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 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???

Four years before the successful take off of Zucker and Abraham's smash hit spoof Airplane! (1980), director James Frawley's The Big Bus explored remarkably similar territory, lampooning the popular disaster genre in a crazy scatter-shot style. The film's titular vehicle is the world's first nuclear powered bus, a giant, luxury, 32-wheeled metallic titan called Cyclops embarking on its maiden journey travelling non-stop from New York to Denver; unfortunately for the passengers and crew, a crazed oil magnate is out to discredit the bus by putting it permanently out of service by any means necessary.Like Airplane, the absurd goof-ball gags come thick and fast, but The Big Bus's batting average isn't quite as high, a lot of the humour falling rather flat. The film's best bits are its more subtle, throw-away humorous moments, although I imagine that a lot of these might easily be missed on the first viewing. As the film thunders towards its conclusion, the bus loses its brakes and picks up speed, careening round perilous mountain roads; when the bus eventually grinds to a halt (over the edge of a precipice) so do the film's laughs, the remainder of the action being dull and predictable.

"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.