A double-decker, nuclear-powered super-bus called the Cyclops One makes its maiden voyage from New York City to Denver, but immediately there are problems: the scientist behind Cyclops One was almost killed before the bus even left the terminal, while the lead driver is under duress from a recent bus crash in which he was accused of eating the passengers...oh and, yes, there's a bomb on-board. In 1976, disaster movies hadn't yet outlived their usefulness as "dramatic entertainment", so "The Big Bus" came off as cynical (it was really just two or three years ahead of its time). There are some big laughs, mostly early on: René Auberjonois is dryly funny as a frustrated priest, Lynn Redgrave as a fashionista has a great bit dressing the passengers in her new Fall line, Ruth Gordon is a hoot as always playing a mouthy old lady (what else?) and Murphy Dunne is terrific as lounge pianist Tommy Joyce. The screenplay by Lawrence J. Cohen and Fred Freeman flirts with outrageousness without ever getting us there. The movie, filled with familiar goof-offs from television, is too middle-of-the-road to provide the kind of lunatic highs David and Jerry Zucker and Jim Abraham would eventually deliver with 1980's "Airplane!" This plays more like a Mel Brooks clone, something along the lines of "Silent Movie". ** from ****