, while the love of his life, the beautiful Elaine ( Julie Hagerty ) is stewardess aboard the maiden commercial space shuttle flight to the Moon. A faulty computer sends the craft hurtling towards the Sun. Luckily a passenger ( Sonny Bono ) had the foresight to bring along a bomb in a briefcase. But who can bring the craft down? Guess who?
The problem is that 'Airplane!' did not need a sequel. The original's freshness was bound to be lost - and was. I would imagine that the people who found this really funny in 1982 were those who never saw the first. Many gags are recycled; the hysterical woman being slapped by a long line of people, the 'what is it?' exchanges, MacCroskey ( Lloyd Bridges ) leaning on his desk and mimicking the pose on the picture behind him, someone throwing away a cigarette and causing an explosion etc.
Some gags are lame - when someone says 'this panel is so hot you could fry eggs on it', we next see just that!
But there are absolute corkers; the poster on the in-flight movie is 'Rocky 38' starring an elderly Sly Stallone in boxing gloves, a topical gag has E.T. trying to phone home and getting trouble from the operator, an elevator plays 'MacArthur Park' incredibly loudly, Stryker escapes from the asylum, and a searchlight picks out Jack Jones singing the theme from 'The Love Boat', a dog-owning family is told that 'Scraps' must have his shots, and then the customs officer pulls out a gun and shoots the animal, and a boy plays with a computer navigation system thinking it to be a game and almost kills a plane's passengers.
William Shatner hams it up wonderfully as the Commander of 'Moonbase Alpha Beta' ( a reference to 'Space: 1999' ), and the presence of Peter Graves ( once more 'Captain Oveur' ) allows for a dig at 'Mission: Impossible'.
Despite the over-familiarity of the material, 'Airplane 2' manages to outclass dismal recent attempts at spoof movies, most notably the 'Scary Movie' series.
Funniest moment - MacCroskey shouts Stryker's surname and a man, misunderstanding him, punches out a woman. I do not endorse brutality towards women but it creases me up each time!
'Airplane 3', touted at the time, went unmade.
Interviewed at the time, Jim Abrahams said a sequel was in the offing, to be provisionally entitled 'The 747 Strikes Back'. But when it finally appeared two years later, it was called 'Airplane 2: The Sequel' and neither Abrahams nor Jerry and David Zucker had anything to do with it. Ken Finkleman, writer of 'Grease 2', served in the dual capacity of writer and director. He retained most of the original's characters ( except for Leslie Nielsen's 'Dr.Rumack' ).
After the events of the original film, Ted Stryker ( Robert Hays ) became a moon pilot, but got incarcerated in a lunatic asylum ( named after Ronald Reagan ) following a major screw-up, while the love of his life, the beautiful Elaine ( Julie Hagerty ) is stewardess aboard the maiden commercial space shuttle flight to the Moon. A faulty computer sends the craft hurtling towards the Sun. Luckily a passenger ( Sonny Bono ) had the foresight to bring along a bomb in a briefcase. But who can bring the craft down? Guess who?
The problem is that 'Airplane!' did not need a sequel. The original's freshness was bound to be lost - and was. I would imagine that the people who found this really funny in 1982 were those who never saw the first. Many gags are recycled; the hysterical woman being slapped by a long line of people, the 'what is it?' exchanges, MacCroskey ( Lloyd Bridges ) leaning on his desk and mimicking the pose on the picture behind him, someone throwing away a cigarette and causing an explosion etc.
Some gags are lame - when someone says 'this panel is so hot you could fry eggs on it', we next see just that!
But there are absolute corkers; the poster on the in-flight movie is 'Rocky 38' starring an elderly Sly Stallone in boxing gloves, a topical gag has E.T. trying to phone home and getting trouble from the operator, an elevator plays 'MacArthur Park' incredibly loudly, Stryker escapes from the asylum, and a searchlight picks out Jack Jones singing the theme from 'The Love Boat', a dog-owning family is told that 'Scraps' must have his shots, and then the customs officer pulls out a gun and shoots the animal, and a boy plays with a computer navigation system thinking it to be a game and almost kills a plane's passengers.
William Shatner hams it up wonderfully as the Commander of 'Moonbase Alpha Beta' ( a reference to 'Space: 1999' ), and the presence of Peter Graves ( once more 'Captain Oveur' ) allows for a dig at 'Mission: Impossible'.
Despite the over-familiarity of the material, 'Airplane 2' manages to outclass dismal recent attempts at spoof movies, most notably the 'Scary Movie' series.
Funniest moment - MacCroskey shouts Stryker's surname and a man, misunderstanding him, punches out a woman. I do not endorse brutality towards women but it creases me up each time!
'Airplane 3', touted at the time, went unmade.