X
- 1994
- PG-13
- Twentieth Century Fox
- 1 h 32 m
- 1994
- PG-13
- Twentieth Century Fox
- 1 h 32 m
Summary A struggling rock band breaks into a radio station and holds everyone hostage with water pistols in order to get some 'airplay'. Then things get really strange.
Directed By: Michael Lehmann
Written By: Rich Wilkes
- 1994
- PG-13
- Twentieth Century Fox
- 1 h 32 m
- 1994
- PG-13
- Twentieth Century Fox
- 1 h 32 m
Airheads
46
6.1
Summary A struggling rock band breaks into a radio station and holds everyone hostage with water pistols in order to get some 'airplay'. Then things get really strange.
Directed By: Michael Lehmann
Written By: Rich Wilkes
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 18 Critic Reviews
46
50% Positive
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
17% Mixed
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
33% Negative
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 18 Critic Reviews
46
50% Positive
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
17% Mixed
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
33% Negative
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
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
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 20 User Ratings
6.1
45% Positive
9 Ratings
9 Ratings
45% Mixed
9 Ratings
9 Ratings
10% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 20 User Ratings
6.1
45% Positive
9 Ratings
9 Ratings
45% Mixed
9 Ratings
9 Ratings
10% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]
Report
Haven't seen this movie in years. Need a rewatch. I remember it being alright. The cast was interesting to see.
Report
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.
Report
Airheads is one of those movies that can beat Encino Man in a boxing match. It will win.
Report
It **** entering your mid-late 20s. The novelty of your youth is wearing off and its likely that everybody is getting fed up of your ****
You know what **** more? Entering your mid-late 20s when you have a creative mindset mixed with artistic ambitions. Most likely your artistic project isn’t getting anywhere – not because you ****, or anything, but because, like, the man has it in for you and if people would just give you a chance they would see how great your work is – and its looking increasingly likely that you are going to have to give up your artistic dream and fall back on your backup plan, choosing a boring job in a suit to risk not working your current **** job that you only have to pay the bills.
You know what **** even more than that? If this creative mindset is expressed in the form of rebellion, non-conformity, and rock-n-roll, meaning not only do you have to think about a backup, but that even HAVING a backup plan and conforming is in direct conflict with your entire identity, meaning that you either have to keep being a massive **** getting nowhere to keep it real or to submit and loose your soul working a 9-5 and loose touch with ever being able to live out your dream.
What **** EVEN MORE is if all this is happening in 1994; rock and roll had taken a nosedive in the mainstream thanks to the wave of new music that was blasted into the mainstream in a reaction set in motion by the opening chords of smells like teen spirit from Kurt Cobains amplifier; not only this, the rock that remained was well beyond a parody of itself at this point, and the rock that had dominated from the collapse of the 60s right up to the fall of the Berlin wall would only get more and more nitche as a fandom to the point of embarrassment. Its this desperation in the characters and setting that makes me almost sympathise with the stupidly tragic mission of the main characters, who set the plot in motion by getting themselves into a huge amount of **** for 3 measly minutes of airtime on the local rock radio. I almost want to love this move for it. Unfortunately I can’t bring myself to think of this film as anything more than average. If your movie is set almost exclusively in the butt-ugly interior of a cheap radio station, you’re going to have to sell me on the comedy. Some of the jokes here are decent - some of my favourite moments in the film are the great cameos that while short still manage to be unexpected and bring a laugh, particularly when God himself makes an appearance [RIP]). However much of the humour also falls into the just meh, if not full-on groanworthy field. In a comedy that the escalation of the situation is key to the comedy, they don’t really sell it enough – a large reason being that the characters spend too much of the film enjoying themselves, instead of comedy being generated from their suffering as they dig deeper into their own hole (which would have worked better not only comedically but also from a narrative standpoint. Also, I’m just a bit of a sadistic bastard). And don’t think that pulling Michael Richards from the set of Seinfeld and getting him to essentially play a Kramer-clone on screen through the film is going to sell me, either! Overall I’d say that if you have ever spent any of your adult years in a band – particularly a rock or metal group, and the worse you are/were the better – then you will probably find something to enjoy about this film. Audiences who aren’t fans of rock music and/or weed though might have a more tough time getting into it.
Watched April 15th 2018
Report
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.
Report
