The Big Bus (1976)

Sorry, this movie sucks

I'll tell you why so serious

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Wow, "The Big Bus" is so funny! I remember I wanted to see this when it came out when I was a kid but it didn't work out. It took many years before I was able to watch this in one viewing. It's great. A great '70s comedy,. A great comedy "period". It's played perfectly. It's played straight but not too straight, kind of. The balance everybody achieved is incredible. The great Joe Bologna is excellent. The rest of the cast is almost as good. It came out four years before "Airplane" but right in the middle of Mel Brooks' films. I need to watch it more often.

A double-decker, nuclear-powered super-bus called the Cyclops One makes its maiden voyage from New York City to Denver, but immediately there are problems: the scientist behind Cyclops One was almost killed before the bus even left the terminal, while the lead driver is under duress from a recent bus crash in which he was accused of eating the passengers...oh and, yes, there's a bomb on-board. In 1976, disaster movies hadn't yet outlived their usefulness as "dramatic entertainment", so "The Big Bus" came off as cynical (it was really just two or three years ahead of its time). There are some big laughs, mostly early on: René Auberjonois is dryly funny as a frustrated priest, Lynn Redgrave as a fashionista has a great bit dressing the passengers in her new Fall line, Ruth Gordon is a hoot as always playing a mouthy old lady (what else?) and Murphy Dunne is terrific as lounge pianist Tommy Joyce. The screenplay by Lawrence J. Cohen and Fred Freeman flirts with outrageousness without ever getting us there. The movie, filled with familiar goof-offs from television, is too middle-of-the-road to provide the kind of lunatic highs David and Jerry Zucker and Jim Abraham would eventually deliver with 1980's "Airplane!" This plays more like a Mel Brooks clone, something along the lines of "Silent Movie". ** from ****

A satire of disaster movies about a bus that must go on a long non-stop ride.Another reviewer compared this movie to Speed (1994), I never thought of that when watching it, but hey, that reviewer has a point! Speed was played totally straight but The Big Bus is as silly as they come. The more famous disaster movie satire, Airplane (1980), destroyed the disaster genre for a while but The Big Bus is less full-on than Airplane...so it would not have had the same impact.So many funny bits in The Big Bus, it would take all day to name them. I just don't understand why this film was not a box office hit???

"The Big Bus" seems to be getting better as it ages: what was once par-for-the-course screwball comedy is morphing into grand, high camp.Camp with real style, too. An amazing cast of big actors pull out all the stops; mugging for the camera and delivering the most insane lines in earnest deadpan. I remember the mania for disaster movies that occurred when I was a kid and "The Big Bus" hits the nail on the head aping all the great moments of an overblown genre. Plus you have to see the bus to really appreciate the absurdity. I recommend seeing this film just for the fun of seeing a colossal double-decker, articulated passenger bus that has a swimming pool, a bowling alley, a formal dining room, and a piano bar complete with a brilliant schmaltzy singer. A little lower-key than the 'Airplane' movies...but well worth it simply to see the A-List cast having fun. A Note: the dinner scene can never be accurately described, it must be seen to be believed.