Add me to the league of Heston Apocalypse enthusiasts. I only wish there could have been more! (Heck, if the "Left Behind" movies had been made in the 70s, with bigger budgets and Heston in the lead, I'm sure I'd count them as guilty pleasures. Kirk Cameron cannot hope to fill such bombastic shoes.)

The first Airport holds up for me as an entertaining sixties soap opera with action/disaster elements. After that, the franchise went awfully cheesy quite fast, with Airport '75 being good mostly for laughs, and the rest close to unwatchable.

Must echo, the original Airport was not a disaster film. It was a soapoperatic melodrama that may have inspired the genre to come ... the first (and best) of which was The Poseidon Adventure. Both films are very decent peices of work (Airport was nominated for Best Picture if I'm not mistaken). Their followers were pretty much pure schlock. Earthquake, in particular, is practically unwatchable - postapocalypto Heston notwithstanding.

I must clarify that when I called Earthquake one of the great cheesy disaster pictures I was not in any way meaning that resulted in quality.

Before "Airport," and "Airplane," there was "Marooned," one of my favorites.

OMG, forgot about that one.


Don't know that it's any more of a disaster film than Apollo 13. I think John Q. Public has to be at risk if it's to be classified as a Disaster Film. Astronauts don't count. :p


But, yes, it was CHEESY.

Ah, didn't realize Airport was more of a soap opera.

Do you guys like Towering Inferno? I always loved it but again, I grew up with it. Steve McQueen, yow!

Towering Inferno is a hoot. Not a very good movie, but a hoot regardless.


Airport is a really good film, if a bit of a melodrama. More of a quality thriller really. Great cast - Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, Jacqueline Bisset, Helen Hayes and, yes, George Kennedy originating the role of Joe Patroni that would "grace" many of the really crappy sequels that were pathetic disaster movie descendents.



Of course, The Towering Inferno had a great cast, too. I guess it's what you do with it.

Love me some Inferno and Poseidon.

Looks like I'm going to be singing "There's Got to be a Morning After" for the rest of the day.