Abbigail Bush
what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.
Freeman
This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.
Jakoba
True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.
Sam Panico
A small airplane crashes into a 747, taking out nearly the entire crew of flight 409, and only the stewardess can land the plane! Such is the plot of Airplane 1975, but that thin story doesn't matter. You're coming here for starpower and you're gonna get it, baby!Charlton Heston (the undisputed 1960's and 1970's king of the post-apocalyptic film, between Planet of the Apes, Soylent Green and The Omega Man) is Captain Alan Murdock and he's the only person who can save the day, with heroics that include being dropped into a plane that's actually in flight! Karen Black (Trilogy of Terror, Burnt Offerings) is his girlfriend and the air hostess charged with keeping the plane aloft.The doomed flight crew is played by Efram Zimbalist, Jr., Roy Thinnes from TV's The Invaders and Erik Estrada. It's shocking just how sexist they are with the rest of the in-flight crew and even more shocking just how much the ladies like it. The 1970's were a doomed time when women just had to take the sexual harassment and like it, or return it back in kind.Then there's Gloria Swanson playing herself (Greta Garbo was the original plan) with Linda Harrison from Planet of the Apes as her assistant. Strangely, Harrison renamed herself Augusta Summerland for this movie.And then there's Myrna Loy as an alcoholic actress in the role originally meant for Joan Crawford! Three drunk guys (Jerry Stiller, Norman Fell and Conrad Janis) who would go on to be dads in sitcoms! Sid Caesar as a guy who can't keep his mouth shut! Linda Blair as a sick girl who just wants to listen to Helen Reddy perform as a singing nun! And Patroni's wife (Susan Clark from TV's Webster, who was spotted by the eagle eyed Becca) and son are on the flight, too!Airport 1975 is big, bombastic and stupid. And it's also awesome. It's pure escapism and is devoted to entertaining you. It's also a film packed with men patronizing women, calling them honey and yelling at them when they can't get their stuff together.
mark.waltz
The alcohol is flowing in this second installment of the "Airport!" series, where Myrna Loy knocks boiler makers and the trio of Norman Fell, Conrad Janis and Jerry Stiller keep their livers working overtime as well. A nervous woman begs the stewardess to keep her filled up, while Gloria Swanson's assistant sophisticatedly orders a martini. Miss Swanson sticks to her tea, complaining about the poisonous food that she refuses to touch.Fans of "Airplane!" will go nuts counting all of the references spoofed in that modern comedy classic, especially the presence of Linda Blair as a young girl in need of a kidney transplant. Try not to think of the passenger's reactions to Lorna Patterson singing when nun Helen Reddy borrows Blair's guitar and breaks out into a folk song. Gloria Swanson's "Sunset Boulevard" co-star Nancy Olson plays Blair's overly concerned mother.The basic storyline has private plane pilot Dana Andrews crashing into the huge two storied passenger plane, killing the pilots and leaving only stewardess Karen Black to frantically fly the plane. While the crash is horrific, I couldn't help but chuckle at the sight of a passenger sliding down the circular staircase towards the plane's bar as if he was heading down a pool slide. The only help of landing the plane is Charleton Heston as Black's non-committal boyfriend, and if course, George Kennedy.With this huge cast of veteran and future stars from every medium, including Martha Scott as the older nun who responds to Reddy's inquiry if Swanson is a Hollywood actress with a very judgmental "Or worse!" Sid Caesar adds more subtle comedy than the trio of drunks as the man sitting next to Loy, subtly commenting on her love for bourbon with a beer back chaser. Familiar faces such as Beverly Garland, Terry Lester, Susan Clark, Larry Storch, Ed Nelson and Roy Thinnes pop in and out, with a young Erik Estrada as one of the pilots. When he looks directly at the camera and gives a big goofy grin a la the blonde pilot in "Airplane!", I had my biggest Danny Thomas spit-take in years! Brian Morrison, of TV's " Maude", plays the young son of Susan Clark whose character is ironically married to series perennial George Kennedy! Alice Nunn, memorable in her cameo in "Pee Wee Herman's Big Adventure", is funny in a bit as a passenger hiding her dog in her purse.Take away the unintentional comedy of the film, and you will find a magnificently wonderful bail biter. This is a good old fashioned Hollywood crowd pleaser, reminding the audience of all the wonderful talents they had. One thing that is unbelievable is the big hole in the cockpit not consumed with wind pressure, making it unbelievable that anybody entering would not quickly be sucked out as one of the pilots was earlier. Yes, it gets extremely corny at times, even removing the thoughts of everything that was spoofed, but that hardly matters. I will definitely be adding this to my collection at some point because there were so many little details to pick that you would be bound to miss a few.
