Airplane 2

McCroskey: "Jacobs, I want to know absolutely everything that's happened up till now."
Jacobs: "Well, let's see. First the earth cooled. And then the dinosaurs came, but they got too big and fat, so they all died and they turned into oil. And then the Arabs came and they bought Mercedes Benzes. And Prince Charles started wearing all of Lady Di's clothes. I couldn't believe it."

release year: 1982
genre: comedy
viewing setting: home Bluray 8/8/19

synopsis: A passenger shuttle headed for the moon has all kinds of issues.

impressions: Honestly, I only own (and watched) this because it came with the first one in a single cheap Bluray set. It was funny, but almost all of the good jokes were recycled from the first one. There was also the space/shuttle factor, which didn't have to be realistic in a comedy like this but still seemed out of place somehow. The movie just wan't that funny, at least not in comparison to the first one; this might have been the real problem, that it's tough to follow a classic. 99% of sequels know this.

acting: After watching this, I now realize that Leslie Nielsen was the highlight of the first one, so his absence here is missed. William Shatner hams it up pretty well as the commander of the moon base. Stephen Stucker returns as an air traffic controller who says random funny things. Peter Graves also returns as the pilot, but his role here is basically the same as before. Robert Hays and Julie Hagerty are the couple who rekindle their romance (again) amidst the disaster. Sonny Bono has a minor role as a would-be bomber.

final word: Lots of recycled gags, and the space element, make this barely funny.

back to the main review page