AIRPLANE! (1980) ** It's an amusing film, but one whose reputation has long since dwarfed it. Very few jokes (the subjective exceptions were the ones about Reagan films and Rapunzel) warrant more than a smile, but there are many of them and they occur with amphetamine regularity. Norman Mailer says that boxers are rarely knocked out by a single punch, but rather by a flurry-this film endeavors to make you laugh in accordance with the same principal. It works fine as a satire of air disaster films, and the nods at, or more pointing accompanied by pompous laughter, old films probably works better than the other gags (the backdrop screens are tremendous). Beyond that we're treated to an extended speaking role by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who works his lines with a sense of timing previously reserved for moving inside on the likes of Wilt Chamberlin and Artis Gilmore...though I'm saddened that they couldn't have worked in his kung-fu licks somehow...on Robert Hays would have been my preference, though Julie Hagerty might have best suited the film. Best ever cinema use of the Bee Gees "Stayin' Alive," and cameos to thrill from Ethel Merman and Barbara Billingsley. This is the film where Leslie Nielsen became Leslie Nielsen.
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