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List Price: $9.98 | | Label: 20th Century Fox
Salesrank: 11052
Released: October 2, 2001 |
| Our Price: $2.95 |
| Used Price: $1.43 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
In this hilarious spoof of the music industry, three intelligence-challenged rock'n' rollers (Brendan Fraser, Steve Buscemi, Adam Sandler decide to take drastic action after their music continually falls on deaf ears. They break into a radio station, hoping to get their demo played on the air. But when the deejay (Joe Mantegna) and station manager (Michael Mckean) refuse to play their song, the boys have no choice but to take the entire radio station hostage.
Description of Airheads:
Spinal Tap it ain't, but Michael Lehmann's good-natured comedy of errors, about a garage band whose unannounced visit to a local radio station escalates into a hostage situation, is pleasant diversion with a fair share of laughs. Brendan Fraser plays the singer-songwriter of the unknown heavy metal band the Lone Rangers, a trio of socially challenged musicians rounded out by dimwitted but sweet bass player Adam Sandler and aging drummer/toy-store employee Steve Buscemi--who just happens to be packing a lifelike toy machine gun from work. Needless to say, the friendly visit is misinterpreted as a hostile takeover, but all the Lone Rangers want is to play their music on the air--and they sabotage themselves again by destroying their own demo tape! Joe Mantegna plays a burned-out deejay who tries to help the muddled metalheads as the media surrounds the building and asks the question on everyone's lips: "How can you be the Lone Rangers if you're always together?" --Sean Axmaker
Airheads Reviews:
Eh, bad music but Steve Buscemi and Adam Sandler hold it together... 
2008-09-29 - I remember watching this movie on tv years ago and it seemed better than I originally thought. Overall, you could miss this movie and you could go on with life without ever knowing about it.
Fun & entertaining 
2008-02-15 - This movie is very light hearted. It is funny to look back to the real start up of the careers of Fraser, Bushemi, and Sandler!
BAD, BAD, BAD Movie 
2007-11-20 - Please do not waste your money buying this bad movie.
Bad plot, bad acting, bad everything.
It's so bad I had to watch the final 30 minutes on fast forward just to get to the end. What a waste of (usually) good actors.
Wait, how can you pluralize The Lone Ranger? 
2007-04-22 - For some reason, I've always had a soft spot for Airheads. I first saw it, like most, on tv a few years back, and thought it was great. Being a musician, and being in a new band at that time, there was a lot that I got out of it. One man's struggle to get his band somewhere is a common theme, but how they do it is always the fun part. Especially when it involves holding up a radio station at gunpoint. Other things I noticed in re-watching it were Adam Sandler doing a role where he didn't scream like an idiot every other, Brendan Fraser being able to actually look like a real rocker and not an over glorified one, and Steve Buscemi, being great as usual. But that's really all in the current viewing. A lot of the jokes have become stale or just "laugh to yourself in your head" funny then they may have been when I was 15. Regardless, I don't think I can ever completely hate the movie. Be it the closing song, eye candy in the form of the two leading ladies, Buscemi's excellent character of Rex, or seeing Chris Farley rip a piercing right off a spot that's sure to make some people cringe.
Taking place in the early 90s when rock music was about as dead as you can get (no, I won't count grunge), with countless bands that all looked the same and sounded equally similar, Chazz sets out to change the face of music. He sings and plays guitar for his band The Lone Rangers, and constantly tries to get his demo tape to a big shot executive at the nearby record company. This time, he's dressed up as a deliveryman and finally makes it to the head of the company, only to find out he can't take things that are unsolicited. Chazz is then thrown out and heads back to his girlfriend's place. While she works hard and takes care of everything on her own, Chazz's only contribution to the home is trying to get a record deal. No job, no school, nothing really useful to their living situation. He tells her that he snuck in, and she basically dumps him, leading Chazz to live with his band mates, Rex and Pip. Rex just so happens to have some water guns that look incredibly real, and fills them up with hot sauce, making for a nice makeshift pepper spray. They then get the bright idea to head down to the local rock radio station and try to get their demo played there. Things don't go the best, and they end up holding up the studio with water guns, though no one else knows that. Cops and metal heads are surrounding the place, hearing everything go down since they're on the air the whole time. Is there really any easy way out of this for The Lone Rangers? No. No there isn't.
There's not much to the movie as a whole really. The Lone Rangers hold up a studio. Chazz and his girlfriend argue a little. Pip and Rex deal with the hostages. The head of the radio station reveals his plans for its future. That's really all there is. What happens in-between is pretty funny the first time around. Pip being an idiot, but not pushing it too far, got a few laughs out of me still, like his run-in with a lone cop outside early on in their takeover. Chris Farley, though not used to even half his potential, has a few good quick gags, including the infamous piercing pull. But most of the supporting cast is lame. Michael Richards is wasted as a would-be undercover agent, stuck in the ventilation system of the station, and barely has any lines. He just keeps making stupid facial expressions. The real star has to be Joe Mantegna as the DJ, who's second only to Chazz for the main role. His one liners and grasp of reality regarding the situation were great. If it seems like I don't have much to say good about the movie, it's because I don't. It's average at best, but a guilty pleasure for many. It's one of those movies that for whatever reason, when it pops up on tv, you'll watch it. Aside from Steve Buscemi being awesome as usual, you probably won't remember much from it after all's said and done either. How rock `n' roll!
My god did they drop the ball on the dvd release. The picture quality looks like it was ripped straight from a vhs copy. Anamorphic widescreen ain't looking pretty here. Tons of grain and fragments plague the screen, and things look way too faded for my taste. Someone needs to clean this sucker good. The audio doesn't have as many problems, but make sure to change the set-up to surround sound over the 4.0 track. It starts out that way, and before I changed things, I thought I was going semi-deaf. I never heard a 4.0 track before, and I hope I never do again after the 10 seconds that I experienced.
Making this an even sloppier release is the lack of any real special features. We get a music video by Motorhead- Born to Raise Hell, for starters. And in my book, anything involving Motorhead as an extra is cool. Sadly, the video's mostly filled with clips from the movie instead of footage of them being awesome. Other than that, the other sole extra is Airheads: Special Report, a poorly done faux-news report that runs for about 15 minutes. It's filled with fake interviews with some of the cast, clips from the movie, behind the scenes footage, and what looks to be some deleted scenes. The report isn't that funny at all, and feels way too forced, even for what it is. It seems like something that would've aired on tv to promote the movie. If it was, I can see why Airheads didn't do too hot, even with the extra Chris Farley bits. I'll admit though that there was one funny part that makes fun of real news reports properly- a reporter says that he's standing in front of a blue screen that will turn into a background of the scene of the crime. It's about time someone says that.
Fans of the movie will buy it without hesitation, and I doubt a special edition will come out this year or next given how long this version's been out. But if you've been curious about it for the reason of one of your favorites being one of the main 3 roles, you're probably better off borrowing or renting. Fraser and Sandler have both done much better, though it was cool to see Fraser as a rocker who isn't a pretty boy or over the top. But as I stress, Buscemi's the man here, and his role serves as a reminder of why he's one of America's best actors, even if it is in a little cult comedy role. The lack of real special features and horrible dvd transfer keep it from reaching even 3 stars in the end.
Rock on.... 
2007-02-24 - A good light hearted comedy about a bunch of metal heads. If you like Adam Sandler comedies this is a great addition.
