It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The original film was my favorite comedy of all time. This isn't good, but it certainly isn't terrible. Given the status of modern spoof movies, it's still the best movie ever. I think my main problem with this flick is that it just reuses many jokes from the first one. The weird thing is that the jokes they do use are funny. It just doesn't do anything that the original didn't do better.The two leads from the last movie still haven't gotten their relationship back together. I missed Leslie Neilsen. At least we got Johnny back! It's a pity the famous people who worked on the first movie aren't back. Weird, I thought William Shatner only had like a cameo in this movie. He actually did have a pretty relevant part. **1/2

The original Airplane! from 1980 is highly regarded as one of the funniest films of all time, and most certainly the best 'spoof' ever made. Boasting the writing talents of David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker (Z/A/Z), the film accurately lampooned the formulaic disaster movies from the 1970's, which commonly boasted a ridiculously large roster of former A-list superstars to battle against whatever crisis they found themselves caught up in. It was a huge success, but Z/A/Z scoffed at the idea of a sequel. Paramount decided to go ahead and make one anyway despite the protestations of the creators, and hired the writer of Grease 2 (1982) to make the magic happen once again.Predictably, Airplane II - amusingly subtitled The Sequel - doesn't come close to matching the hilarity of the original, doing what most bad comedy sequels do and re-hashing most of the humour that worked so well previously, only without the same conviction or execution. Most of the original cast return, and this time find themselves on board a lunar shuttle named Mayflower One headed for the moon (it's set in the near future). It short-circuits, causing its on-board AI to go insane and change course for the Sun. Ted Stryker (Robert Hays), the hero from the first movie, escapes from the insane asylum he was placed in by his employers after he discovered technical problems with the space shuttles, and boards the Mayflower in the hope of averting disaster. Also on board is his old flame Elaine (Julie Hagerty), who is now engaged to one of the flight crew, Simon Kurtz (Chad Everett).Despite the absence of the original writers, there are still a few laughs to be had throughout the film, namely in the form of the permanently stressed and chain-smoking air traffic controller Steve McCroskey (Lloyd Bridges) and his incessantly chirpy assistant Jacobs (Stephen Strucker). There are welcome new faces as well, such as Chuck Connors, Raymond Burr, Rip Torn and William Shatner. But the saddest thing is that the best jokes are the ones re-worked from the original, with writer/director Ken Finkleman failing to inject enough humour to make this one stand out on its own and not just be remembered as the weak sequel to one of the funniest farces ever made. The surprise stand-out from the original, the late, great Leslie Nielsen, also sadly doesn't return. Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker claimed on a DVD commentary that they have never seen this film, and they'd probably do well to keep it that way.

Unlike the first more in this series, this movie has dated quite quickly but still stands up in many ways.So the characters from the first movie have progressed and developed in many ways. Ted Striker is now an important test pilot in the new space plane program and Elaine is a computer expert. Wow, how many other sequels have this level of character development between movies?Anyway, this time the problem is that the new shuttle has been poorly designed and this has been covered up while Ted Striker has had a nervous breakdown fighting the system while Elaine has moved on to the guy who was responsible for the cover up.Once again things play out the way they did in the first movie with Ted getting on the space flight with other commercial passengers and when the crew is sucked out into space he has to take over and land the plane.The beginning and end of this movie are good if not great with William Shatner being the man who has to talk down Ted Striker using nothing but the power of over acting and flashing lights. The middle of the movie is filled full of lame jokes that sometimes miss and sometimes make weak contact. But it is still a fun movie if you don't give up during the middle of the movie.

If you've seen "Airplane!" than you've seen this. "Airplane II: The Sequel" is the sequel to the critically-acclaimed parody film from 1980 with many of the same elements. For the most part, the story, characters, and jokes are all the same, only this time the film is set in space and is parodying movies like "2001: A Space Odyssey".For the most part, the comedy style for this film was the same one that was used in "Airplane!" using lots of play-on-words jokes to keep the tone of the first film and did not fall victim to other comedy film sequels where it is nothing but juvenile humor. I did find myself getting annoyed at the fact that there were jokes recycled from the first film like the little boy (Oliver Robins) and Captain Oveur (Peter Graves) and the mix-up with the pilot's names. Another problem was that when a joke happened occasionally, I had thought of a funnier punchline in my head, which took me out of the movie a little and sometimes, the jokes just didn't work."Airplane II: The Sequel" brought back a number of characters from the first film including Striker (Robert Hays) and Elaine (Julie Hagerty), McCroskey (Lloyd Bridges) and Johnny/Jacobs (Stephen Stucker) and featured some new characters like Murdock (William Shatner) and Simon (Chad Everett). The problem is that the returning characters are the only ones who are really funny while the new characters, almost all the time, fall flat. Also, while the characters from "Airplane!" were funny and memorable, the only memorable characters from this movie are the ones that were brought back from the first film.In the long run, "Airplane II: The Sequel" is a less funny "Airplane!" set in space. The film had some good jokes that the writers thought up of themselves and the returning characters were good in it, but the same can not be said for the new characters. The jokes, for the most part, were either mediocre or the audience could think of better punchlines for them in their heads, and it did have to borrow a lot of jokes from its predecessor. When it comes down to it, though, "Airplane II: The Sequel" is a comedy sequel that is not as funny as the original, but it manages to make you laugh enough times to make the viewing worthwhile.