Airport 1975 (1974)

Not even bad in a good way

Good concept, poorly executed.

it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

While in flight, a passenger plane collides with another plane.I rather corny but pleasing line in this film has been forever locked in my memory for the last 40 years. After the disaster is over and the passengers leave the plane, one young passenger looks up at the sky as says something like "what a wonderful day" to which another more mature aged passenger responds with something like "every day is wonderful, you are just too young to know". Yes, Airport 1975 is far from perfect, but if a line from a film can have that sort of an impact on me, well, who am I to complain about it.But anyway, forgetting all this for a second, as other posters have noted, disaster-satire film Airplane! (1980) has done serious damage to the entertainment value of Airport 1975 when seen today, but if you have not seen Airplane! (1980)...you will get a blast out of Airport 1975.

Airport 1975 (1974)** 1/2 (out of 4)A 747 is on its way to Los Angeles when the pilot (Dana Andrews) of a personal plane suffers a heart attack. The small plane crashes into the 747 killing or injuring all of its pilots and leaving a large whole in the plane. The main stewardess (Karen Black) must take control of the plane while her boyfriend (Charlton Heston) tries to tell her how to get the plane down.AIRPORT somehow got an Oscar nomination for Best Picture but in my opinion it was a deadly boring movie with very little going for it outside of its wonderful cast. AIRPORT 1975 is made in the same mold but this one here was smarter in that it threw out a lot of the melodrama and instead focused on the action. The movie certainly isn't a masterpiece and there's no question that it could have been much better but for a mindless popcorn movie there's no doubt that it's entertaining.The film really benefits from its all-star cast with Black leading the way in a strong performance. I thought she was extremely believable in the role of the scared woman forced to take control of the plane. Both Heston and George Kennedy are good in their supporting parts as is Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. as the pilot and it's fun seeing Andrews in his small role. As you'd expect, there are all sorts of known faces here including Sid Caesar, Linda Blair, Susan Clark, Helen Reddy, Myrna Loy, Ed Nelson, Nancy Olsen, Norman Fell, Beverly Garland, Erik Estrada and there's even Gloria Swanson playing herself and even giving a nod to Cecil B. DeMille.The film contains some good cinematography and a nice score. For the most part the special effects are good. The biggest problem is the direction, which is a tad bit too loose as it would have been better had there been more drama. There really wasn't a single second where you felt that the plane was in danger of crashing and even worse is that the conclusion of the two planes is done without too much fanfare or build-up. AIRPORT 1975 is a rare sequel that manages to be better than the original but the real star of the series was to follow.

Just about every 1970s disaster cliché and typical cast member is present in this ludicrous, yet entertaining movie. The first of a long line of sequels to the original Airport from 1970, this film raises the bar in terms of ridiculous situations and casting of washed-up actors. One cannot however ignore the interesting scenario of an untrained person having to fly a jumbo jet if the entire crew somehow would become incapacitated.Karen Black (an underrated talent) plays the lead stewardess on a 747 flight who has to take over the flying duties after a Cessna crashes into the cockpit and either kills or severely wounds the pilots. Luckily the script only calls for her having to make adjustments to the plane's course instead of actually bringing it safely into the gate! Instead, the plan is to lower a trained pilot from a jet helicopter into the 747 cockpit so he can make the landing. Of course there are complications involving sick passengers, fuel leaks, mountains, and finding a good rug for Charleton Heston to wear. Can this motley crew of actors bring the plane down safely?? I wonder.You gotta love the casts of these kind of movies. I can take Cid Ceasar, Myrna Loy, Gloria Swanson, and Linda Blair as passengers. I can hold my nose and accept Helen Reddy as a singing nun. The welcome sight of George Kennedy in some sort of administrative role certainly helps. But what in the world was former NFL quarterback Jim Plunkett doing on board? And sitting in coach, yet?? I guess he hadn't won a superbowl yet, so he didn't rate first class! 6 of 10 stars.The Hound.

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.