| Airheads | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Michael Lehmann |
| Written by | Rich Wilkes |
| Produced by | Mark Burg Robert Simonds |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | John Schwartzman |
| Edited by | Stephen Semel |
| Music by | Carter Burwell |
Production companies | Island World Robert Simonds Productions |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release date |
|
Running time | 92 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $15 million[1] |
| Box office | $5 million |
Airheads is a 1994 Americancomedy film[2] directed byMichael Lehmann and written byRich Wilkes. It starsBrendan Fraser,Steve Buscemi, andAdam Sandler as the members of a struggling rock band who hijack aLos Angeles radio station in order to get theirdemo aired. The rest of the principal cast includesChris Farley,Michael McKean,Judd Nelson,Michael Richards, andJoe Mantegna, withErnie Hudson,Amy Locane,Nina Siemaszko,Marshall Bell,Reg E. Cathey, andDavid Arquette in supporting roles.
Airheads was a critical and commercial failure,[3][4] but has since come to be viewed as acult film.[5]
In Los Angeles, Chester "Chazz Darby" Ogilvie and his friends, sibling musicians Rex and Pip, are in theLos Angeles hard rock band "The Lone Rangers" who are continuously rejected while trying to get theirdemo tape heard by record producers like Jimmie Wing. After scolding him for being lazy, Chazz's girlfriend Kayla kicks him out of her apartment.
The Lone Rangers try to get local rock station KPPX to play their reel-to-reel tape on the air by attempting to break-in through the back door. Once inside, DJ Ian "The Shark" talks with them on the air. Station manager Milo overhears them and intervenes, but Ian continues broadcasting. After Milo calls Rex "Hollywood Boulevard trash," he and Chazz pull out realistic-looking water pistols filled with hot pepper sauce and demand airplay. After setting up an oldreel-to-reel for the demo, the tape begins to play but is immediately destroyed when the player malfunctions. The trio attempt escape, but the station's accountant Doug Beech has already called the police. The building ends up being surrounded as the Lone Rangers start rounding up Suzzi and the other employees Yvonne, Marcus, and Carter.
They negotiate with the police who are now tasked to find Kayla who has a cassette of the demo. Since the station never went off the air, news of the hostage crisis travel and fans begin showing up outside and interfering with police. ASWAT team also arrives where Carl Mace prefers using force over negotiation tactics by Sergeant O'Malley. His team secretly passes a gun through a roof vent to Beech who has been hiding in the air ducts. During the crisis, it is revealed that Milo secretly signed a deal to change KPPX's format from rock toadult contemporary which includes having to fire Ian and most of the other employees. Consequently, Ian and some employees side with the band and turn against Milo.
The police find Kayla at the club and she arrives at the station to deliver the tape. However, the tape is damaged because she threw it out of the car earlier. Chazz and Kayla get into an argument that escalates and results in the studio console being destroyed, dashing any hopes of the tape being played on the air.
As some of the items the band demanded from police are brought into the station, the door shuts on Rex's plastic gun, revealing it to be fake. Seeing this, Marcus and Carter run out with one telling the SWAT team the band's guns are fake upon being subdued. As the team assembles to storm the station, Beech corners the band from an air vent. Knowing he no longer will have a job at the station, Ian knocks down Beech's gun. This causes the weapon to wildly fire rounds, and the police are forced to back off. Ian picks up the gun, but gives it to Chazz in an act of anti-establishment rebellion.
Jimmie Wing comes to the station and offers the band a contract, to which they reluctantly agree. Wing arranges a stage and sound system to be airlifted to the roof where the band will play their song for the now huge crowd outside. However, the band find that only thePA system is real and everything else is just props. Refusing tolip sync to their tape, they instead destroy their instruments in protest to the delight of the crowd andstage dive into the hands of the cheering audience that O'Malley has his men let through.
The band later plays a gig in prison where they are incarcerated as Kayla and Suzzi dance in the background. The concert is shown live onMTV. Now their manager, Ian says on the phone to an unknown person that the band will start touring upon their release in six months, three months if they behave themselves.