memorable-name
A disaster movie about a Boeing 747 that collides with a smaller plane and is left without a pilot. This film now being viewed 40 yrs after it was made is quite memorable for all the right and wrong reasons. On board we have an array of old time movie stars that if you are under a certain age wont know anything about, Gloria Swanson, Myrna Loy mean anything to you? We have pilots that put women's lib back about 20 yrs with talk that these days would result in a possible sexual harassment suit and we have Linda Exorcist Blair as a girl needing a kidney transplant, being possessed the year before must of played havoc with her organs. Add a singing nun and a passenger list of virtually every cliché you can think of and we are ready for take off!About 40 mins into our perilous flight, disaster strikes and we are left without any pilots, What are we going to do? The first thing I would of done is ask if anyone on board has the required skills but no, head stewardess Karen Black finds her inner action heroine and takes control. The remainder of this daft, corny but at times irresistible and unintentionally funny film is taken up by the attempts to land the plane before Mrs Black smashes it into an on coming mountain. Thankfully for the little lady, Charlton Heston and George Kennedy are on hand to save us and land the plane and send it on it's way into 70's campy greatness.Modern, big budget, special effect blockbusters were just finding their feet when this 'action movie' came out and the film does have some good points Karen Black is good in her role and shows that women on planes can do more than just hand out tea, some of the action scenes although very dated are well handled and the impending doom does keep things fairly interesting. So if you don't expect to much from this old disaster movie you are probably in for a fairly pleasant but windy flight.
elshikh4
This is the first airport's airplane movie. The authentic version of the plane's disaster movie of the 1970s. And the best of the whole airport series.The 1970 movie was an unusual day in a life of an airport. This round the new formula is clear and solid : A plane in calamity. Many different characters, mostly viewers. Attempts to rescue lead to a climax with a happy end. Afterwards, they tried to clone Airport 75 in the 1977 movie, then deform it in the 1979 one ! 3 matters did bother me. Firstly the list of cameos / the passengers didn't do anything but the relief, whereas there is no drama but the plane's drama, and anything else it is a triviality.Secondly, the way how the script skips several ways to make more thrilling moments that could have made the atmosphere hotter. To instance : the fuel is leaking and "we don't have enough", you see the lead's wife and son on the very plane however no special danger they suffer other than the main danger, the girl who needs a liver; there is no subsidiary thrill with her line; as if "her status is unstable, she requires immediate medical care", scared drunks on board with nothing to do but being scared; they could have done anything to threaten the peace inside the plane, the media's importunity does nothing but bugging (George Kennedy) and that's about it ?!,.. etc. Certainly, exploding situations like that, in the most exaggerated illogical yet entertaining ways, you can watch after 16 years in Die Hard 2 (1990), which makes Airport 75 more rational and believable in a way.Thirdly, the climactic moment wasn't done very well. I couldn't understand what the trouble in getting the plane on land was? I even couldn't get how (Charlton Heston) stopped it (that moment had been overstepped unfairly). All what he did was swerving it to turn it away from its headway; which is obviously so easy to an extent makes it unfit as a climax for all the excitement before it.(Heston) was so masculine and charismatic. He seemed cool with those shades. Originally, god gifted him with that look of "whatever hard I'll beat it utterly", he makes other guys like Tom Cruise perfect sissies. I suppose the 1970s were the last time to see 50-something-year-old lead in an action movie. (Karen Black) wasn't less charismatic. Aside from being a beauty (always believed that she's French-born), she managed to be convincing and serious. Something I miss with the beautiful dolls of today's movies as well. On the other hand, (Gloria Swanson) as (Gloria Swanson) was wrong, if not pathetic ! The movie is technically competent. I loved its amusing music, good editing, and fine directing. It has a reason to be distinct forever, among its fellow plane's disaster movies, which is the idea of the explosion of the cockpit with everyone in it. However, and despite the clever total tension of it, the movie is generally empty, and a bit poor when it comes to utilize rich areas it already has. Yes, it's the best airport's airplane-in-calamity movie to date, but, one way or another, it has the main lesion of not the plane's movies, rather the whole disaster movies : the script.
