Tonight's Movie: The Concorde...Airport '79 (1979) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review

And so it's time to review THE CONCORDE...AIRPORT '79 (1979), the final film in the AIRPORT series recently released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber.

I've previously reviewed Kino Lorber's Blu-ray releases of AIRPORT (1970), AIRPORT 1975 (1974), and AIRPORT '77 (1977).

It should be noted that each of these films has also been released by Kino Lorber in 4K editions.

When I reviewed THE CONCORDE...AIRPORT '79 in 2013 I called it "a gem of a bad movie."

The other three films may be goofily improbable at times, but they're quite well executed despite that, with strong lead performances by actors such as Jack Lemmon in the '77 edition. Those films make the viewer want to suspend disbelief and "go with" the plot, even if it involves trying to lower a pilot into a flying airplane or a plane underwater in the Bermuda Triangle.

AIRPORT '79 is the only one I'd call truly a bad film, including awful special effects and stupid plot lines -- as in Alain Delon setting up copilot George Kennedy with a hooker (Bibi Andersson) -- and yet it's still quite entertaining. In 2013 I also referred to it as "a gloriously funny unintentional comedy." Honestly, this is probably funnier than the following year's comedy AIRPLANE! (1980).

It may not be a good film, but there's never a dull moment as an evil weapons manufacturer (Robert Wagner) tries to destroy the Concorde because his newscaster mistress (Susan Blakely) is on board, along with documents proving he's been up to no good.

The entire plane of passengers just happen to be in his way and will have to be killed as well.

The plot absurdities include the Concorde being repaired and reboarded not once but twice after attempts to shoot it down...who needs debriefings or figuring out the who, how, and why of the missile attacks?!

And so it's on to Moscow, and this time the cargo hold door has mysteriously blown open, which begins the process of tearing the plane into pieces...fortunately a ski patrol can lay out a runway for the Concorde high in the snowy Swiss Alps. It's truly got to be seen to be believed.

This 113 minutes of silliness was written by Eric Roth from a story by producer Jennings Lang. (Lang's wife Monica Lewis has a small role, as she did in the previous film.) It was directed by David Lowell Rich and filmed by Philip Lathrop.

The cast includes an ill-used Mercedes McCambridge and Martha Raye, along with David Warner, Sylvia Kristel, Eddie Albert, John Davidson, Andrea Marcovicci, Jimmie Walker, Cicely Tyson, Charo, Avery Schreiber, Sybil Danning, and Nicolas Coster.

The Blu-ray print is from a new HD master from a 4K scan of the original 35mm camera negative. It features 5.1 Surround sound.

This Special Edition comes with a cardboard slipcase. Extras consist of the trailer; a gallery of five additional trailers for other films available from Kino Lorber; and a commentary track by Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson.

As silly as this movie is, I've enjoyed it twice now and would definitely watch it again. I recommend it, along with the rest of the AIRPORT movies.

Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray.

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