Airheads

Released: 1994
My Rating: ★★★ out of 5

Tagline: The amps are on but nobody’s home.

Synopsis: The Lone Rangers have heavy-metal dreams and a single demo tape they can’t get anyone to play. The solution: Hijack an FM rock radio station and hold the deejays hostage until they agree to broadcast the band’s tape.

Airheads is such an interesting movie to me. With the cast it has, you would think it would be considered a comedy classic, but until Sandlerfest, I had never heard of it. A movie with this type of premise could have the opportunity to be all over the place in terms of quality. And my thoughts on the movie, I thought it was alright, maybe even good.

Sandler in “Airheads”

The movie stars Brendan Fraser, Steve Buscemi, and Adam Sandler, and they all give pretty good performances. This might even be one of Adam Sandler's best appearances in terms of how likeable he is. He's kinda a sweetheart dummy in this movie. It's fascinating to see this side of him before being completely pigeonholed into the loud, annoying, man-child he is in almost every other movie. So it's a breath of fresh air to see him play someone with good intentions like he does in Airheads. Seeing that he's always had an acting range definitely was a bit of a shock since I had never seen a movie where he's anything other than his usual self.

This movie definitely feels like an SNL movie. It's reheating Wayne's World's nachos for sure since that was so popular and came out only 2 years prior. But somehow I think I might like this a little bit better. I think Wayne's World has higher highs, but I don't remember any jokes in this movie overstaying their welcome.

Michael Richards’ character sneaking through the rafters

Is there anything that notable to me in this movie that I remember super well. Not really; the only thing that sticks out is that the actor for Kramer from Seinfeld, Michael Richards, plays one of the antagonists, and essentially plays the exact same character he does in the show, but a villain. It's definitely weird seeing that character next to anyone other than the Seinfeld cast. And it also is weird seeing him outside of Seinfeld after he mostly left acting after a racist tirade in the mid-2000s.

The other person of note to me in this movie is Steve Buscemi. I am a huge fan of Steve Buscemi, and I think he lightens up every movie he's in. He's hilarious and just embodies the weirdo persona so well. You may not believe this, but Steve Buscemi is actually a mainstay of the Adam Sandler universe, being in way more movies than I ever thought. Even more than other staples like Kevin James and David Spade. And really, how can I object?

Overall, I liked this movie somewhat. I don't think I'd object to watching it again someday, but I don't know if I'd go out of my way to see it.