Strictly average movie

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

I'm a film professor, and this is one that had me in knots because I appreciate it as an artifact but also cringe at its awkward elements. I'll say this much: after good old Ben Mankiewicz on TCM told us at the start that the two planes in the film are flying on a collision course toward each other, I could not turn it off without seeing where all its hokey characters ended up.Yes, the film uses that recurring interior dialogue device (move in to close up, then voice-over, along the lines of, "That's funny, Jim usually likes my coffee..."), but there are more gems of discomfort throughout, like characters way too self-conscious about their looks and some smarmy sexual jokes. And you'll be tickled to see that coach accommodations in 1960 were far better than first class today.Just stick around for the collision, which pays off not only for its cheap special effects (which appear to have been shot with a little boy's toys in his basement), but far more so for its astonishing portrait of passengers laughing as they plummet to almost certain death. Warner Bros. apparently knew the audience would not only accept the fake effects and delusional behavior, but that the crowd would not care at all that the two military pilots-- one of whom is choosing between marriage and the Naval Academy-- perish in a fireball, which is summarily ignored for the rest of the film! With all the advances in aviation since 1960, there's still no way an airliner could take a hit from a fighter jet and land with only a few casualties. But like most any disaster, you are just too morbidly curious to look away from this one...

I don't care WHAT year this was filmed...it is BAD. The flashbacks within flashbacks are worthy of a Carol Burnett Show. The acting is over-the-top. Seriously, folks, I can't imagine that the audiences of 1960 were able to keep a straight face. There have been MANY excellent "plane-in-dilemma" dramas since the 30s - "Five Came Back" (and its same-director remake), to name a few - so this incredibly LAME "drama" has no excuses for the ludicrous excesses.I could not stop laughing.I'm sure that "Airport 1975" INTENTIONALLY cast the two pilots,as they did, as that film is basically some sort of remake.Stick with "The High and the Mighty" during this time period (well, six years earlier) - it blows this film out of the water.

It has been a long time since I saw this movie but it is pretty good. I keep wondering why it and other airplane disaster movies have not been released on DVD. Another one I have looked for is Fate is the Hunter. Maybe it is because of 9/11. The airplanes are obsolete compared to the kind we fly in today but they are still good movies. The original airplane disaster movie (not just my opinion) is The High and the Mighty from 1954 I believe. Maybe it has been released due to the star being John Wayne. Talk about obsolete planes and the passengers in Hawaii having to go thru customs as Hawaii was not yet a state. It is still a great movie with a lot of suspense. The Crowded Sky is the same type of movie and should be released on DVD. What can I say, I like this type of movie.

This movie had a lot of things that I enjoy: vintage commercial airplanes, old military airplanes, radios, radar, art, drama, romance, special effects, etc. In some respects, it must have served as a template for future airliner disaster movies. I don't know why, but I really enjoyed the heavy handed use of flashbacks and scenes where there's a close-up of a character, the surrounding lights dim, and we hear the character's private thoughts. Crowded Sky might not be your cup of tea, but it certainly was mine.