Classics Set On An Airplane
Plus: Listen to our summer movie preview on the podcast!
When cinema takes to the skies it can result in dramatic, heart-stopping, or, at the very least, wildly entertaining movies. This weekend brings Fight or Flight, an action comedy starring Josh Hartnett (continuing his career revival) as a mercenary on a commercial flight full of assassins. With this in mind, we recommended two plane movies this week, a thriller and a spoof comedy. Check those out and then listen to our summer movie preview on the podcast!
Drew recommends…
Air Force One
When it comes to awesome 1990s movie premises, it’s hard to beat “President Harrison Ford fights terrorists aboard a hijacked Air Force One.” It’s no surprise Air Force One made $315 million worldwide in 1997, since it features a major movie star in an action thriller set on the most famous aircraft in the country. This movie has everything you’d want in an airplane actioner: escapist nonsense, dodgy accents, and a committed star anchoring an overqualified supporting cast.
“Die Hard on a plane” had been done before (Die Hard 2, Executive Decision), but Air Force One raises the stakes considerably by endangering not just U.S. national security (like usual), but also the President and his family directly. Ford plays President James Marshall, who’s aboard Air Force One when it’s hijacked by rogue terrorists from Kazakhstan, led by a menacing character played by Gary Oldman doing his version of the Alan Rickman in Die Hard role. Marshall is forced to combat them while protecting both his family and the country’s best interests. Meanwhile, a solid group of supporting characters with performances by Glenn Close (as Vice President) and Dean Stockwell try to manage the crisis from Washington D.C.
Air Force One is kind of the platonic ideal of the thriller set on an airplane, since most of the intense (and frankly, ridiculous) action takes place in the air. It delivers on what it promises. Plus, Harrison Ford more than capably carries the movie with his blend of earnest emotion and physical prowess. Even at his advanced age today, it’s wonderful to see him still making action movies, but there was just something about an in-his-prime Ford growling “Get off my plane!” that will never die.
Streaming on MGM+
Billy recommends…
Airplane!
The spoof comedy genre may be the hardest one to crack. Airplane! needed three directors to make this one incredibly successful. Jim Abrahams, Jerry Zucker, and David Zucker all went on to take their own individual stab at the spoof genre to solid success, but nothing from their careers reaches this hype. Only Mel Brooks seems to know how to be more consistent with this genre.
It makes sense why this genre is so difficult. It’s almost exclusively bits with little sense of story and the right performers are needed to make each successive bit work. And here specifically, the setting of an airport and titled “Airplane” leaves for so much room to explore. When you combine the setting, the absurdity of the flying experience, and the turning point career moment for Leslie Nielsen, we have something that is endlessly rewatchable.
Nielsen is one of the funniest to ever do it with his completely committed deadpan performance somehow grounding the movie. The genre hacks our modern watching habits of loving a good clip and holds up as one of the gold standards of what a spoof comedy can strive for. Continuing the legacy of the movie. With that clip nature it is easy to pull out the positive and clip it making it seem like a lesser spoof movie as a whole is funny (Movie 43 being the ultimate example, what the hell was that movie?). Often being fools good, similar to NBA clip compilations trying to tell you that Gerald Green was a problem. But here we have 88 minutes of a cohesive enough story that adds a necessary pace with the wonderful bits.
It is not an Airplane! remake, but we are seeing an attempt later this year to revive this genre by going back to an old classic. Liam Neeson is leading a revival of The Naked Gun series and touching a Leslie Nielsen classic of any kind feels wrong, but I love the team involved and think Neeson can give that deadpan delivery that is at least complimentary to Nielsen. If there isn’t one joke about Liam Neeson sounding like Leslie Nielsen I will riot. Anyways, when done right there isn’t much more enjoyable experience than a cackle from a spoof comedy and Airplane! may be the quintessential example we have ever had.
Streaming on MGM+
From the DYLA Archive
DYLA Podcast
Ready or not, summer is on its way, which means it’s time to prepare for the summer movie season. Let us be your guide to the upcoming slate of releases. We broke them into categories, such as Star-Driven Stunts, Hot Summer Frights, and Cannes Corner, to get you excited about what to expect at the theater over the next few months.
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