Airplane II: The Sequel (1982)

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

The original film was my favorite comedy of all time. This isn't good, but it certainly isn't terrible. Given the status of modern spoof movies, it's still the best movie ever. I think my main problem with this flick is that it just reuses many jokes from the first one. The weird thing is that the jokes they do use are funny. It just doesn't do anything that the original didn't do better.The two leads from the last movie still haven't gotten their relationship back together. I missed Leslie Neilsen. At least we got Johnny back! It's a pity the famous people who worked on the first movie aren't back. Weird, I thought William Shatner only had like a cameo in this movie. He actually did have a pretty relevant part. **1/2

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.

Rushed together under the success of the first one, the nastiness of getting this released. The jokes are mostly unfunny, the set-up forced, and the slugs at the "Airport" series forced rather than fully plotted. This takes the bomb plot of the first film and puts it into the hands of Sonny Bono who buys a bomb in the airport gift shop before boarding a super sonic jet heading for the moon. Once again, Robert Hays is estranged from fiancée Julie Hagerty, having had another breakdown somewhere in between the two movies, and is desperate to get her back. Somehow discovering that Bono has a bomb, Hays becomes a hero again, after the pilots (once again lead by Peter Graves) are afflicted by poisonous gas let out of the computer system let out by a Hal like mind. The first movie was hysterically funny because every gag seemed to be choreographed rather than just tossed on for cheap laughs. The gags here are either repeated or weakly placed without regards to the outcome or the placement. Gone are Leslie Nielsen (seen only in an obvious filler flashback) and Robert Stack, here replaced in a different part by William Shatner, obviously spoofing his "Star Trek" role, and he gets the funniest visual gag. Lloyd Bridges and Stephen Stucker are back as are a few of the same passengers, with Ann Nelson very funny in her cameo, but poor Lee Bryant reduced to further hysterics that uses a flashback and comes off as more gratuitous than funny. I missed Lorna Patterson, seen in the same flashback, but a definite sad absence. I wanted to see more of future soap diva Louise Sorel, seen briefly as a nurse.A sad follow-up to one of the greatest comedies ever made took the spoof out of filmmaking until the "Naked Gun" series came along. In watching the two films back to back, the second film's weaknesses become all the more apparent.

Although not quite as good as Airplane!, Airplane II is almost just as funny as the first film. Lots of odd-ball jokes and sight gags in the sequel. Ted and Elaine will do what they can to keep their passengers on the space shuttle safe but a computer error send them off their course and straight for the sun - can Ted get the shuttle back on the right course to the moon? Of course he can but not without a few more jokes and gags to help him and the audience along.If you liked Airplane! then you are sure to enjoy Airplane II The Sequel - it really is almost as funny as the first film.Recommended similar humored comedy movies: "Mars Attack!", "Galaxy Quest", "Spaceballs", and "Men in Black".9/10