Wednesday 15 November 2017

Film of the Week: Airplane 2 – The Sequel


Airplane is considered by many as the greatest comedy of all time. Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker created a masterpiece. They had a small budget but they made every single penny count. What only made it funny was how all the characters acted seriously in a world that clearly wasn’t. It was clearly a film that never any intention to make a sequel. It was a pure standalone film. Which is why, the sequel is considered by plenty of fans of the original as unnecessary and bad.

With the studio greenlighting the film without the involvement of the original writers and directors, I was expecting the film to not have the same feel as Airplane, which is why I found it strange when it did have the same feel. And then it turned into a copycat film. I fully expected the story to be the same, except in space, but what was disappointing was plenty of the jokes were the same as well. There were a few original jokes and they were good and made me laugh, but the first made me laugh all the way through because every joke was original – it wasn’t copying anything.

Making a sequel to one of the greatest comedy films of all time is not an easy feat, I understand that; there’s a lot of pressure on the studio’s shoulders, but it’s unnecessary stress, because it’s a venture that needn’t have been carried out.

If this was the only film that had been made, I would say that this would be rewarded with some of the praise as the first, but Jim Abrahams, Jerry Zucker and David Zucker have their one unique spin on things, and Airplane is still as good as it was back then, because they were in charge. This time around, the studio was in charge, with a completely different set of crew members, writers and directors, and they try to keep the same style as the first, but all they end up doing is exactly the same. To put it another way:

Studio: “Can I copy your work?”

Jim, David, and Jerry: “No.”

Studio: “Don’t worry, we’ll change it up a bit so we don’t get caught.”

Jim, David, and Jerry: “No.”

Studio: “Well, we’re doing it anyway.”

Let’s just be thankful no one has attempted to make a sequel to Top Secret. 

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