Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11108 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-03-05
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Dubbed, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English, German
• Subtitled in: English, German, Swedish, Turkish, Danish, Hungarian, Polish, Icelandic, Dutch, Arabic, Finnish, Romanian, Czech, Bulgarian
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 84 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The quintessential movie spoof that spawned an entire genre of parody films, the original Airplane! still holds up as one of the brightest comedic gems of the 1980s, not to mention of cinema itself (it often tops polls of the funniest movies ever made). The humour may be low and obvious at times, but the jokes keep coming at a rapid-fire clip and its targets--primarily the lesser lights of 1970s cinema, from disco films to star-studded disaster epics--are more than worthy for send-up. If you've seen even one of the overblown Airport movies then you know the plot: the crew of a filled-to-capacity jetliner is wiped out and it's up to a plucky stewardess and a shell-shocked fighter pilot to land the plane. Robert Hays and Julie Hagerty are the heroes who have a history that includes a meet-cute á la Saturday Night Fever, a surf scene right out of From Here to Eternity, a Peace Corps trip to Africa to teach the natives the benefits of Tupperware and basketball, a war-ravaged recovery room with a G.I. who thinks he's Ethel Merman (a hilarious cameo)--and those are just the flashbacks! The jokes gleefully skirt the boundaries of bad taste (pilot Peter Graves to a juvenile cockpit visitor: "Joey, have you ever seen a grown man naked?"), with the high (low?) point being Hagerty's intimate involvement with the blow-up automatic pilot doll, but they'll have you rolling on the floor. The film launched the careers of collaborators Jim Abrahams (Big Business), David Zucker (Ruthless People) and Jerry Zucker (Ghost), as well as revitalising such B-movie actors as Lloyd Bridges, Peter Graves, Robert Stack and Leslie Nielsen, who built a second career on films like this. A vital part of any home film collection. --Mark Englehart, Amazon.com

Video Description
DVD Special Features:

Theatrical Trailer
Group Commentary with Jon Davison, Jim Abrahams, Jerry Zucker and David Zucker
Multiple Language Choice: English and German
Multi-language Subtitles: English for the hearing impaired, English, Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Swedish, Turkish.

Synopsis
The spoof comedy that set the gold standard for all that followed it, AIRPLANE takes shots at the slew of disaster movies that peppered cinemas in the 70s. When the passengers and crew of a jet are incapacitated due to food poisoning, a rogue pilot (who has a drinking problem and is afraid of flying) must cooperate with his ex-girlfriend turned stewardess to bring the plane to a safe landing. No disaster flick cliche is left unroasted, and the musical score itself takes a less than reverent look at overly melodramatic compositions.

Customer Reviews

airplane - hilarious
I absolutely love this film - atlhough it is 25 years old and I have lost count of the number of times I have seen it. I know the jokes off by heart but still end up crying with laughter. I have just seen it come in at no 2 of channel 4's 50 greatest comedies and to be quite honest am quite relieved. Up till now I really thought I was alone in my appreciation of this classic. The humour is never ending with hidden jokes that creep up on you in the next scene. The disco scene is excellent, not to mention Leslie Neilson's "don't call me Shirley" lines, the nun's cheery song, the vietnam flashbacks, the hysterical passenger, the haphazard crew at the control tower. The jokes just continue to come in thick and fast and I will never tire of seeing it, I am slightly ashamed to say that some of the quotes will live with me forever!!

original and still the best
A film that spawned a whole new style of comedy. Some great. Some not so great. I hadn't seen this in years before getting the DVD [the one I'm reviewing is the special edition which has a menu and a commentary].

Surely you'd think it would have looked dated by comparison to all that came since?

You would. But don't call me shirley! Because it doesn't. This is still one of the funniest films ever made.

If you've never seen it, then see it. And if you've seen it before see it again! Worth a place in any dvd collection

THE FUNNIEST FILM EVER!!
Whoever wrote this film was a genius! There is a funny moment in almost every minute. I am laughing at the moment thinking about it. There are moments which really stand out for me! But I won't say them. The only downfall for me is that there are no special features, (except one which is the commentary). But that doesn't matter, as long as the film is there.
One word - HILARIOUS!