Put yourself in the shoes of "Airplane II: The Sequel" writer/director Ken Finkleman back in 1981. You’ve been handed the helms of a follow-up to one of the most successful and hilarious comedies of all time (1980’s "Airplane!") after the writing/directing team (the ‘ZAZ’ guys) has passed on the opportunity to do a sequel. You have most of the cast from the original movie reprising their roles for the sequel (except for Leslie Nielsen and Robert Stack), including the scene-stealing antics of Lloyd Bridges’ McCroskey and Stepher ‘Johnny’ Stucker’s Jacobs characters. Cameo appearances by the likes of William Shatner (the "Star Trek" movie/TV series), Sonny Bono (former California Congressman and significant other to pop singing sensation Cher), Rip Torn ("The Larry Sanders Show") and Raymond Burr (TV’s "Perry Mason") are all lined up. Production values and film stock are a significant improvement over the low-budget look of the original "Airplane!," and Paramount Studio’s expectations for a second strike of box office gold are understandably gun-ho.

So folks, you’re Ken Finkleman (you still remember the premise with which I opened this review, right?). Would you attempt to come up by yourself with a whole new bag of comedy goodies with which to entice and entertain movie patrons with fond memories of the first "Airplane!"? Or, fearing that no single writer/director can challenge the ‘ZAZ’ folks at their own game, do you recycle many of the best and/or more memorable jokes and gags from the first movie for a second time? Finkleman chose (or was forced by Paramount, we’ll never know) the latter route, which means a second go-round for many of the crude, stereotypical and still-hilarious stuff the original "Airplane!" made fun of two years prior: religious zealots, incompetent airport security (not as funny a gag now that we live in a post 9/11/01 world), bestiality (with a donkey instead of the prequel’s horse), etc. If you have a high tolerance for repetition and enjoyed the gags in "Airplane!" chances are you’ll laugh at them again in "Airplane II," though chances are you could also find yourself nodding disapprovingly at the repetition factor.

Finkleman sets "Airplane II" in a space shuttle making its maiden voyage instead of a commercial airliner, throws in an evil (and unseen) corporate villain that sacrifices shuttle safety for profits ("The Towering Inferno" anyone?), makes a messed-up "2001"-type shuttle computer the villain (no contaminated food this time around) and once again makes stranged lovers out of Ted Striker (Robert Hayes) and lovely Elaine (Julie Hagerty). Striker escapes from the Ronald Reagan Hospital for the Mentally Ill (!) just in time to scalp some tickets to be on board the Mayflower 1 lunar shuttle that he knows is being shortchanged in the safety department because of a test shuttle flight that crashed weeks earlier (the reason Ted was committed to the loony bin by his former employers). Along for the ride are Captain Oveur (Peter Graves), a Psycho Bomber that plans on blowing the shuttle for the insurance money (Sonny Bono, reprising a role from the original "Airport" novel/movie), Elaine’s new love interest Simon (Chad Everett) and your typical assortment of wacko, foul-mouthed stewardesses and passengers. There’s even a kid with a dog, for heaven’s sake.

The criticism I hear/read most often about "Airplane II" is that too many jokes and gags are recycled from its far-superior "Airplane!" prequel. I’ll concede that, but I’m also a believer that comedy through repetition is an art form that can handsomely pay off when done right. What are the "Austin Powers" sequels, after all, if not clever re-packaging of the same characters/mannerisms/jokes/gags from the 1997 original? So yes, writer/director Ken Finkleman recycles as many "Airplane!" gags in his sequel as possible. But give the man credit folks: not only did Finkleman steal material from the best, but he also came up with a few little comedy gems of his own. I still laugh when I see Pat Morita’s face on a poster for "Rocky XXXVIII," or watch Ted Striker’s mug in a newspaper just seconds after the picture was taken (both on Ch.2). I can never stop saying SHHH! to myself whenever I see William Shatner on TV (you’ll know what that means when you see him late in the flick). And, regardless of how many E! True Hollywood Stories are aired or tabloid rumors are spread about how he died, to me "Fantasy Island" star Herve’ Villechaize will always be remembered for the term Finkleman coined for the diminutive star in his cameo for this movie: Little Breather! :-)

The movie also has its share of terrible gags though (the ‘Danger Vacuum’ one in Ch.5 comes to mind), so don’t take my against-everyone-else’s-odds positive thoughts about this film as meaning this is a comedy masterpiece. Far from it, the ratio of hits and misses is much lower than in the prequel of any of ‘ZAZ’s’ "Naked Gun" movies. Too bad "Airplane II" didn’t perform as well as Paramount hoped for at the box office, since it’s a pretty funny movie in the right frame of mind (AKA none!). Ken Finkleman was unjustly condemned to a perpetual non-entity footnote in cinematic comedy history despite doing as good a sequel as possible given what he had to work with. The movie remains a timeless hoot that’s worth your time and money on DVD IF you consider yourself a hardcore fan of its still-hilarious "Airplane!" predecessor. Half the fun of watching this sequel on DVD, in fact, is derived from the familiarity and fun of hanging out with the same gang of lunatic stereotypes that amused us once before.

I mean, come on! How can anyone resist being stranded in space with Ted, Elaine, McCrosky (on the radio) and a shuttle that has run out of coffee (’Okay, Panic’) for 85 additional minutes of cinematic insanity? Who cares if what they’re saying and doing can’t quite match the excellence of their ‘ZAZ’ written/directed 1980 Chicago adventures aboard a commercial airliner?

1/2