Airport Terminal Pack

Airport Terminal Pack - A Slice of History
The Airport Terminal Pack is the definitive collection of the Airport series of disaster films produced in the 1970s. The release comes in a beautifully made digi-pack case which looks absolutely fantastic. This is surrounded by an outer box, with the title of the set embossed - definitely a quality much higher than originally expected! Inside has a picture montage from all the films, and a one sheet insert with a blurb about each film.

Now, about the movies...

Airport was a commercial box office success when it was released in 1970, taking over $100 million at the US box office. Based on a novel by Arthur Hailey, the story is set at an international airport with the main plot being about a passenger who sets off a bomb in an airliner. There are a a few intricately woven sub-plots in the film, which keep the viewer entertained throughout. Wonderfully acted by the cast, which includes Dean Martin, Jacqueline Bisset, and Burt Lancaster. Helen Hayes won the best supporting actress...

Definite framing/mastering error on Aiport 1975
There is definitely a mastering error on Airport 1975; the picture is nowhere near as wide as it SHOULD be.

While it's a bit of an exaggeration to say tires and engines are oval, the image is definitely not mastered properly. I'd say the aspect ratio is either more like 2.2:1 when it should be 2.35:1, or Airport 1975 was actually 2.4:1 or so.

This error can easily be seen by comparing the new anamorphic pressing with the earlier GoodTimes DVD or the Universal LaserDisc release. People look very tall and thin as compared to how they should look (and yes, my DVD player is set for 4:3 Letterbox, not 16:9.)

Note the other three films in this collection are mastered correctly; only Airport 1975 shows this error (of course, the film I bought the collection for an anamorphic copy of.)

I hope Universal corrects this error as they did with the Back to the Future trilogy, and really you probably won't notice it if you aren't aware of it, but once you are the error is very, very obvious...

The law of diminishing returns
Let's cut to the cheese: Some of these movies are not good. The last one especially is a real turkey.

Still, I give this collection (Airport Terminal Pack, also confusingly titled "The Franchise Collection" on the boxed set) 3 stars because you get all four films for an MSRP of under twenty bucks (often on sale here for even less) and sometimes you just need a classic disaster flick. To be fair, you may not want to watch either of the last two sequels more than once.

The best by a long shot is the first effort. Airport was actually nominated for ten Oscars in 1970 (Helen Hayes was the only winner). Airport '75 (featuring the infamous mid-air pilot transfer) was the basis for many of the spoof jokes seen in Airplane!. The plot started getting ridiculous by Airport '77 (hijacked plane underwater in the Bermuda Triangle??), and a couple years later the script writers evidently decided to let it...

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