6 Bad Comedy Sequels In Honor of ‘The Hangover Part III’

Movie #4 – Airplane 2

Year – 1982

The original Airplane! is easily one of the funniest films ever made.  Made for just $3.5 million dollars it ended up being the fourth highest grossing film of 1980.  So clearly a sequel was in order.  And unlike many of the other sequels on this list, the studio struck while the iron was hot.  However, they couldn’t secure the involvement of the original creative team (Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker).  Of course, since they aren’t seen in the film, Paramount figured that reassembling the cast would be good enough.  The public doesn’t know who writes and directs their favorite films (especially in a pre-internet age).

So instead they hired Ken Finkleman, the man who wrote Grease 2.  What could possibly go wrong?

Well, for starters they swapped out a plain for a space shuttle because, you know, kids loved The Star Wars.  Did you like all those great jokes from the first film?  Well, don’t worry.  They’re still here.  The film recycles so many of the original’s gags that it’s difficult to believe that Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker didn’t still getting a screenplay credit.  I’ve seen tribute bands with more originality.

The closing credits promise us an Airplane 3.  Thankfully cooler heads prevailed.