Riding the Bus with My Sister (2005)

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

I thought this was a very touching and human story. I cannot even begin to comprehend why it has received such a poor rating on this site, but my family and I loved it and I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys decent and honest stories with very real, human characters and very insightful and at times confronting observations on life. I agree with the comment made by another user who thought that Rosie O'Donnell deserves an Oscar for her portrayal of Beth. This film made me laugh and cry! I thought it was simply wonderful and entirely endearing. Well done to everyone who created it and love to the real people behind its characters :)

I found myself torn when I was choosing a rating for this film. Of course, the easy choice (the one I went with) is to give it a 1. It is, after all, an awful, awful, awful movie. However, if you view it in the proper mindset, you may not have a better two hours watching a movie than you will watching Riding the Bus with My Sister. First, let me explain that it's not a garden variety "let's make fun of people that are different than us" type of enjoyment. In fact, that shouldn't really be enjoyable unless you are in a room of people who know you are kidding. If you TRULY derive joy from making fun of people who are different from you, then you might want to change a few things about yourself. What makes this movie fun is that you are making fun of two HORRIBLE actors delivering two HORRIBLE performances. Now, to expect brilliance from either Rosie O'Donnell or Andie McDowell is probably akin to Sisyphus' struggle--you're going to be disappointed repeatedly when you don't find brilliance. This film might just be the best example that Andie McDowell's best acting was in make-up commercials and Rosie O'Donnell's best acting is done with the TV on mute. I'll start with Rosie. I believe I read somewhere that her performance sounded like an Asian comedian doing a horrible impression of a combination of Pee Wee Herman and Adam Sandler. That's pretty close, only without comedic intent that such an impression would carry with it. What makes her performance laughable is the thought that I had while watching it--she is probably proud of this performance. There is literally only one line she delivers that is NOT delivered in the same manner as all the others. Most are given with a word screamed somewhere in the middle of the sentence while she gives herself an intentional facial contortion that makes her seem like she is making fun of mentally handicapped people. She also never stops rocking or moving her feet. And her hands remain in the same position the entire film. It's a farce. I look at it and I think, "How could anyone be seriously moved by this?" But that was clearly the intent. Failure by Rosie on every possible front. Andie McDowell. Well, she is fine (and by "fine" I mean she doesn't single handedly ruin the film) when she is only asked to be mildly attractive with a southern drawl. If you ask her to do more than that, she is going to let you down. Well, they asked her to do a whole lot more than that in this film. She failed. Repeatedly. Egregiously. I am in the camp that thinks her performance is even worse than Rosie, because at least Rosie was being different than Rosie is in real life. This was Andie McDowell as we have always seen her. Trouble is, in Groudhog Day she is required to be mildly attractive with a southern drawl, in this movie she is required to have a character arc. Her arc goes from acting like she's tired (which is my favorite of her scenes. Watch how you can almost tangibly see her say "what do I do when I am tired. I know. I yawn and stretch.") to saying she loves her sister. The character NEVER changes. She reacts to these two events with the same exact reactions. Inflection, apparently, is something she thinks you can cover up with L'Oreal. I could go on, but what's the point. These are the two central performances in the film and they are laughably bad from start to finish. That's the key, though. They are LAUGHABLY bad. So watch this movie and laugh at it. Don't feel bad, either. You're not laughing at people who are different than you. You are laughing at AWFUL actresses, although I HOPE they are different from you as well.

Honestly I don't know why people only watch a movie for certain actors and actresses, as there is so much more to a movie. This movie "Riding the Bus with my Sister" was a great film. I know people who are Mentally Handicapped, and sometimes they are loud and energetic, it's their way of living. I loved the fact that Rosie O'Donnell played in the film, as well as Andie MacDowell. They both made the film genuinely good. It was really easy to understand where the working photographer didn't have time for family and such, and the fact that she got "custody" of her sister brought them back together. I give the movie 10 stars for various reasons, 5 for the actors and actresses, 5 for the storyline. If you feel as if you wasted your time, then I don't know why you started watching it anyway. Evidently you have no heart for people other than yourself!

Ten minutes into watching this cinematic nightmare I suddenly recalled an old joke. It's the one about the new tenants in hell checking out three different rooms of suffering—only one of which will be where they'll spend eternity. I felt very much like the poor sap that picked the 'coffee break's over' room. Listen, I'm a big fan of 'B' movies, the ones that are so bad they're good type. This dreck is so awful it stinks on icebergs.What was with that voice? That shameless overacting? The constant nibbling? Rosie's whiter-than-white row of lower teeth flashing every two seconds made me want to beat up my TV. Like a lot of the other contributors to this site I gave it a chance to redeem itself. That moment never came. Even the schmaltzy Hallmark commercials were interesting compared to this mess.Andie comatose…am I wrong or did she look embarrassed in a few scenes? I don't believe Angelica Houston got a moments peace on that set. I'm guessing (paraphrasing here) bossy Rosie must've showed up, with sharpened pencils and a legal pad—then having written she began to direct. Too bad Rosie forgot to bring a blue pencil to cut her part back a few decibels. It must be arduous to live a life of 'know-it-all' and not do research.Never in my life have I ever known of or met a special needs person like this. My sister (yes, we sometimes ride the bus together) works with special needs children and frankly she found this movie insulting, and so do I. Minus 10 stars.