AIRPLANE II: THE SEQUEL flew some laughs into 1982 but compared to the hilarity-glued 1980 model it comes off like a notebook-ripped item you’d aim at a substitute teacher, with some naughty jokes scribbled into the wings folds. Some of the original flight attendants re-booked in the acting crew, but AWOL were the first mission’s more inspired writers and directors. Those were a solo this time, fueled and piloted by Ken Finkleman, who also wrote Grease 2 that year, a major dud. Lotsa jokes, mildly amusing for the jam-packed passenger list.

‘Mayflower One’, America’s first commercial spacecraft, is bound for the now-colonized Moon. But when a computer snafu screws navigation and sends the ship toward the Sun, someone with “G-U-T-S” has to take the controls. That would be ‘Ted Striker’ (Robert Hays), oft-disgraced veteran with “a drinking problem“. Hays is back from the original, and so are ‘Elaine Dickinson’ (Julie Hagerty), ‘Steve McCroskey’ (Lloyd Bridges), ‘Capt. Oveur’ (Peter Graves) and ‘Jacobs’ (Stephen Stucker, mercifully less irritating this time).

“Well, my goodness, Scraps is a boy dog, isn’t he?”

In the line of one-liners are good sports Chad Everett, Chuck Connors, John Vernon, John Larch, Richard Jaeckel, Sonny Bono, Kent McCord, Raymond Burr, John Dehner and Rip Torn. Best of all is William Shatner as ‘Commander Buck Murdock’, honcho at the lunar station, and obvious space connection to…hmm?

A few laugh aloud bits and a fair number of smiles mix with several lazy repeats of business from the earlier movie and too many gag set-ups that puff up and deflate, lost in space.  At $15,000,000 this cost four times as much Airplane!, but box office returns were only $29,100,000 (#25 in ’82), cancelling any reservation ideas for another sequel.

During the 85 minutes you can spot Sandahl Bergman (making a much bigger impression that year in Conan The Barbarian), Oliver Robins, David Paymer, Jack Jones, Herve Villechaize, George Wendt, James Noble, Laurene Landon, Lee Patterson, Art Fleming, Pat Sajak, Leon Askin and Al White.