Airport Terminal Pack

[flyer]

Got the recently released Universal 4-DVD Airport series. Was watching Airport
and Airport 79 The Concorde last night. The Concorde especially was good for
many laughs. I can't believe they could have ever made put out a film so
riddled with inaccuracies for worldwide audiences. Granted, most general
audiences' knowledge of aviation is nearly zero. I remember watching The
Concorde as a kid because it was a movie about an airplane, yay! Couldn't care
less about all the huge gaffes. Last night I watched it as a comedy, though.
Couldn't stop laughing. That landing in a ski slope in the Alps on the way from
Paris to Moscow truly stretches the limits of credibility. And no airliner
flying a commercial route from Paris to Moscow would be anywhere near the Alps
to begin with. Anyway, the whole campy 4-movie set is worth it just for the
laughs. If you watch them as a comedy, they're delightful.

[John Gaquin]

"flyer" > wrote in message

> .......That landing in a ski slope in the Alps on the way from
> Paris to Moscow truly stretches the limits of credibility.

"...Stretches the limits of credibility..."????

How about "...crumples credibility up into a little ball, stomps it flat on
the ground, sets it on fire, then flushes the ashes down the toilet...."?
:-)

[Frank F. Matthews]

flyer wrote:

> Got the recently released Universal 4-DVD Airport series. Was watching Airport
> and Airport 79 The Concorde last night. The Concorde especially was good for
> many laughs. I can't believe they could have ever made put out a film so
> riddled with inaccuracies for worldwide audiences. Granted, most general
> audiences' knowledge of aviation is nearly zero. I remember watching The
> Concorde as a kid because it was a movie about an airplane, yay! Couldn't care
> less about all the huge gaffes. Last night I watched it as a comedy, though.
> Couldn't stop laughing. That landing in a ski slope in the Alps on the way from
> Paris to Moscow truly stretches the limits of credibility. And no airliner
> flying a commercial route from Paris to Moscow would be anywhere near the Alps
> to begin with. Anyway, the whole campy 4-movie set is worth it just for the
> laughs. If you watch them as a comedy, they're delightful.

You want reality from jokes. There was a bit of reality in the original
book but even that was pretty much hit in the first movie. The sequels
were comedy at the prat fall level. FFM

[Tim K]

"Frank F. Matthews" > wrote in message >...
> flyer wrote:
> > to begin with. Anyway, the whole campy 4-movie set is worth it just for the
> > laughs. If you watch them as a comedy, they're delightful.

"Frank F. Matthews" > wrote in message >...
> You want reality from jokes. There was a bit of reality in the original
> book but even that was pretty much hit in the first movie. The sequels
> were comedy at the prat fall level. FFM

The Concorde sequel was obviously nonsense when I saw it aged 10.

I caught the first one ('Airport') on TCM over the weekend. I used to
love that film when I was a kid so I thought it'd be fun to watch now
I have a few hours (student) logged, just to see what I could spot.

It got a lot more right than most airplane movies - no wacky runway
numbers; they squawked 7700 when the bomb went off and declared an
emergency; whenever Dean Martin left the cockpit the captain put his
mask on (even mentioned the FARs); the bomb didn't actually blow up
the airliner and the decompression fogged the air and everyone got
cold (nobody mentioned this scene during the whole 'explosive
decompression' debate a month or so back); pilots didn't fight a
'stall' by pulling back on the yoke and the plane didn't go wildly out
of control after the explosion. Then again those scenes with George
Kennedy trying to shift the stuck 707 were a bit silly.

The 'Precision Radar Approach' can't have been accurate though - the
controller talked them down ('left a bit, go higher...' and indicated
that the ILS was only a backup if they couldn't hear his voice - I
suspect that was made up to enhance the drama of the approach which
otherwise would be two guys staring at crossed needles. Also it seemed
to be the center controller who was talking to them rather than the
tower.

Considering how bad say, 'Executive Decision' was you have to give
'Airport' some credit...

'Airport 2004: The TSA'. Now *there's* a film - the human drama that
unfolds during a two hour wait in line as reports come in of a mother
smuggling ricin in bottles of breast milk...

TK