The Big Bus (1976)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1976
Running Time	84:51
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Programme
Region Coding	4	Directed By	James Frawley
Studio Distributor	Paramount Home Entertainment	Starring	Joseph Bologna Stockard Channing John Beck Rene Auberjonois Ned Beatty Bob Dishy José Ferrer Ruth Gordon Harold Gould Larry Hagman Sally Kellerman Richard Mulligan Lynn Redgrave
Case	?
RPI	$24.95	Music	David Shire

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English Arabic Bulgarian Czech Danish German Greek Spanish French Hebrew Croatian Icelandic Italian Hungarian Dutch Norwegian Polish Portuguese Romanian Slovenian Serbian Finnish Swedish Turkish English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Every now and then you see a movie on late night TV or on a rainy Sunday arvo while idly channel-hopping. A movie that you were not looking for and not overly interested in, so you don't pay much attention. Then, all of a sudden you realise that it is surprisingly funny...The Big Bus was one such film. I first saw this around fifteen years ago and was delighted by it. When I saw it was being released on DVD I was keen to have a chance to review it, to see how it had stood up to the test of time.

    From the opening seconds of this film, two things are in little doubt - firstly that it is a spoof of seventies disaster movies, and secondly that it was made in that self-same decade. With the advent of the world's first nuclear powered bus, Cyclops, the oil companies are scared that the value of oil and petrol will leave them bankrupt. However, for the public, that previously impossible dream is about to be realised - a non-stop bus trip from New York to Denver!

    A cornucopia of B-Movie typecasts are determined to make the inaugural trip. There's the designer of the bus (Stockard Channing), the soon-to-be divorced couple who drop their inhibitions at the drop of a hat (Sally Kellerman and Richard Mulligan), the washed-up driver (Joseph Bologna) and the doubting Priest (Rene Auberjonois) amongst others. Little do they realise that Cyclops is destined to join The Hindenberg, The Titanic, Charles de Gaulle Airport and the Ford AU Falcon amongst the litany of the modern world's unimaginable tragedies. With a bomb on board, a co-driver with narcolepsy and a ten-pin bowling alley which cannot withstand sharp inclines, surely this ground-breaking vehicle must be doomed to failure?

    The cynical amongst you may say that Airplane! (or Flying High) is a much funnier film, thanks in no small part to Leslie Nielsen's acting and the Zucker Abrahams Zucker magic. That is true, without a doubt - but remember, The Big Bus was breaking wind at 90 before that monolithic Jumbo even got off the runway. There are some classic little characters in this movie - Tommy Joyce the lounge singer, good old Scotty, Shoulders the co-driver, the bloke with six months to live - and many more. There are some wonderfully corny set-ups, a few classic one liners (Look out - he's got a broken milk carton!) and plenty of seventies fashion (including those funky stewardess outfits) to inspire an embarrassed sense of nostalgia in all of us who lived through that decade.

    The Big Bus is a dated film, but possibly all the more kitsch for it. It is not as funny as Airplane! or some of the more modern offspring it inspired (Hot Shots!, Police Squad and the like) but as one of the founding fathers of the genre it is a must-see for aficionados of the cinema spoof. For avid fans it will withstand a purchase, and for those with a passing interest and a wish to have some silly fun - it is well worth a rental.

Video

    The overall video transfer is acceptable for a film which is almost thirty years old.

    The movie is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 which is the original theatrical aspect ratio. It is 16x9 enhanced.

    The image does suffer from some quite significant grain at times, particularly at the start of the film. Most of the later shots look fine however and, grain aside, I was very pleasantly surprised by the overall sharpness of this transfer. Some of the interior shots are approaching reference standard which is to be commended for a flick of this vintage.

    Black levels are adequate with no major low level noise. Shadow detail is occasionally a little limited, but is perfectly serviceable in the main. Colours are fairly dated but there are no problems with bleeding. There is a gaudy array of hues on offer, from the disco/brothel inspired bus interiors to the New York countryside (which looks suspiciously like California to me), all of which were clean enough, if a little washed-out at times. Skin tones look reasonable but do have an occasional tendency towards orange, as was the trend in the seventies.

    I noticed no significant problems with MPEG compression artefacts or aliasing on my set-up. There is a hint of shimmer in some of the fine detail but no major problems of note. There is, however, some quite noticeable edge enhancement present (for example around the dark suit at 9:05 or around the chair at 42:01. This is not awful and does not significantly detract from the enjoyment of the film. Telecine wobble is sometimes evident, but mainly during the titles, so again it is not a major distraction during the bulk of the film.

    The transfer suffers from more than a few film artefacts, with black and white specks cropping up throughout. They tend to be brief, but are noticeable nevertheless, particularly for the first reel or so. I found them frequent enough to be mildly distracting.

    The English subtitles are legible enough and timed just fine, but they do summarise some of the dialogue.

    The disc is in a single sided and single layered (DVD 5) format so there is no layer change to detect.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio transfer is reasonable, but however hard they tried, it sounds dated.

    The original mono audio track is provided as a Dolby Digital 2.0 mix encoded at 192 kbps as an alternative to the newly remixed Dolby Digital 5.1 track encoded at 448 kbps. There are no major defects in the way of pops and hiss or dropouts but the overall feel of either track is of low fidelity.

    The surround sound remix has the vocals a touch too low on occasion and it veers close to being drowned out by the overbearing score several times. Other than the threat of the conversations being overwhelmed, it is generally clear enough but there is some mild distortion evident when characters scream or shout. Audio sync occasionally lapses in more distant shots (for instance around 3:59 or 15:56) - but the close-ups are generally fine.

    The original music is attributed to David Shire, a man who seems to have spent the vast majority of his career working on television movies. Here he provides a decent - presumably deliberately - overly dramatic and over-orchestrated score. It evokes memories of the classic seventies disaster movies just perfectly.

    The front soundstage is reasonably lively, with some half-decent stereo separation. The dialogue is sometimes mixed a little too low compared to the boisterous musical score, but not enough to spoil the film. The surround speakers do see some activity from the musical score and the occasional loud effect (i.e. explosion) but it usually feels a little forced. I truly do appreciate the efforts taken to provide a surround sound track, and it may help justify the investment in all those little boxes...but it never quite feels kosher. There is some surround ambience generated (mainly musical), but nothing truly noteworthy in the way of directional or localised effects - just some general noise from behind the couch.

    Your subwoofer may carry some bass activity from the odd explosion or the musical score, but there is nothing significant in the way of true LFE activity.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    There are no extra features on offer.

Menu

    The main menu is a static and silent picture of the stars and the bus. It offers the choices of playing the feature, selecting one of thirteen chapter stops, activating the subtitles or picking an audio language.

    The Region 1 release of this movie appears to be substantially the same as our own. Buy whichever is cheaper.

    The Big Bus is a novel spoof of seventies disaster flicks which has been eclipsed by its imitators. It is well worth a rental by anyone with a twisted sense of humour, and an appreciation for those over-the-top blockbusters such as The Poseidon Adventure and Airport. For fans of the spoof genre, it shows us where it all began - and provides a few chortles along the way.

    The 2.35:1 video transfer is surprisingly good, although marred by some film artefacts and edge enhancement at times.

    The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio transfer is reasonable.

    Extras have missed the bus.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall