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Big Bus, The [1976]
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RRP: £15.99
Our Price: £1.93 (subject to change)
Truly Awful
Review date: 2007-08-12 Rating: 2 out of 10
The best place for this film is in your memories if you ever saw it on TV all those years ago. To say it hasn't aged well is the biggest understatement since " Joan Rivers looks like she may have had a little cosmetic surgery"
It is frenetic American sub humour of the Mel Brooks mode. Lots of hammy gurning, running around and if the joke is not funny shout a lot to make it funny.
I remembered seeing this on TV and thought it was OK, but that was a long time ago and it just grates now. All those star cameos and it can't lift it up to mediocre.
Airplne raised the bar, this tried to crawl under it. Avoid, even at the cheap price the next stop from your dvd player will be the bin
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Reviews
The ride of your life!
Review date: 2007-01-01 Rating: 8 out of 10
Before there was `Airplane!', there was... The Big Bus.
In fact, it was three years before Airplane, that this prototype disaster movie spoof appeared, directed by James Frawley who also directed `The Muppet Movie'. Although similar in tone, the humour is less one liner and more atmosphere driven - and on the whole works. OK, it's a bit hit and miss, and it's clear why `Airplane!' is so much better known -but this movie definitely does not deserve to be forgotten.
First there's that high concept idea - a nuclear powered bus on its maiden transcontinental journey, beset by sabotage and a driver who has a reputation as partial cannibal and a co-driver prone to blackouts ("it's ok, it's only when on the move").
Then there's the characters - Father Kudos (Rene Auberjonois, LONG before his Star Trek Deep Space 9 days) who is having an Exorcist-like faith crisis, the couple who are celebrating their divorce, the man with 6 months to live who argues in the lounge with the failed vet over who understands bitterness the most... and of course, that ever cheerful lounge piano player who smiles and sings at whatever comes his way. Robert Bologna and Stockard Channing headline, in extremely similar roles to the pilot and stewardess from Airplane!. Even smaller roles are filled by well known names - Ned Beatty, Jose Ferrer (the man in the iron lung, masterminding the demise of the bus at the behest of the oil industry..).
And one cannot forget, that wonderful bus! The size.. the bad 70's taste décor.. the gadgets! One moment encapsulates the humour the movie is aiming at - with the bus building speed and the brakes failing, the driver suddenly has a brainwave.. the flags of all nations! A button is pressed, and up come the fluttering flags from the roof, helping slow the bus down. Or the bar fight spoofing West Side story when someone shouts `Look out! He's got a broken milk carton!' as the man (John Beck, as `Shoulders' O'Brien) says `I hate to see a man down when he's kicked'.
The wonderful thing about the humour is that it parodies a genre without concentrating too much on parodies of specific movies, the modern day spoofs so often do.
In short, it isn't subtle, it's certainly over the top, it's as hammy as the lead actors name suggests, but if you have a funny bone, this should tickle it.
still good, 12 yrs on!
Review date: 2005-08-24 Rating: 6 out of 10
i saw this first when i was about 12, and i enjoyed it to the last, its very well thought out, and at that age i was also into every piece of machinery out, suffice to say a BIG BUS was top of the list. there are the usual pices of comic genius, small things that never fail to raise a smile! 'he can't be moved', you'll know what i mean if you've seen it. i suggest u buy for a good laugh. no on par with airplane or spyhard but then its not either of those two lol!!
The Big Bus (1976)
Review date: 2004-11-15 Rating: 10 out of 10
A superb film, similar to the Airplane humour, and indeed, this was made before the Airplane films. Plenty of slapstick humour and familiar faces, such as Larry Hagman and Stockard Channing -better known for her performance in Grease. The nuclear powered bus is equipped with an Oriental Lounge, a bowling alley and a swimming pool! But when a bomb is discovered, it becomes a great 70's disaster film spoof.
Watch Out! He's got a broken milk carton
Review date: 2004-05-14 Rating: 10 out of 10
This film is the original disaster spoof predating the Airplane movies and is truly magnificent. A nuclear powered bus is making its maiden voyage from New York to Denver with Captain Dan Torrence at the helm (with a slight leniancy toward cannibalism). On board is bus designer Kitty Baxter (brilliantly played by Stockard Channing), a vet with a crisis of confidence, a vicar who has lost his faith, a man with six months to live, a cheesy cocktail bar piano player and a couple celebrating their divorce. Add two bombs, a St Christopher's Medal, two incidences requiring foam, a stroppy mission control assistant and a man in an iron lung and you honestly have a brilliant, brilliant film. You will enjoy this. I first watched this as a child and I could watch it again and again.
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Joseph Bologna
John Beck
Rene Auberjonois
Stockard Channing
Ned Beatty
Creators:
Joseph Bologna (Primary Contributor)
Stockard Channing (Primary Contributor)
Harry Stradling Jr. (Cinematographer)
Fred Freeman (Producer)
Fred Freeman (Writer)
Julia Phillips (Producer)
Lawrence J. Cohen (Producer)
Lawrence J. Cohen (Writer)
Michael Phillips (Producer)
Director(s):
Recording label: Paramount Home Entertainment
Manufacturer: Paramount Home Entertainment
EAN: 5014437840134
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2004-03-08
Number of discs: 1
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Audience rating: Parental Guidance
Region code: 2
Running time: 84 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1976-10-22
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