Forbidden Planet review

 Number 565 on the top 1000 films of all time is the 1956 science-fiction film 'Forbidden Planet.'

Commander John Adams (Leslie Nielsen) is leading a mission to the distant world of Altair IV to investigate the missing Bellerophon which disappeared 20 years before. There, he finds Doctor Morbius (Walter Pidgeon) and his daughter Alta (Anne Francis) who were the only survivors of the ill-fated mission.

As you know well by now, I'm not a big science-fiction fan. Too often, I find it's a vehicle for writers to show off how clever they are by writing an over-complicated and convoluted plot. However, Forbidden Planet didn't suffer from that. Instead, it fell into another pitfall which is common in science-fiction: excessive world-building. It prioritised world-building over plot. Any film that does this is likely to be a plodding, boring affair and Forbidden Planet was no exception.

It starts slowly and never really gets going. It doesn't leave second gear. Instead of anything interesting, we're treated to lengthy info-dumps about the Krell - the extinct alien race who once inhabited Altair IV. These ultimately do prove to be relevant to the plot, but they are much longer than they need to be. The more interesting part was seeing the crew-members fight off some invisible, malevolent force, but even this comes to a disappointing and anti-climatic conclusion.

Alta's character was also incredibly annoying. I say "character," but she had no character outside of the men she meets. It was hardly the most progressive portrayal of a woman on-screen. I get this was the 1950's, but Alta was a far-cry away from the feminist women that Katherine Hepburn was well-known for portraying. Instead she was a vapid, insipid irritant devoid of personality. 

She was badly-written. Alta, having never seen a man before, has to be coached on the best ways to be coached on the best ways to act and dress around them. This is even more ironic considering how Anne Francis went onto challenge female stereotypes in the TV series Honey West. She played the lead role in that show - one of the first actresses to do so. She was very much a pioneer of her craft. It's just a shame that she was lumped with such bad characters in the earlier parts of her career.

Yes, Robby the Robot was very cute, but he wasn't enough to save an ultimately boring film that focussed too much on world-building and poorly-written female characters instead of an interesting film.

Airplane! review

 Number 475 on the top 1000 films of all time is the 1980 parody Airplane!

Parodying disaster movies especially the 1957 Zero Hour!, Airplane! follows Ted Striker (Robert Hays,) an alcoholic combat pilot with severe PTSD. Still yearning after his lost love, air stewardess Elaine Dickinson (Julie Hagerty) Striker buys a seat on her plane to win her back. But when an epidemic of food poisoning cripples half of the flight crew including the pilot, it is up to Ted to save the day.

They certainly don't make movies like this anymore. They couldn't because they would get cancelled. And that's because Airplane! is as un-PC as you can get. From the white woman translating jive speak to the passengers killing themselves after hearing Ted pine for Elaine to Elaine inflating the autopilot in a rather provocative fashion, Airplane! is as outrageous as can be. And this outrageousness is what made it so funny. In today's day and age, it feels like everybody is so sensitive, so it's nice to see a comedy that does push the envelope.

And this was only complimented by the great cast. From Leslie Nilsen to Peter Graves and Lloyd Bridges, these actors were deliberately cast, because they were well-known serious and not comedic actors. It was great to see well-known tough men play more comical parts and they played them well.

Airplane! is packed full of jokes from the start to the end - from the squabbling tannoy announcers to the inflatable autopilot having an inflatable girlfriend. And Airplane! utilises so many comedy styles from slapstick to surrealism to physical comedy to gallows humour and running gags. This variety helped keep the film fresh, for the most part - more on this later. One of my favourite scenes is when the passengers sing River of Jordan for a terminally ill child only for said child to start convulsing while everybody else sings on.

However, I would also argue the film's greatest strength was also its greatest weakness. With so many jokes, some were bound to flop and flop they did. Some of the jokes were predictable or cheesy. But I have a bigger gripe with the running jokes. Running gags can be funny as long as they're not overused, but the very nature of running jokes means they will be used a lot. Striker is an alcoholic who throws drink anywhere but his mouth. It was funny seeing him throw drink in his face once or twice but after a few times it became very tedious.

All that said, I thoroughly enjoyed this film. Yes, at times it was daft and silly, but it was also a refreshing and hilarious comedy, especially for today's stifled climate.