Airport '77 (B- or 2.5/4 stars)
In Airport '77 (the 3rd film in this Airport concept/franchise, & directed by Jerry Jameson), billionaire Philip Stevens (James Stewart) hopes to ship his collection of art to a museum; and he's using his huge private jet to fly the priceless collection. Going for the ride on said jet are a host of his friends of whom he assembled to meet him down in sunny Palm Beach, Florida. Unfortunately, this particular flight attracts the attention of a few crooks (Monte Markham, Michael Pataki) who have thought-out a master hijacking heist; with a co-pilot (Robert Foxworth) working with them, as well.
Plans go awry, however, & the plane goes down somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle into a relatively shallow area of the Atlantic. Tensions run high. Flooding starts. The oxygen supply grows short. And the crux of the movie is devoted to their rescue (where the U.S. Navy is called to action). That's basically the plot here and, in true disaster film style (think The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno & Airport #1), the screen is loaded with big star names (including George Kennedy, Darren McGavin, Maidie Norman, James Booth, M. Emmett Walsh - a doctor, Robert Hooks - a crippled bartender, Tom Sullivan - a pianist, and a stellar Kathleen Quinlan). Fun as they are, even bigger stars light up the screen …
Jack Lemmon plays the unfortunate pilot & he handles the role fairly well. My favorite performers in the movie are Joseph Cotten & Olivia DeHavilland, a classy/elegant pair of passengers who typify the glamour of Old Hollywood. Christopher Lee performs against type (he's not the villain!!) by turning out to be hero among the passengers/crew. Lee Grant plays his miserable lush of a wife; she plays the b*tch role SO well, haha. And I quite enjoyed watching flight attendant, Eve (Brenda Vaccaro, love her), punch-out the Lee Grant character. But you know, 'Airport '77' isn't great …
The script contains many silly moments & a lotttt of heavy-handed melodrama. The tone of the film is gloomy. The cinematography is fairly muddy. And the last 3rd of the film focuses on technicalities rather than characterization. That said, for me, the film is not the turd that many critics make it out to be. Footage devoted to the air sea rescue is one of the best aspects of the film. The production design is very cool. Edith Head's costumes wow. There are some pretty decent special effects {for the time}. It is entertaining spending 114 minutes with this plethora of actors. And despite some ridiculousness, the film is rarely boring. Though not quite in the echelon of the many other disaster flicks before it, Airport 77 still fits the bill.
Plans go awry, however, & the plane goes down somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle into a relatively shallow area of the Atlantic. Tensions run high. Flooding starts. The oxygen supply grows short. And the crux of the movie is devoted to their rescue (where the U.S. Navy is called to action). That's basically the plot here and, in true disaster film style (think The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno & Airport #1), the screen is loaded with big star names (including George Kennedy, Darren McGavin, Maidie Norman, James Booth, M. Emmett Walsh - a doctor, Robert Hooks - a crippled bartender, Tom Sullivan - a pianist, and a stellar Kathleen Quinlan). Fun as they are, even bigger stars light up the screen …
Jack Lemmon plays the unfortunate pilot & he handles the role fairly well. My favorite performers in the movie are Joseph Cotten & Olivia DeHavilland, a classy/elegant pair of passengers who typify the glamour of Old Hollywood. Christopher Lee performs against type (he's not the villain!!) by turning out to be hero among the passengers/crew. Lee Grant plays his miserable lush of a wife; she plays the b*tch role SO well, haha. And I quite enjoyed watching flight attendant, Eve (Brenda Vaccaro, love her), punch-out the Lee Grant character. But you know, 'Airport '77' isn't great …
The script contains many silly moments & a lotttt of heavy-handed melodrama. The tone of the film is gloomy. The cinematography is fairly muddy. And the last 3rd of the film focuses on technicalities rather than characterization. That said, for me, the film is not the turd that many critics make it out to be. Footage devoted to the air sea rescue is one of the best aspects of the film. The production design is very cool. Edith Head's costumes wow. There are some pretty decent special effects {for the time}. It is entertaining spending 114 minutes with this plethora of actors. And despite some ridiculousness, the film is rarely boring. Though not quite in the echelon of the many other disaster flicks before it, Airport 77 still fits the bill.