Entertainment

Aerial-disaster spoof ‘I’m So Excited!’ never leaves the ground

A rare dud from great Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, “I’m So Excited!’’ is a campy, sex-obsessed spoof of airborne-disaster movies that never really gets off the ground.

In what turns out to be a pretty good metaphor for the movie itself, a plane full of over-the-top characters bound for Mexico is endlessly flying in circles around Toledo, Spain, because its landing gear has been damaged by an inattentive ground crew (cameos by Penélope Cruz and Antonio Banderas, among several alumni of the director’s better films).

Most flamboyant on board — it’s quite a contest — are a trio of gay flight attendants (Javier Cámara, Raúl Arévalo, Carlos Areces) who ply the business-class passengers with tequila and mescaline, among other stimulants.

The crew is worried because the pilot (Antonio de la Torre) — a married man who is sleeping with the most senior of the flight attendants, as well as his ostensibly straight co-pilot (Hugo Silva) — is preparing for an emergency landing.

When the stewards aren’t lip-syncing and suggestively dancing to the Pointer Sisters classic of the title, they’re endlessly dishing about themselves and the passengers, who can only make calls to their loved ones that are broadcast over a loudspeaker.

The wacko passengers include a sharp-tongued dominatrix (Cecilia Roth), a virgin with psychic powers (Lola Duenas), a hit man and a crooked banker trying to flee the country.

There’s also a drug smuggler who consummates his wedding night with his unconscious bride (for a movie with so much talk about the mechanics of gay sex, it’s surprising we only see heteros getting it on).

Along for the ride in business class — the economy passengers, all drugged into sleep, don’t figure into the fun except for one lucky sleeping hunk who gets some extra attention from the horny virgin — is a famous actor.

What little comic momentum Almodóvar gets going dissipates when he leaves the plane for an extended melodramatic sequence involving the actor’s two lovers on the ground.

Far less funny than it sounds on paper, “I’m So Excited!’’ picks up a bit toward the end. No “Airplane!,’’ it’s a pretty strained attempt at fun most memorable for its boldly colored production design.