Themes: Hostage Situations, Unlikely Criminals, Musician's Life
Main Cast: Daniel Zacapa, Brendan Fraser, Steve Buscemi, Adam Sandler, Joe Mantegna, Chris Farley
Release Year: 1994
Country: US
Run Time: 91 minutes
Plot
Airheads is a variation on Dog Day Afternoon, as well as a comic look at the trials and tribulations of both the music business and Generation X. A hapless rock trio consisting of Chazz (Brendan Fraser), Rex (Steve Buscemi), and Pip (Adam Sandler) hits a brick wall with their attempts to get their demo tape played by record label executives. Chazz, on the edge since being thrown out by his girlfriend (Amy Locane), decides it's time to take more serious action, and he leads his bandmates on a mission to invade the local "alternative" rock station, KPPX, and hold it hostage to get the band's tape played on the air. The station staffers don't realize that they're being held with a water gun, and when they finally agree to play the tape, it gets eaten up by a faulty machine. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
Review
After the cult hit Heathers, Michael Lehmann was hired to make Hudson Hawk. That infamous turkey bombed so spectacularly that it was another three years before Lehmann could follow it up. Airheads feels like the work of a man learning to direct all over again, and protecting himself by organizing a dependable cast. Although the screenplay is not nearly as smart or funny as it could be, the film is full of actors who put just enough of a spin on the material to give it some life. Steve Buscemi, Joe Mantegna, and even Adam Sandler are given enough space to get whatever laughs they can from the limited material, and Brendan Fraser holds it all together just enough by giving one of his typically dependable (if less than inspired) performances. Given the script, Lehmann and his cast make Airheads about as good as it could possibly be. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
Amy Locane - Kayla; Michael McKean - Milo; Judd Nelson - Jimmie Wing; Ernie Hudson - O'Malley; Nina Siemaszko - Suzzi; David Arquette - Carter; Kurek Ashley - Psycho Rocker; Marshall Bell - Carl Mace; Lexie Bigham - Security Guard; Reg E. Cathey - Marcus; Lydell M. Cheshier - Security Guard #2; Ryan Holihan - Kid; Tiiu Leek - News Woman; Lemmy - School Newspaper Rocker; Kurt Loder - Himself; Alejandro Quezada - Rocker; Michael Richards - Doug Beech; Sam Whipple - Personal Manager; John Zarchen - Cop; Harold Ramis - Chris Moore; Michelle Hurst - Yvonne; Rich Wilkes - Corduroy Rocker; China Kantner - Female Rocker; Vinnie DeRamus - D & D Rocker; Daniel Zacapa; Allen Covert - Cop
Credit
Edward Mcavoy - Art Director, Billy Hopkins - Casting, Ira Shuman - Co-producer, Bridget Kelly - Costume Designer, Joe Camp III - First Assistant Director, Michael Lehmann - Director, Steve Semel - Editor, Todd Baker - Executive Producer, Carter Burwell - Composer (Music Score), Douglas Axtell - Musical Direction/Supervision, Russell Fager - Musical Direction/Supervision, David Nichols - Production Designer, John Schwartzman - Cinematographer, Mark Burg - Producer, Robert Simonds - Producer, Rich Wilkes - Screenwriter
Chazz (Brendan Fraser), Rex (Steve Buscemi) and Pip (Adam Sandler) are a Los Angeles would-be rock band calling themselves The Lone Rangers. The guys are continuously turned down as they try to get their demo tape heard by producers. They finally decide to try to get the local rock station, KPPX-FM Rebel Radio 103.6, to play it on the air, after they saw how Rebel Radio helped another band (The Sons of Thunder) get a record deal. Their first break-in attempt is using Pip's ATM card and its PIN. Then, Rex tries to "short circuit" the electronic lock with Pip's Big Gulp. They finally get in when a station employee comes out (and goes back in) and they keep the door from shutting.
Once inside, disc jockey Ian the Shark (Joe Mantegna) puts them on the air without them knowing. The station's sleazy manager Milo (Michael McKean) overhears them and intervenes. After Milo calls Rex "Hollywood Boulevard trash", Chazz and Rex shove water pistols (that look like Uzis) loaded with hot pepper sauce in Milo's face and demand airplay. After setting up a reel-to-reel for the demo, the tape starts and is destroyed when the reel runs out and catches fire in an ashtray. The guys try to run, but Doug Beech (Michael Richards), a station employee calls police and the building is surrounded.
They soon realize that they are armed hostage takers, and begin negotiations with the police. During the crisis, it is learned that Milo had signed a deal to change radio formats, which includes having to downsize Ian and most of the other employees. Ian and the rest of the employees take the side of Chazz and turn against Milo. Eventually, the record executive who rejects Chazz in the beginning of the movie comes to the radio station. The band signs a record contract and goes out on stage to play, only to realize that they are supposed to lip sync the song and fake playing the instruments. They refuse to lip sync while the music is playing and get a round of cheers from the audience, who rush the stage.
Afterwards, Ian becomes the band's manager and we learn that the three were sent to prison, but served only a short time and had their album "Live in Prison" (which was recorded while the trio was imprisoned) go triple platinum.
John Melendez from the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and the Howard Stern show makes a cameo when he admits that he used to "masturbate... constantly".
Lemmy cameos as the "rocker" who admits to being editor of his school magazine during the scene when people admit to doing uncool things as kids. He is credited as "Lemmy von Motörhead". During the intro sequence, a picture of Lemmy can be seen hanging on a wall in the Palatine Records building.
Mike Judge makes a voice-only appearance as his characters Beavis and Butt-head, calling KPPX to tell The Lone Rangers that they suck.
Allen Covert, a familiar face in many Adam Sandler movies, appears briefly as a police officer.
MTV journalist Kurt Loder appears briefly as a news reporter.
Harold Ramis appears as an undercover police officer who tries to get into the radio station posing as a record executive who wants to sign the band, but he is found out after the band quizzes him on heavy metal with the questions, "Which side did you take in the David Lee Roth/Van Halen split?" and "Who would win in a wrestling match? Lemmy or God?".
Production notes
The KPPX building used in the film is also featured in the movie Die Hard. It is visible in the plaza across from the Fox Plaza, "Nakatomi building" at the beginning of the movie.
The song on the The Lone Rangers demo is cover of "Degenerated" by Reagan Youth.
