Trailer Tuesday: Airplane II: The Sequel (1982)

The follow-up to the smash hit Airplane! was not made by the same team that created the original. However, I think the sequel is also a fantastic movie with alot of it's own great bits...and dozens of jokes carried over from the first movie. This holiday themed trailer is funny in it's own right. The insurance joke in this trailer is not in the final film.



Roger Ebert's origianl review of Airplane II: The Sequel

Airplane! Slots - Striker Rich!

This might be the coolest thing ever in a casino - a slot machine based on the movie Airplane! It neatly captures the characters from the film in cartoon form as well as other moments from the movie and some universal icons of air travel. One of the nice touches on the wheels is the tray of already eaten poison fish. (I had the lasagna.) Auto pilot Otto serves as the game's Wild Space. There are plenty of chances to interact with the machine in bonus games, none of which I hit while I played. I did however win $10.00, and since I was only fooling around with the machine to see how it all worked - I cashed out and bought a sandwich with my winnings! Below are a couple of videos of the game...

Surley You Knew Leslie Nielsen Was Awesome

For a guy like me, who loves silly movies, Leslie Nielsen was a screen legend. He passed away Sunday at a hospital near his home in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. He was 84.

Instead of just write a list of all the movies that he was in that I love, I thought we'd turn to the wonderful world of YouTube to illustrate some highlights from his career.

My favorite movie of his, is probably everybody's...and the film he is most famous for: Airplane! (1980). And here is one of the most famous comedic lines in all of motion picture history...


Another film, so near and dear to my heart is Spaceship (1983). It was actually originally titled The Creature Wasn't Nice, then later renamed Spaceship for VHS to cash in on Airplane. Then again later on, it was renamed Naked Space to ride the on the coattails of The Naked Gun series. By any title, it's one of my all time favorite flicks...


Another favorite of mine has got to be Repossessed (1990) - a spoof of The Exorcist.


Then we have Wrongfully Accused (1998) - a parody of The Fugitive.


Mr. Nielsen has appeared in alot of these parody/spoof films - some fantastic, others horrible. More of the great ones include:

Dracula Dead and Loving It (1995)
Spy Hard (1996)
Mr. Magoo (1997)
Scary Movie 3 (2003)
Scary Movie 4 (2006)
Superhero Movie (2008)

and of course who can forget The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad (1989), The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear (1991), and The Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994). They were all based on the super-short lived TV series Police Squad! from 1982.

Barb & Tom

Over the past few days we've lost two of TV's most beloved parents. Barbara Billingsley is best known to the world as the mom on Leave It To Beaver. When I first heard of her passing I immediately thought of her as the voice of Nanny on Muppet Babies, but then my Twitter buddy @VeraBlue reminded me that Mrs. Billingsley had an important role in one of the all-time greatest films: Airplane! from 1980.



I was never real big on Happy Days but when I heard of Tom Bosley's passing I instantly thought of a fantastic movie that I love which he is in, Million Dollar Mystery (1987). You may remember Mr. Bosley served as the Glad trash bag spokesperson for quite sometime. In 1987, Glad bankrolled a movie where $4 million dollars is hidden among four trash bags in different locations. A wild and wacky chase, a la It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World ensues, with various comedians and grade Z celebrities all trying to find the dough. Only $3 million is recovered in the movie, but there are clues to where the other million is stashed and they supposedly really hid a million bucks in a trash bag somewhere in the real world and there was a contest (sponsored by Glad) to find the loot. Easily one of the greatest movie promotion gimmicks of all time, it's also a fantastic movie!



Bye-Bye, June Cleaver from The Philadelphia Inquirer
Sad Day for Happy Days from CNN

My Week In Movies - Happy New Year!

I Love You, Beth Cooper (2009) [PG-13] I don't know why I feel the need to see every single teen comedy that comes out!? Perhaps I have some unresolved issues with my non-existent social life in high school or perhaps it's just that I don't like my movies too deep or complicated. In any case, Beth Cooper is a pretty unimaginative last day of high school tale. The trailer gave away all the interesting parts when class valedictorian Denis professes his love to Beth Cooper...whom he's never spoken too...in front of the whole school on Graduation Day. Denis goes on to insult a few other classmates including the class bully and Beth's boyfriend. The remaining hour and a half of the film is Denis & Beth and their friends running from Beth's crazy muscle-bound boyfriend who wants to kill Denis. How does the film explain the boyfriend's over-the-top reaction to Denis' actions? They simply explain that he's high on cocaine. Isn't that a nice touch!?


I Love You, Beth Cooper was interesting and lighthearted enough to keep my attention but it's pretty bland and not very funny. The film puffs on for about 15 minutes longer than it needs to. Probably OK for older teens - there is much teenage drinking, drug references, and teenage sexual situations and of course, a healthy dose of cursing.


Scary Movie (2000) [R] The success of Scary Movie is directly responsible for the recent onslaught of parody movies at the cineplex. Scary Movie is good because it takes it's aim on a small handful of recent horror movies and then goes crazy making fun of them. The more recent parody films like Disaster Movie and Epic Movie try to cram too much into one movie. The two main targets are Scream (which was a parody itself) and I Know What You Did Last Summer. The jokes are fast and set up one after the other. There's some good running gags and some great goofy humor that you almost don't see anymore. When one of the victims is running from the killer she comes to a table in her house with a gun, handgrenade, cleaver, knife and a banana. She of course grabs the banana to protect herself. That kind of stuff just cracks me up!


The violence and gore is surprisingly minimal for a slasher flick, however it more than makes up for that in the vulgarity department. Be warned: there is quite a bit of full frontal male nudity in this silly comedy classic. Also be warned: Although Scary Movie 3 & 4 are both wonderfully hilarious and even more silly movies...Scary Movie 2 has got to be one of the worst drop off's in quality for any sequel I have ever seen!


The House Bunny (2008) [PG-13] I really like this fun flick about a Playboy Bunny who gets kicked out of the Playboy Mansion and ends up as a house mother for a rundown sorority. Anna Faris is probably one of the most gifted comedic actresses working right now and hopefully she'll take on more goofy roles in the near future. My favorite part about this movie is that it's almost a spin-off of one of my favorite shows E!'s The Girls Next Door. Hugh Hefner and the girls from the original cast of Next Door play themselves and appear in several scenes. Now that Holly, Kendra and Bridget have all gone their separate ways - this is the closest we'll ever get to a Girls Next Door movie...which would have been nothing short of fantastic!


Zero Hour! (1957) One of my all-time, Top 20 favorite movies is the 1980 comedy Airplane! which I contest is joke-for-joke hands down THE funniest movie ever made. I've seen it no less that 5,000 times. Most people don't realize that Airplane! is actually a remake of Zero Hour! a black and white disaster-style drama from the 50's. The makers of Airplane! actually bought the rights to Zero Hour! and used it as the frame work to hang zillions of corny gags on. As someone who worships Airplane! as much as I do, it was awesome to watch this older film and see where half of the jokes in Airplane! came from. Now only do they use the same exclamation point in the title, the main character in both films is named Ted Striker. The little boy that visits the cockpit is here...he's even dressed the same in both films. So much of the word play from Airplane! is clearly inspired from this movie also. Airplane! borrows and parodies a number of other films but most of it is all here in Zero Hour! Honestly, I thought it was a pretty good movie even without all the comparisons to Airplane!

If you can quote multiple scenes from Airplane! (as most men can) than you need to check out this old fashioned thriller, it will actually bring a great big smile to your face!