Word: jiving
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Altman's principal actors won (and deserved) an ensemble award at last month's Venice Film Festival; but Wright's is the star presence here. He curls his lips around Carlyle's jive slurs until they are twisted into madhouse poetry. He glides through the barracks like a hipster on a death mission. Charlie Parker, meet Charlie Manson. Carlyle is the creepily irresistible spirit of all wars, hot and cold, global and interior, war without end, amen . - By Richard Corliss...
...table, the two actors seem like lambs ready to be sacrificed. But they pull it off. Clad in overstaffed purple tunics, cousins to the Fruit of the Loom grapes, they whisper hilarious jibberish to each other at the approach of a hungry fox, then break out into a scornful jive patois when the fox can't leap far enough to pluck them from their vise. Close and Dotten fill up the stage with their voices, their pantomimes and their humor...
Such metaphysical biases not only misguide research; they also jive perfectly with the political motives of the Reagan Administration and the economic motives of the industrial complex. As long as even the most basic research into the causes of cancer remains based on political and economic rather than scientific motives, cancer will continue to plague modern...
...Julie Hagerty as the star-crossed-eyed lovers, and a supporting cast of TV stars with the chance to guy their small-screen images. Same situation: an airliner (well, this time a space shuttle) careers wildly off course. Even same gags: Hays' terminally boring monologues, black men's jive talk, Peter Graves' penchant for talking dirty to little boys, Lloyd Bridges' strikebreaking air traffic controller...
Like the Lampoon, this film proves strongest when it parodies; tired gags about drinking problems and translated "jive talk" fall flat. Airplane II contains some wonderful word play, and Finkelman's salutes to the television classics of the '60s and '70s cannot fail to touch those of us who grew up with Mission Impossible and Jeopardy. Nor is the rest of today's popular culture forgotten: Star Wars-types titles and the Battlestar Galactica theme begin this film and, within minutes, E.T. appears in a pay phone booth. Those not in the eighteen to thirty age bracket will miss these...