The Big Bus (1976)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

Written by Fred Freeman and Lawrence J. Cohen
Directed by James Frawley
Starring Joseph Bologna, Stockard Channing, John Beck, Ned Beatty, Jose Ferrer, Ruth Gordon, Harold Gould, Larry Hagman, Sally Kellerman, Richard Mulligan, and Lynn Redgrave

Anamorphic: Yes
My Advice: Skip it

The Coyote, the world's first nuclear-powered passenger bus, is about to make its maiden voyage: an unprecidented nonstop trip from New York to Denver. However, the oil companies are trying to sabotage the trip for obvious reasons. To make matters worse, the crew has to be switched at the last minute and is replaced: by a driver who has been blackballed by other bus drivers for being a cannibal and a co-driver who is a narcoleptic and likes to drive on the shoulder.

Sorry to jump so quickly to the point, but this is just a perfect example of a lackluster parody. It is supposed to be a spoof of the disaster movies that came out around the same time--you know, Irwin Allen's ball of wax and all that. The main problem with this flick is that there is barely enough plot to sustain the setups and punchlines. It feels a lot like the writers were sitting around one day saying, "Wouldn't it be funny to do a movie about the world's first nuclear-powered bus?" and then never went any further with the idea. The cast almost reads like a who's who of 70s Hollywood, but even they couldn't save this tr...er...bus wreck. In fact, they did what they were supposed to do; play every stereotype and cliche to the hilt. It just doesn't go anywhere (ironically enough, not even Denver). Some of the bits are funny, but there are just not enough of them to say that this is a good parody.

So, take a bad movie, put it on DVD, and then don't put anything else on the DVD with it...at all. I'm not kidding: there aren't even any trailers on this DVD. Granted, this isn't a pinnacle of cinematic genius--I'm not trumpeting for a Criterion edition of the disc or something like that. And true enough, maybe those parties involved didn't want to associate themselves with this thing any further than they already had. Director Frawley, for example, is too busy these days working on series like Ed and Smallville--why revisit this thing? But still, it wouldn't have killed anybody to at least put together a fifteen minute featurette or something.

Just avoid it at all costs. It's not worth renting and is a definite waste of money to buy.