AIRPLANE II: THE SEQUEL

year: 1982 cast: Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, Chad Everett rating: **1/2

The first ten minutes are the best: the passengers and crew entering the airport while security grope/search an old lady while terrorists breeze by with rocket launchers. Or two people pass each other with wheeled suitcases being pulled on leashes. The two suitcases then start growling like dogs and roll around fighting each other. This is funny until we get a close-up of one of the people pulling off their suitcase; then another close-up on the other person; then a final wide shot as the two people, with their suitcases, walk off.

This scene is a microcosm of how many gags fail, each going a step too far by humanizing the punchlines. In the original, we're involved in Robert Hays romance with Julie Hagerty while attempting to land the airplane suffering war flashbacks, but these are mere subplots to the constant hilarious jokes. The opposite occurs here.

The plot, rehashed from the original but set in the future with a space shuttle trip to the moon, is too familiar and the jokes are hit and miss. William Shatner, replacing Robert Stack as the uptight chief talking the shuttle to a safe landing, in doing an imitation of himself and going overboard in every line, is more annoying than humorous.

And random courtroom scenes, giving us footage of the first film as Hayes defends his sanity, are downright horrendous and for fanatics of the original, blasphemous as well. But despite the flaws, there are enough witty moments for a breezy flight.

And REST IN PEACE Chad Everett, who played Hagerty's too perfect boyfriend.

Chad Everett reacts to Peter Grave's strange dialog to a young boy

The late Chad Everett as Simon Kurtz with Julie Hagerty

Chad Everett literally falling apart under pressure

Chad Everett

Another deceased icon, Sonny Bono as the Terrorist

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