--- title: "Airplane!: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/airplane/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/airplane" critics_score: 87 critics_reviews: 11 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Airplane! (1980): what the critics said Critics' score 87 from 11 reviews: 11 positive, 0 mixed, 0 negative. The reviews are uniformly positive, with praise centred on the quantity, variety and precision of the jokes. Critics repeatedly point to the combination of wordplay, sight gags and layered background business, which rewards repeat viewing without letting the disaster-film spoof lose momentum. The straight-faced performances are another point of agreement: serious actors treat the absurdity earnestly, while Radio Times singles out Leslie Nielsen and the supporting veterans for making effective comic use of their established personas. The differences concern degrees of enthusiasm rather than any substantial opposition, with assessments ranging from warmly approving to ecstatic. RogerEbert.com finds the humour sophomoric and corny but argues that these qualities help it get laughs where more ambitious comedies struggle. Reservations elsewhere mostly concern its influence: Slant Magazine questions the habit of mocking older films that it helps popularise, while The AV Club notes the lesser imitators that follow without finding the original diminished. ## Radio Times — John Ferguson Rating 5/5. This is hailed as the best of the Zucker-Abrahams spoofs, packed with accurate spoofs, puns and sight gags that have not dated. The critic praises the supporting cast, especially Leslie Nielsen and the veteran actors sending up their personas, and notes how it ended the Airport series. [Read the review](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-ulps8g/airplane/) ## Time Out — Tom Huddleston Rating 5/5. 20 September 2024. The critic calls it the funniest movie ever made, a single-minded barrage of gags that succeeds where earlier parodies fell short. The review singles out the sheer volume and quality of the jokes, from wordplay to visual gags, as its greatest achievement. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/airplane) ## Empire — Caroline Westbrook Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 2000. This is the mother of all spoofs and nobody has bettered it since in send-ups and sight gags. It is essential viewing that rewards repeat watches to catch all the jokes. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/airplane-review/) ## RogerEbert.com — Roger Ebert Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 7 May 1980. The film is sophomoric and corny but frequently very funny because of it, succeeding as a satirical anthology of movie clichés where more ambitious comedies fail to land laughs. It particularly excels in send-ups like the disco parody of Saturday Night Fever in a Casablanca-style bar flashback. [Read the review](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/airplane-1980) ## Slant Magazine — Eric Henderson Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 5 December 2005. The ZAZ team sustains a single spoof premise across the whole film without losing steam, framing gags around a straight-faced remake of Zero Hour with B-movie stars delivering lines earnestly amid absurdity. It is one of the most relentlessly inventive American comedies, though it helped popularize mocking older films. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/airplane/) ## The New York Times — Janet Maslin Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 2 July 1980. Airplane! delivers hilarious jokes with clever, confident energy and is a welcome brief, inexpensive-looking surprise amid a dim season. It effectively spoofs disaster films like Zero Hour while poking fun at broader movie clichés and authority figures with a Mad Magazine-like attitude. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/1980/07/02/arts/screenairplanedisasterfilm-spoof.html) ## The AV Club — Scott Tobias Fi1m's normalised score 75/100 (inferred from the text). 21 December 2005. Airplane! offers a huge quantity of laughs through its gag-a-second approach and layered jokes, holding up well decades later despite leading to lesser imitators. The ZAZ team's spoof of disaster films mixes parodies and wordplay effectively in its first half. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/airplane-1798201310) ## Variety — Variety Staff Fi1m's normalised score 75/100 (inferred from the text). 31 December 1979. This is a laff-riot spoof that beats other films for sheer number of comic gags, leaving no cliché unturned in its takedown of the Airport-style disaster cycle. Laughs come thick and fast from the Jaws takeoff opening to the irreverent closing title card. [Read the review](https://variety.com/1979/film/reviews/airplane-1200424796/) ## The Hollywood Reporter — Ron Pennington 27 June 1980. The film is hilarious and will be one of the year's big moneymakers. It is an outrageous, affectionate satire of disaster epics and melodramas, with strong performances and visual gags that mostly land. [Read the review](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/airplane-review-1980-movie-1018276/) ## Collider — Matt Goldberg Fi1m's normalised score 95/100 (inferred from the text). 23 October 2011. The critic declares Airplane! one of the best comedies ever made and a pioneering spoof that goes far beyond parody. He singles out its freedom to try every style of joke while maintaining a cohesive tone and ensuring nearly every gag lands. [Read the review](https://collider.com/airplane-blu-ray-review/) ## Eye for Film — Val Kermode Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 20 March 2009. The critic calls it one of the funniest movies of all time, a brilliantly funny spoof of 1970s disaster films that packs countless laugh-out-loud moments and running gags into a lean 88 minutes without falling flat despite its star cast. [Read the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/airplane-film-review-by-val-kermode) ## The Ringer — Adam Nayman Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 2 July 2020. The critic calls Airplane! a foundational comedy whose revolutionary mix of density and dexterity remains unmatched forty years on. He singles out the decision to cast serious actors playing it straight as the key to its discipline and enduring power. [Read the review](https://www.theringer.com/2020/07/02/movies/airplane-40th-anniversary-comedy-satire-leslie-nielsen) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/airplane.md