The Big Bus – 1976 – IOTW Report

The Big Bus – 1976

Has anyone ever heard of this movie?

I haven’t. From what I can see it has a devoted following.

It predates Airplane!, the gold standard of disaster movie parodies. It’s about the world’s first nuclear powered bus on its maiden voyage from New York to Denver.

The captain is a guy who was accused of cannibalism after the bus he drove crashed in the mountains and 110 passengers were eaten. He claims to have only eaten a foot.

“You eat one foot and they say you’re a cannibal.”

Reading user reviews, I have never seen such a chasm between people who rave about it and people who say it stinks on ice.

From what I’ve seen it can go either way. It might be so bad it’s good. Or it might be so bad it’s bad.

Ah the memories williamwells-1 10/10

10/10 because I grew up with this movie. I also went through a phase where I was totally obsessed with the Big Bus itself. I turned my bed into one using sheets and other things. I also drew lots of pictures of it but at the time my drawings were so much better then the one in the movie..well so I thought. I still laugh the movie even now. I would love to hear from anyone that knows what happened to the actual shell / props of the bus. I have a feeling like most things, they have been scrapped, bummer! I own a copy on VHS that we taped from the TV years ago. It’s totally 80’s because it has all the old commercials on it (Australian ones mind you). Funny stuff!

A Funny Story about this Movie matthewstevens 2/10

There’s a funny story about this movie. My dad said he remembered liking it and showed it to me. I was eager to see it, since he raved on it. During the movie, I laughed a little bit, maybe once or twice, but that’s it. I didn’t want to make him sad, so I pretended to laugh. When it was done, my dad and I didn’t talk. For a while, we turned the movie off in silence. After about two minutes, my dad says “Wow, I..uhh…don’t remember it being that bad. Sorry.”. I was glad that he hated it too. We hated it together. It was not a funny movie at all. Actually, towards the end, he asked me if I wanted to turn it off, since it was so bad, but I said no. I didn’t know that was what he meant, though. Look, don’t see this. PLEASE! Just don’t. Save an hour and a half of your life. Please.

24 Comments on The Big Bus – 1976

  1. I saw it and loved it, but that was YEARS ago. In 1980 a movie called “Airplane!” came out and I (at 15) went to see it with my Mom. We both laughed so hard that I couldn’t wait to go see it again with my friends. One of my two inseparable friends (with whom I grew up since birth) and I went to see it together and I was absolutely FLOORED that he didn’t laugh once. I couldn’t believe that someone I knew so well was someone that I barely knew at all in this regard. Today, Mrs.BAMO and I LOVE “Airplane!” and its dialogue peppers our everyday conversations. That being said, she HATES Monty Python. The moral is, there’s just no accounting for taste. After all, she did marry me and hasn’t wised up yet!!

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  2. LOL! Lame jokes, puns and double entendres, complete absence of political correctness. I like it.
    Better than the drivel that passes for comedy from Hollyweird today.

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  3. I saw this movie in the theaters with friends when i was nine. I loved this movie, one of those ‘it’s so bad it’s good’ type of parody films.
    I bought a copy on VHS from eBay about a decade ago. The last VCR I have has some trouble reading the tape (I think the speed is off a bit in the recording).
    I wish they would release it on Blu-ray. It’s a movie you have to see at least once!

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  4. “You know why they call me Shoulders?”
    “Um… because of your big, broad shoulders?”
    “No. Because I suffer from narcolepsy and I wind up driving on the shoulders!”

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  5. Yes, I remember it too. Over the years I’ve told people about that very scene, with the other drivers in the bus drivers bar clicking their ticket punchers at their outcast member. And yes, MJA, you weren’t born yet.

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  6. I remember it. It was crazy, silly, but funny. The screenplay must have been written by some very odd guys. The type of humor would not be appreciated by some, or a lot, of people.

    Two busdrivers got into a fight in a bar over some incident at a place called Diablo. Maybe that was the cannibalism thing.

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