Airplane!

An American Comedy _**Classic**_ - Everything about this film screams 'American Cinema Comedy'. A lot of the humor is a precursor to modern american humor, including the terribly cheesy pulp humor. This film is an homage to the comedies that came before it, but is innovative in its combination of wordplay and referential humor. I see vestiges of this film in everything from 'The Hangover' to 'The Office'. If at any point you are watching this and find yourself saying 'This is really stupid', just remember: Relax. It's supposed to be stupid.

Right from the "Jaws" (1975) inspired opening titles, this is a treat of comedy that sends up just about every genre of cinema as poor old "Ted" (Robert Hays) has to stave off an airborne disaster aboard his aircraft. Half the folks travelling have been stricken with food poisoning and when the cockpit it wiped-out, it falls to him to bravely take the joystick and try to land in Chicago. Luckily, his ex-girlfriend "Elaine" (Julie Hagerty) is there, as is the always scene stealing inflatable "Otto" pilot. Lloyd Bridges is entertaining as the air traffic controller as is Robert Stack as the man trying to to talk down the stressed wartime pilot whom he used to command. The visual jokes are occasionally a bit too slapstick, but it's the writing that makes this funny - it is a pun writer's wet dream with plenty of risqué double entendres and literal interpretation of language that creates ample enjoyable ambiguity and humour. Clearance Clarence and Roger, Roger - it's quickly paced and unlike so many comedies from the 1970s really does raise a smile 40-odd years later when political correctness would probably throttle this at birth. Yes, it's a bit puerile but it is still well worth a watch.