OK, I know this is a minority report, but this film deserves to be taken seriously and enjoyed on its own merits. I hate that the makers of the spoof "Airplane!" have apparently ruined this film for most viewers. If you like the more famous parody, which I do not by the way, I suppose it is hard to keep from comparing this film to its spoof--and that is a pity since this film is actually pretty good for a tense little B-picture. And no, it is not full of clichés because although it seems clichéd now, it was actually pretty fresh at the time it was made. While it's not the first of the airplane disaster genre--actually that honour might go to "Five Came Back" (1939)--and it very well could have been trying to cash-in on the A-list "The High and the Mighty" (1954), it certainly predates all the big "Airport" movies of the 1970s which at some point did become clichéd. Any way, this film is not inherently funny--neither intentionally nor non-intentionally. True, it doesn't even come close to being the greatest film ever made, but it is a nice little suspense film and deserves to be taken seriously in that respect.
Review of Zero Hour!
