Airport ‘77 (1977) - 4/10

Say what you like about the diminishing returns of the Airport film franchise, you’ve got to tip your hat to the cast list. After the bomb in the original film and a midair crash in the sequel, we return here for the third instalment with Jack Lemmon in the cockpit heading to the Bermuda Triangle! He’s pilot, Don Gallagher. Hired by art collector Philip Stevens (Jimmy Stewart) to fly a plane full of VIPs including his daughter and grandson, priceless paintings and classic cars to Florida, talk about eggs and baskets. The disaster this time starts with a hijack that is telegraphed in typical America TV movie fashion, as dodgy looking blokes don disguises in airport toilets and switch suitcases with a moody score to hammer it home. The set up is clunky, some (most) of the characters are pretty one dimensional, but Lemmon can carry nearly anything and his presence just about keeps this engaging, but in case he’s not enough, how about we throw Christopher Lee. I’m not sure I’d want to get on a plane if I saw Mr Lee onboard, he has that air of doom that’s quite fitting here, even on a plane that’s essentially a floating hotel with meeting rooms, poker tables and cocktail bars. Once the hijack plan begins, it picks up some pace as the crew and passengers are gassed unconscious and the plane is taken over by the pretty nondescript hijackers, to make off with the loot into the Bermuda Triangle (dun dun duuuunnn). They’re flying low though to avoid radar and clip an oil rig hidden in the fog, ditching the 747 into the drink with some comical special effects as the plane sinks and everyone screams. There’s a lot of screaming! “What’s going on!?” screams Eve (Brenda Vaccaro) playing Don’s stewardess girlfriend, “We crashed!” replies Don deadpan. Complicated it’s not. The plane we learnt earlier has pressurised compartments that’s stemming the impending flood, but they’re on borrowed time and due to the radar avoidance, no one knows where they are. Stevens back on dry land is looking for his plane in vain with the help of George Kennedy once again the only original thread (aside writer Arthur Hailey), making a cameo as Joe, but we need a hero on board to get a distress signal to the surface. It’s not a bad film, but it’s not good either. It’s a disaster movie and therefore pointing out plot holes is a bit redundant, but the biggest issue here is the lack of jeopardy, brought about by a weak cast that we’ve little investment in. Its biggest crime though is casually throwing Christopher Lee away. I can only assume he got wise on set and thought bugger this I’m off. Some of the plane flooding scenes are fun. Lemmon does his best, but this is poorly executed and continues the slide of the franchise.

4/10