410. Airplane! (1980)

Starring: Leslie Nielsen, Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty

Director: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker

Running Time: 88 mins

Airplane! is an American film about an aeroplane crew which are all taken ill after eating the fish. There’s only one man who can possibly fly this plane, but can he avert it from a huge disaster?

Well, this is probably the ultimate slapstick comedy. It features scene after scene of sheer hilariousness, and countless classic quotable lines. It’s surely one of the most ridiculous stories ever made, but its constant bombardment of quality stupidity makes it one of the most enjoyable.

There’s barely anything to write about this film, because it’s barely a film, just countless jokes strung together over an hour and a half. What I found so great about it was that they managed to make a slapstick comedy, which is totally and utterly moronic, and yet is consistently hilarious all the way through.

No other film really goes so far as to take everything so literally, like Striker’s ‘drinking problem’, or to bring in so many deliberate errors and mistakes, and make them so unbelievably funny.

Another thing that really amazes me about this film is that it is, or was in 1980, a satirical film. Normally, that sort of comedy would die away after a couple of years, but now, 34 years later, it’s still absolutely hilarious, which is a testament to the entertainment of the comedy in this film.

Overall, this gets a 9.5, because it is so original in the nature of its comedy, and it delivers to the highest standards, and is surely (not Shirley) one of the funniest films of all time.