Rating: ****
Director: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker
Cast: Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, Peter Graves, Leslie Nielsen,
Lloyd Bridges, Robert Stack, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
A riotously funny spoof of all those airplane disaster films of the 1970's. A psychologically scarred war veteran pilot named Ted Striker (Robert Hays) just found out that his wife (Julie Hagerty) left him and desperately tries to win her back. But first he has to screw up the courage to face his haunting past and get on board the plane that she's on. While airborne, the entire flight crew falls ill, and it's up to Striker to land the plane, with help from his former commander, Rex Kramer (paranoid Robert Stack). The cast is wonderful and plays everything with dead seriousness while the audience is mercilessly assaulted with slapstick humor and sight gags. Very funny stuff.