Still the undisputed king of all spoof comedies, Airplane! is almost literally a gag-a-second send-up of the disaster film, particularly, of course, the Airport movies of the 1970s. This movie is so funny, it took three directors to make it, probably because at least one of them was able to keep the cast and crew under control at any given moment while the other two were on the floor losing their shit. The plot follows disgraced fighter pilot Ted Striker (Robert Hays), a man who must overcome his post-war traumatic fear of flying to win back his sweetheart (Julie Hagerty) and land a Chicago-bound passenger plane when a case of food poisoning renders almost everyone on board non-functional. Hays and Hagerty are cute, but this bird belongs to the supporting cast, including Leslie Nielsen (pre-Police Squad), Robert Stack, Peter Graves, Lloyd Bridges and even Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, all of whom play it brilliantly stone-faced straight. You don’t have to like movies about gladiators or be able to speak jive to love this one.
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New On Netflix: Airplane!