Customer Reviews

The Big Bus

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Very funny spoof of the '70s disaster films. Barfight scene includes someone threatening our heroes, and our heroes defend themselves with a broken milk carton. "I hate to see a man down when he's kicked!"

All the standard disaster movie cliches are sent up. Dinner at the captain's table, the piano bar singer, engine trouble, estranged lovers rekindling a failed romance, hidden secrets, medical emergencies....all during a fateful cross-country trip on the world's first nuclear-powered bus on its maiden voyage. Joe Bologna (also seen in "My Favorite Year") and Stockard Channing headline a cast of '70s icons and Love Boat/Fantasy Island regulars. You just can't beat the drama of a life-threatening situation on an out-of-control BUS! This movie is funnier than you remember it, but if you didn't catch it on TV since the late 70's then do yourself a favor and buy this. Or buy me one. Either way, you'll be doing the right thing.

Like the "Airplane!" films that succeeded it, "The Big Bus" is hilarious parody of the oh-so-popular disaster flicks of the 1970's. It is really like a disaster film as seen through the eyes of Tex Avery, the master animator who threw everything into his 'toons, including the kitchen sink at the expense of some poor soul.

"Bus" features a superb cast of movie and television performers who mimic every big name actor featured in bigger budgeted extravaganzas like "The Poseidon Adventure," "The Towering Inferno," and "Earthquake."

In the words of Spike Lee, one must "get on this bus" for a fun-filled ride.

Hop on the BIG BUS! You're in for a rare treat. Joseph Balogna and Stockard Channing star in the best movie parody since "Blazing Saddles" and "Young Frankenstein"! The big bus is a nuclear-powered monster of a thing, complete with bowling alley, swimming pool, and piano bar. It can change tires automatically, while still moving! It can wash itself! It can go 90mph around curves, with only minor internal chaos! The passenger list is a screwball dream-come-true! Ruth Gordon is the dirty old lady, quick on the draw with her perfectly rude remarks! Rene Auberjonois is the conflicted / doubting priest, who has a nasty streak as long as the bus! Lynn Redgrave is the celebrity on board, seducing any man she encounters. She's also got a secret score to settle! Sally Kellerman and Richard Mulligan are the battling couple, set to finalize their divorce, but unable to keep their hands off each other! Of course, let's not forget the washed-up veterinarian, the terminal guy with six months to live (which Lynn Redgrave helps him to overcome), and the narcoleptic co-driver who passes out at the wheel every few minutes! Did I mention Larry Hagman as the doctor who spends most of the movie in a parking lot, because his patient (Harold Gould) "can't be moved"? Or Ned Beatty and Howard Hesseman as technicians who must work together, but just don't get along? Oh yeah, I almost forgot, there's a bomb on board! Drop whatever you're doing and buy this right now...

Airplane stole so many gags from this movie it isn't even funny. (No pun intended.)

What no reviewer has mentioned is that the movie is gorgeous to watch...beautifully designed and shot. Airplane, although perhaps the more consistently funny movie, seems to have tried to copy the production of The Big Bus, but it comes off as looking sadly cheap and bland. They did learn the lesson, though, that you never stop the jokes coming. The Big Bus loses one star for letting up here and there to attempt moments of drama that don't quite work. But Stockard Channing working feverishly in the kitchen, as the bus tilts to and fro on the road, gets seven stars.

Way before AIRPLANE and AIRPLANE II and way before HOTSHOTS was THE BIG BUS. A hilarious spoof on disaster films with dozens of old television standards like Richard Mulligan, Ruth Gordon, Bob Dishy, Sally Kellermen, all lending their talents to this, one of the greatest stupid comedies around! This is cartoonist Gary Larson's Favorite comedy movie! And the prop bus they built for it is staggering as well. There isn't anything about this film that isn't funny, except that it ends.

A great comedy, would like it on DVD as colour and clarity of VHS tape is below standard. I have waited 25 years to see this movie again, it was the supporting movie to Star Wars Episode IV at the local drive-in in the mid 70's. I have searched many video catalouges and shelves trying to locate a copy of the movie and thank Amazon for having it. A keeper for the Comedy library, bent section. It deserves to be better known as I believe it was the foreruner to many spoof movies none of which are up to the calibre of this show.

Someday I'll build a bus like that and never look back. I'll dine in my bicentennial dining room, I'd raise the flags of all nations, I'd take a dip in the swimming pool, I'd save Stockard Channing from drowning in soda. Why, you can do anything on this bus. I would, however, NOT eat a busload of passengers. Maybe one foot. If it was in a stew.

If you liked Airplane and Naked Gun - you'll love The Big Bus. It's not as "over the top" as the Zucker movies which followed it, but it's easily the best acted and most original.

I've only seen this twice (and only on TV) and almost died laughing each time. A friend who works for the BBC told me it wasn't going to be repeated and I'm not sure if the video was ever released here in the UK.
It's just not possible to fault a film featuring someone being attacked by a man with a broken candle !! Larry Hagman is excellent as the doctor and he's not the only one from this film who turned up in Dallas !!
Now I've ordered it, I can't wait to introduce my friends to it !!

There were literally hundreds of hilarious moments in this one - surprised it's buried while equally hilarious films like "Naked Gun" and "Airplane!" are (rightfully) revered. Murphy Dunne - the pianist in "The Blues Brothers" is out and out hilarious. (Check out the "Six Months To Live" song.) Other great moments include Sally Kellerman balling over the fact her "estranged" husband gets shot - then Richard Mulligan pops his head up and goes "Heh heh heh heh-heeeh ha!!", Shoulders, the co-driver who keeps to the shoulders, and the attempt to "break wind" that's aborted. "Back to Fifty Five! Cop behind us!" But the best is a conversation between two passengers. An angry vetrinarian asks the man with 6 months to live what he hates. The dying man calmly responds "I hate this piano player." Murphy Dunne, not missing a beat, cheerily responds "Thank You!"