So many funny phrases from this brilliant script have stayed around. Surely you can't be serious, yes I am and don't call me Shirley. The silliness is sustained with great force and superb acting, there are few actors who can make this farcical daftness work without it becoming pathetic. There are 2 sequels both great but could not have worked without Nielsen.
Found myself quoting and lightly chuckling to myself a week after having watched this, much to the dismay of my family and people I work with. Watching this always brings me back to my childhood.
Silly, anarchic and zany this American comedy holds up due to the relentless amount of visual and script jokes that run through the entire film even though some are dated and many require a passing knowledge of Hollywood as this is a parody of cinema and in particular the 1957 film Zero Hour!, which I challenge anyone who knows Airplane! to watch without laughing. Basically the story is a commercial airliner has an onboard emergency when the passengers and crew all get food poisoning and a former fighter pilot has to land it. Into that simple disaster film scenario the writers and directors weave a never ending pastiche of adult, risqué and borderline offensive comedy. It is a riot and has many now famous quotable lines and the presence of well known and very serious actors like Peter Graves, Robert Stack, Lloyd Bridges and Leslie Nielsen essentially undermining their own screen personas led to a film that is an absolute riot. This is one of those American comedies that it's always worth turning to when you need cheering up as it's just hilarious from start to finish.