Airheads

It's the smartest stupid movie of the summer. [5 Aug 1994, p.G5]

You won't feel too much like a jerk watching this rock & roll hostage comedy. There are laugh licks and spirited performances. It's fluff done with flair

Cross Dog Day Afternoon with This is Spinal Tap and you have the concept behind Airheads: heavy metal trio seeking record contract holds radio station employees hostage, much mayhem and moshing ensues.... Airheads isn't nearly as good as its antecedents, but it does manage to produce a stream of lowbrow laughs. Or smiles, anyway. [5 Aug 1994, p.3]

Though it’s little more than a one-joke premise, director Michael Lehmann gets maximum mileage from the low-octane script by Rich Wilkes. Wisely, there’s minimal interest accorded the narrative, with emphasis on the off-kilter characters and their social milieu.

The idea has anarchic possibilities, but the film itself is awfully tame.

The film’s most distinctive, if obnoxious, feature is the coy, look-at-what- an-adorable-doofus-I-am clowning of Adam Sandler, who here, as on Saturday Night Live, parades his ironic infantilism.

Airheads is a movie so direly muddled it actually manages - no mean feat this - to seem more stupid than the rock biz idiocy it aims to satirize. [5 Aug 1994]

A decent movie. A lot better then I thought it would be. That's one way to try and get your demo played.

Airheads is one of those movies that can beat Encino Man in a boxing match. It will win.

Not all that funny. Some joke hit while most didn't. It just wasn't that memorable.

Brendan Fraser, Steve Buscemi and baby Adam Sandler play a trio of daft wannabe rockstars, frustrated by their metal band’s lack of recognition, who barge into an L.A. radio station and hold the staff hostage until their demo tape is transmitted to the masses. A long line of technical mishaps cause the ordeal to drag on, but media coverage of the event draws a crowd and, if not for the reasons they intended, the group does inevitably earn their elusive fifteen minutes of fame. It’s wild that a film so loaded with star power can also feel so flat and underachieving. In addition to the three well-known leads, Airheads includes sizable parts for Chris Farley, Michael McKean, Michael Richards and Judd Nelson, though only McKean’s character really plays to his strengths. The rest are just familiar faces jammed into a string of stiff, sterile, dressed-up supporting roles. No room to incorporate any of their characteristic charms or unique capabilities. Farley doesn’t even get the chance to work any physical comedy. What’s the point? At least McKean’s lame station manager, complete with wimpy little ponytail and slimy, unbuttoned silk shirt, gets ample opportunity to offend. Airheads can’t decide if it wants to be a mean-spirited satire (like McKean’s far preceding Spinal Tap) or an easy, one-note comedy (akin to Dumb and Dumber from the same year). Instead, it tries to do both and adequately accomplishes neither. The punchlines are too flat and rudimentary for the former, but the script’s tone is too disdainful for the latter. Apart from poor Ernie Hudson, who works a shift as the weary police officer in charge of the scene, every cast member is painted with the same brush. Too shallow, or stupid, or out-of-touch to be truly sympathetic. It’s a film that proudly boasts its contempt for all corners of society: the clueless kids trying to work a hustle, their idiotic prospective fanbase, the arrogant DJ who isn’t as big a deal as he thinks, the deceptive poseur working the back office, the insecure SWAT guy in need of anger management... the list is exhaustive. A grumpy, irritable picture that hates everything, including itself, it’s not near as much fun as it could’ve been.

Despite it's silly, but interesting story and it's all star cast, Airheads doesn't deliver in the fun and comedic department. The acting was sub-par, none of the jokes were funny and the movie was quite boring. I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone even if you're a fan of the cast.