Skip over navigation

Sofa Cinema

Gifts - NEW  |   Help   |   Sign in

The Big Bus (1976) Certificate PG

The Big Bus

Sign up

Rated 3.0 stars
Average rating
(57%)
 
Starring: Joseph Bologna | Stockard Channing | John Beck | Jose Ferrer | Ned Beatty | Bob Dishy | Ruth Gordon | Harold Gould | Larry Hagman | Lynn Redgrave | Sally Kellerman | Richard Mulligan
Director: James Frawley
Studio: PARAMOUNT HOME ENTERTAINMENT
Run time: 84 mins
Genres: Comedy
Languages: English
Released: March 08, 2004

A star-studded cast headlines this outlandish spoof on disaster films in which a gigantic nuclear powered bus--containing a swimming pool, a bowling alley, and a piano bar--and goes out of control and nearly crashes while making a coast-to-coast journey. With a cannibalistic driver (Joseph Bologna) and an oil company man who is working overtime to sabotage the bus, the passengers (Stockard Channing, Richard Mulligan, Ruth Gordon, Rene Auberjonois, and more) are assured a bumpy ride. Director James Frawley's (TV's The Monkees) is an obvious influence on 1980's AIRPLANE!

Rating of 2 stars out of 5
Radio Times

In this intended parody of the 1970s disaster movie genre, the usual bunch of misfits climbs aboard the world's first nuclear-powered coach, travelling from New York to Denver. It's more like The Big Blunderbuss in its scattergun attack on its targets, with the likes of Joseph Bologna, Stockard Channing, Lynn Redgrave and Ned Beatty making a lot of noise to occasionally pleasing comic effect. You have to admire its intentions, but most “serious” disaster movies of the period had slipped into unintentional self-parody by 1976.

Highest rated reviews

3 out of 3 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 5 stars
Airplane on a bus !

Cardiff Boy from Cardiff!!!, 21st March, 2005

Perhaps not a movie for deep exploration of the human soul, this is a disaster movie set on a nuclear powered bus going to Denver (yup, mountain edges...) That's right - an excuse for every bad gag and situation in the book, and if you don't laugh out loud your underwear is too tight.If all you want is giggles, this is for you.

Read all highest rated reviews

2 out of 2 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 3 stars
WARNING: Place critical faculties in neutral before operating this movie

Mike from Spondon, Derby, 10th March, 2005

But I risked it (anything for you guys) and found this had dropped a star since I first saw it on release. (My taste must be improving.) A techno-disaster spoof in which the biggest star of all is the Bus itself, a triumph of inappropriate technology. Like most of these, by no means all the gags hit, but you can have fun spotting all the spoofees. Not a bad choice for a winter's night with nothing on the telly (i.e. most of them).

Read all highest rated reviews

2 out of 2 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 4 stars

Ken#14 from WEST BROMWICH, 14th July, 2004

If you?ve seen and liked the ?Airplane? series and any of the disaster movies of the 70?s early 80?s then ?The Big Bus? is one for you. It?s a great comedy send up of that style of film. The Big Bus is the granddaddy of disaster spoofs, coming out 4 years before Airplane and boasting a storyline so insane, the writers should be locked up. The premise of a nuclear powered bus travelling non-stop from New York to Denver is inspired. The cast, led by a great Joseph Bologna, are having a ball and there are just jokes in every frame. See this film and laugh yourself silly!

Read all highest rated reviews

1 out of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 2 stars
A disappointing revisit

shellgrip from OXON, 7th June, 2004

I saw this film probably fifteen years ago and have eagerly awaited an opportunity to see it again ever since. However, as with so many other things the reality left me wondering why I was so eager.

There are certainly funny bits but any obvious comparison with Airplane! is being generous to this coach. Joseph Bologna doesn't fill the lead comic role as easily as Robert Hays does in the later film and supporting stars seem rather thrown together and unsure of how to act. Stockard Channing is very good as Kitty and 'Shoulders' is still my favourite character but the rest of the film left me feeling a little cold.

I'll be flying next time.

Read all highest rated reviews

Most recent reviews

Rated 3 stars
Not as good as you remember from when you were a kid, but what is???

A Customer from Newcastle upon Tyne, 28th August, 2008

I loved this film when I was younger, I mean LOVED it, must have seen it 10 times by the time i was a teenager (quite a while ago, hadnt seen it in about 20 years since then!) so when I saw it on sale for £3 I thought what the hell lets give it a go, after all it doesnt do any harm to revist your past......does it?............. It all came flooding back to me, I found myself reciting lines as I watched it, pointing out to the wife the funny bits to look out for (I know, how annoying), and having quite a few chuckles along the way (more than some recent blockbuster comedies anyway) The film is nowhere near as funny as I remember and does drag a bit but it still remains in the top 5 of my 'childhood nostalgia list' and it will forever hold a place in my heart. It's no Airplane, but then again it's no Airplane 2 either - it falls somewhere inbetween the two. The wife hated it by the way, didnt laugh once, not even a smile. She just looked at me in a pitying way and shook her head when it finished.............

Read all recent reviews

Rated 4 stars
You WERE a pig at Mount Diablo

Jethro from from Huntingdon, 10th June, 2008

Like some other reviewers, I took this out because I'd seen it on TV over 20 years ago, and somewhere stored in a long forgotten box in the loft, I have a home made video tape recording of it. I guess time wears some of the gags thin. but on the whole I loved seeing it again, and would say that if like me you like to occasionally just not have to THINK when watching a film, this will fit the bill. File under 'Bit dated, but the jokes are still excellent'

Read all recent reviews

Rated 2 stars
Average

anna woodcock from Liverpool, 9th March, 2007

If your looking for belly laughs your not going to get them here, although you will get quite a few chuckles, other films from the same genre will give you more laugh out loads.

Read all recent reviews