1982's Airplane II: The Sequel is an amusing follow-up to the 1980 classic that, though funny, is not as consistent as the first film and I think it has a lot to due with the fact that the Zucker brothers, the creators of the first film, had nothing to do with this one.Writer/director Ken Finkelman has mounted a similar story, set in the future aboard a computer-operated space shuttle that is making its maiden voyage to the sun, while our hero, Ted Striker (Robert Hays) is on trial for his sanity after what happened in the first film. Elaine Dickinson (Julie Hagerty) is now the computer technician for the space flight and is engaged to marry Simon (Chad Everett), the pilot for the shuttle. As expected, circumstances once again find Striker at the controls of the space shuttle as the shuttle's computer goes haywire , not to mention the presence of a psycho(Sonny Bono) on board with a bomb.Finkelman's film does provide laughs but they are not original at all....everything he does here story wise is either lifted from the first film or from other films, giving the proceedings a pervading "been there done that" atmosphere, but I cannot deny that there are laughs here.The chemistry between Hays and Hagerty is still strong and Everett's stone-faced persona perfectly suits his character. Peter Graves returns again as Captain Oveur, as does Lloyd Bridges as Steve McCroskey. Show biz veterans like Raymond Burr, Rip Torn, John Dehner, and William Shatner also score in supporting roles. The film is funny, but is only a pale imitation of the first film.

"Airplane 2" isn't a sequel to 1980's hit movie "Airplane" it's a clone. Following the theory that success is not to be tampered with, in "Airplane 2" director Ken Finkleman hired most of the cast of "Airplane" and poured them in to story little change from the original. That said the story has been updated a little bit, as now it's a trip to the moon on a rocket ship instead of a standard flight. And since it's set in Space Capatain James T Kirk himself makes an appearance. Yes. William Shatner is in this. The first ten minutes has some really laugh out loud moments, and there are a few more throughout the movie. Not as many as the first movie, but there is still a lot of fun to be had. Despite not understanding a lot of the references, my two kids 15 and 8 respectively both got a lot of laughs out of it.

Ken Finkleman takes over as writer/director with the departure of Jim Abrahams and David Zucker. The movie recycles a lot of the jokes from the first movie. The main differences are that they're going into space, Leslie Nielsen is only in archival footage, and there is a bit of nudity.Striker (Robert Hays) escapes from the loonie bin to come rescue Elaine (Julie Hagerty) on the inaugural flight of the space shuttle Mayflower. Captain Oveur (Peter Graves) is piloting the shuttle, and Striker is forced to fly the plane once again.The repeating of many of the jokes from the first movie is probably very necessary. The style of the franchise hasn't changed. I do like the new joke of Striker's drinking problem. However, the freshness of the original isn't there anymore.

As if to prove that nothing succeeds like imitation, producer Howard W. Koch takes the plots, characters and gags from the first film (1980) and recycles them in a spoof that has intrepid pilot Striker (Robert Hays) and his faithful assistant Elaine (Julie Hagerty) trying their best to stop a passenger-laden aircraft from being incinerated by the sun. Jokes come thick and fast in this ninety-minute piece - so fast, in fact, that if we blink an eye we are likely to miss them. While some of them are extremely funny, many of them might also be considered extremely sexist, involving nymphomaniac virgins (a deliberate contradiction), clerics giving blow-jobs, repeated close-ups of female breasts. Other jokes might be thought of as simply taboo in today's world (for example, implied references to pedophilia and/or bestiality). Nonetheless AIRPLANE 2 offers a good example of great character actors from US television of the Sixties and Seventies - Lloyd Bridges, Chad Everett, Peter Graves, Chuck Connors - being willing to make fun of themselves on screen. They might have had no choice (especially if their found work difficult to come by after their respective series had concluded), but they clearly relish the opportunity to deliver their ridiculous lines with deadpan seriousness. Shatner is especially good as a service commander charged with the responsibility of bringing the stricken ship to a safe landing (he fails, by the way).