Meet Larry. Jet-setter, playboy, renegade, flight attendant.
By including a reprise of the classic ‘I am serious… and don’t call me Shirley’ routine, as well as a brief cameo by Julie Hagerty, it’s clear that airborne comedy Larry Gaye: Renegade Male Flight Attendant is striving to recapture the deadpan silliness of classic 1980 spoof Airplane!
Unsurprisingly, the jokes don’t fly nearly as fast here and the film’s blithely idiotic hero, Mark Feuerstein’s womanising flight attendant of the title, is nowhere near as funny as the filmmakers seem to believe. What’s more, the movie’s twin plot motors – Larry’s bid to win back the love of his life (Jayma Mays) and to outperform his airline’s proposed new robot flight attendant (Rebecca Romjin) – are too clunky to keep the narrative fully aloft.
Yet, now and then, the film lands some genuinely funny gags, including a pricelessly daft visual/verbal pun on ‘unaccompanied minors’. And its airline-disaster climax contains some real laugh-out-loud moments. Look out for Stanley Tucci, Henry Winkler, Marcia Gay Harden and Jason Alexander among the supporting cast.
Certificate 15. Runtime 96 mins. Director Sam Friedlander
Larry Gaye: Renegade Male Flight Attendant debuts on Sky Cinema Premiere on 25 February.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpQJ0mkkj3A
