Review #1,040: 'Airplane II: The Sequel' (1982)

The original Airplane! from 1980 is highly regarded as one of the funniest films of all time, and most certainly the best 'spoof' ever made. Boasting the writing talents of David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker (Z/A/Z), the film accurately lampooned the formulaic disaster movies from the 1970's, which commonly boasted a ridiculously large roster of former A-list superstars to battle against whatever crisis they found themselves caught up in. It was a huge success, but Z/A/Z scoffed at the idea of a sequel. Paramount decided to go ahead and make one anyway despite the protestations of the creators, and hired the writer of Grease 2 (1982) to make the magic happen once again.

Predictably, Airplane II - amusingly subtitled The Sequel - doesn't come close to matching the hilarity of the original, doing what most bad comedy sequels do and re-hashing most of the humour that worked so well previously, only without the same conviction or execution. Most of the original cast return, and this time find themselves on board a lunar shuttle named Mayflower One headed for the moon (it's set in the near future). It short-circuits, causing its on-board AI to go insane and change course for the Sun. Ted Stryker (Robert Hays), the hero from the first movie, escapes from the insane asylum he was placed in by his employers after he discovered technical problems with the space shuttles, and boards the Mayflower in the hope of averting disaster. Also on board is his old flame Elaine (Julie Hagerty), who is now engaged to one of the flight crew, Simon Kurtz (Chad Everett).

Despite the absence of the original writers, there are still a few laughs to be had throughout the film, namely in the form of the permanently stressed and chain-smoking air traffic controller Steve McCroskey (Lloyd Bridges) and his incessantly chirpy assistant Jacobs (Stephen Strucker). There are welcome new faces as well, such as Chuck Connors, Raymond Burr, Rip Torn and William Shatner. But the saddest thing is that the best jokes are the ones re-worked from the original, with writer/director Ken Finkleman failing to inject enough humour to make this one stand out on its own and not just be remembered as the weak sequel to one of the funniest farces ever made. The surprise stand-out from the original, the late, great Leslie Nielsen, also sadly doesn't return. Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker claimed on a DVD commentary that they have never seen this film, and they'd probably do well to keep it that way.


Directed by: Ken Finkleman
Starring: Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, Lloyd Bridges, Peter Graves, Chad Everett, Chuck Connors, William Shatner, Raymond Burr
Country: USA

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie