**Star Wars III (1983) was especially hilarious,**
I don’t think saw any of the sequels, just clips in recent years.
Just last night I watched an about 10 minute long critique of airline movies, by an airline captain. I had no idea there were so many ridiculous story lines in airline movies.
And I thought the Airport one with Jack Lemmon and Karen Black was pathetic:
A highjacked luxury 747 belly flops at sea, fortunately in less than 100’ deep water. Lemmon’s character assures the passengers that they can hold out for hours because the aircraft is pressurized....
How is it pressurized?... by running jet engines.
The Navy raises the aircraft using underwater balloons for raising heavy steel subs and ships, but the balloon system barely can raise a jumbo jet that weighs much less.
Many ‘serious’ movies need misinformation disclosures in their trailers.
There’s a lot of sloppy research by screenwriters. For example, in “Swing Kids,” the Nazi invasion of Poland comes before the Sudeten crisis—kind of like having the Battle of Fort Sumter coming before the Dred Scott decision.
The was Airport ‘77, and it was ridiculous. Those movies got worse with every sequel, but Airport ‘75 was actually pretty good. That was the one with Charlton Heston and Karen Black. It had some issues, but was far more realistic and plausible than the 747 as submarine in Airport ‘77. And the original Airport was actually very realistic, other than George Kennedy’s sometimes over the top character.
If you want to see a good movie about commercial aviation that doesn’t insult the audience’s intelligence, look for “The Pilot” starring Cliff Robertson. It came out in the early 70s, and has great photography of airliners in classic liveries during the golden age of commercial aviation. Robertson plays an airline captain who is a closet alcoholic, and how the movie depicts the airlines and aviation in general is very accurate. Pilot to ATC communications and terminology used are correct in every detail, which was shocking when I saw it since so many movies don’t even care about depicting any of that accurately. I’m a pilot and worked in airport management and airport operations for many years, so it drives me up the wall when movies don’t even try to depict aviation in a true to life way. The Pilot is a good movie, but even if you’re not that interested in the plot it’s worth seeing just to see how movies about aviation can be made entertaining without dumbing them down.