A postscript states that the Lone Rangers ultimately serve three months in prison for kidnapping, theft, and assault with hot pepper sauce. Their albumLIVE IN PRISON goestriple platinum.
Metallica,Cannibal Corpse andTestament were approached for the bar scene but declined to appear.[6][7]
The KPPX radio station was located atFox Plaza in Los Angeles, which served as Nakatomi Plaza in the 1988 filmDie Hard.[8][9]
The film features an original song byWhite Zombie and went on to chart on theBillboard 200 and peak at Number 157.[10] In addition, there are re-recordings of songs from Motorhead and Primus.Jay Yuenger andSean Yseult also accompanied with Brendan Fraser's vocal rendition of "Degenerated", a song byhardcore punk bandReagan Youth.[11] The song was produced by Yuenger and Bryan Carlstrom.[12]
A number of songs can be heard in the film but not included on the soundtrack album. These are: "Baby Huey (Do You Wanna Dance)" byDim Stars; "Shamrocks and Shenanigans (Boom Shalock Lock Boom) [Butch Vig Mix]" byHouse of Pain; "Unsatisfied" byThe Replacements; "Rocks" byPrimal Scream; "Janie's Got a Gun" byAerosmith; "Wheezing" byDavid Byrne; "Don't Hate Me Because I'm Beautiful" by "Sons of Thunder" (Galactic Cowboys).[13]
The film debuted in tenth place, grossing US$1.9 million in its opening weekend,[14] and grossed only half its budget.
OnRotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 29% based on 38 reviews. The site's critical consensus states: "There's a biting satire that keeps threatening to burst out of the well-castAirheads, but unfortunately, the end result lives down to its title in the most unfortunate ways."[15] OnMetacritic, the film has a score of 46 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[16] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B-" on an A+ to F scale.[17]
Peter Travers ofRolling Stone gave the film a rare positive review: "Fraser and Buscemi are deadpan delights. And Sandler, Opera Man on SNL, is a red-hot screen find."[18]
| Airheads (Original Soundtrack) | |
|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by Various artists | |
| Released | July 19, 1994 |
| Recorded | 1994 |
| Genre | Rock,heavy metal,punk rock |
| Length | 49:14 |
| Label | Fox Records/Arista Records |
| Producer | Lonn Friend |
| Singles from Airheads (Original Soundtrack) | |
| |
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [23] |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Performed by | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Born to Raise Hell" | Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister | Motörhead withIce-T andWhitfield Crane | 4:57 |
| 2. | "I'm The One" | Eddie Van Halen,Alex Van Halen,Michael Anthony,David Lee Roth | 4 Non Blondes (with Dave Navarro) | 3:58 |
| 3. | "Feed the Gods" | White Zombie | White Zombie | 4:05 |
| 4. | "No Way Out" | Jesse Malin, Richard Bacchus,Howard Kusten | DGeneration | 4:26 |
| 5. | "Bastardizing Jellikit" | Primus | Primus | 4:11 |
| 6. | "London (The Smiths cover)" | Morrissey,Johnny Marr | Anthrax | 2:54 |
| 7. | "Can't Give In" | Candlebox | Candlebox | 3:15 |
| 8. | "Curious George Blues" | Scott Hackwith | Dig | 4:03 |
| 9. | "Inheritance" | Prong | Prong | 2:11 |
| 10. | "Degenerated" | Paul Bakija, Dave Rubenstein | The Lone Rangers | 3:53 |
| 11. | "I'll Talk My Way Out Of It" | John Melendez, J. Cantor | Stuttering John (John Melendez) | 3:40 |
| 12. | "Fuel" | Stick | Stick | 4:57 |
| 13. | "We Want the Airwaves" | Joey Ramone,Johnny Ramone,Dee Dee Ramone | Ramones | 3:21 |
| Total length: | 49:14 | |||
