The Big Bus

1976 disaster movie spoof

Rating: 11/20

Plot: It's like Titanic but on a nuclear-powered bus making a nonstop trip from New York to Denver. And there's a terrorist in an iron lung instead of an iceberg. And everybody ends up ok instead of just the rich people. And nobody draws any pictures of any naked people.

This parody of disaster movies predates another faux disaster comedy by a few years. This one is played a little bit straighter (though it's still wacky) and probably isn't as funny. That's right. I'm referring to United 93. This has some moments (the Airplane-esque bus driver bar fight scene is almost funny, and I like the recurring cannibalism joke) but a lot of the jokes fall far short of funny. Ruth Gordon is in this and underused. The lead is played by a guy named Joseph Bologna, but that's all he's got going for him. There's almost nothing memorable about his character. There are moments when this teases you and almost becomes a funny movie, poking fun of lots of disaster movie cliches. Unfortunately, even those moments are few and far between.