A One Mann’s Movies review of “The Lost Bus” (2025, 3*, 15).
I could hear a chorus of the kids from The Simpsons singing “Hail to the bus driver, the bus driver man” during this film. For “The Lost Bus” is set in California in the city of Paradise that in 2018 was severely impacted by an out-of-control brush fire, rather flippantly referred to as “The Campfire”.
One Mann’s Movies Rating:
Plot:
Kevin McKay (Matthew McConaughey) is relatively new to the job of school-bus driver. He is separated from his wife, lives with his disabled mother and has a teenage son who, in traditional style, hates his guts and wants him to die. It seems just another ordinary day at work for Kevin, but then a sparking power line has other ideas.
Certification:
UK: 15; US: R. (From the BBFC web site: “Strong language, sustained threat”. If you are looking for something to watch on Apple+ at home with younger teens, this really feels quite a soft 15… I’ve seen far worse 12A’s imho.)
Talent:
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, America Ferrera, Yul Vazquez, Ashlie Atkinson, Kimberli Flores,
Levi McConaughey, Kay McConaughey, John Messina, Kate Wharton.
Directed by: Paul Greengrass.
Written by: Brad Ingelsby & Paul Greengrass. (Based on the book ‘Paradise: One Town’s Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire’ by Lizzie Johnson.)
Running Time: 2h 9m.
Summary:
Positives:
- The special effects are first-rate.
- The scenes of the bus careering through fire-covered roads is exciting.
- The desperate scenes in the fire-command centre are realistic and well-done.
Negatives:
- The film gets a bit cliched when it drifts into the personal lives of Kevin and Mary.
- There is little overall tension in the story.
Full Review of “The Lost Bus”:
The special effects are the star of the show here.
If this film makes you want to crank up the aircon in the cinema, then you know its doing a good job. For this is a movie that does start to make you feel a bit hot under the collar with its fire scenes. I have a huge respect for the stunt and the SFX teams that managed to deliver this. I have no idea how you would start to film something like this. I don’t know whether this was done with big-scale practical effects, with VFX fire effects (traditionally very hard to get right) or a mixture of both. A “Making of” for this one would be an interesting watch.
The film is at its most exciting in the latter stages when, with the bus encircled and all hope fading, Kevin (McConaughey) makes a mad-dash for safety through the blazing firestorm, where one inch of his tyres off the edge of the dirt track would mean instant death for him, teacher Mary Ludwig (America Ferrera) and 22 innocent children. Did they make it through successfully…????
A lack of overall tension.
…Yes, of course they did! A studio is not going to green-light a feature film where 22 young children appear at the end par-boiled with crispy skin. And, because of the circumstances, it is never going to be a case of ‘some of them making it and some of them not’… this is an ‘all or nothing’ situation. So you are already aware on going into this as to what the outcome will be and I found little tension in the film as a result.
A drift into disaster movie clichés.
Most of the Irwin Allen classic disaster movies of the 70’s were wonderfully entertaining films, except where they spent too long painting soppy backstories for all of their – about to be squashed, burned, decapitated or stung-to-death – characters. This film avoids most of that, but we do tend to drift a little bit into that quagmire with the discussions of Kevin and Mary on the bus. Also, the whole sub-plot of ‘Kevin’s family in peril’ seems to be completely parked for most of the film until the very end.
Do you remember the ‘control room’ scenes in “The Towering Inferno” with Steve McQueen desperately trying to out-act Paul Newman? Well, we have our own version in this film. These scenes ring of authenticity, with fire Chief Martinez (Yul Vazquez) coolly and calmly handing out orders as things go to hell in a handcart and barking out cusses to the Pacific General electric company rep in the room. (Pac Gen were ultimately found responsible for the fire and had to pay out billions of dollars.) Kate Wharton plays his deputy Jen Kissoon. The real fire chief on the day was John Messina and Messina has a role in the film, playing one of the fire management team working under Martinez.
The McConaughey’s out in force.
This turns out to be a real McConaughey family affair with Michael playing Kevin; his mum Kay playing Kevin’s mum Sherry and his son Levi playing Kevin’s son Shaun. I can only imagine how much fun Levi had letting off his string of bile at his Dad in the early part of the film!
McConaughey gives a typically solid performance in the movie and even gets to have an “Interstellar“-style meltdown moment for good measure! America Ferrera, fresh from her Oscar nomination success with “Barbie” also turns in a solid performance as the cute and personable teacher freaking out over the risk to her many charges.
Based on a true story.
What is nice is that the film is closely based on the true events of that day and most of the characters you see in the film were the real ones. See the photo below.
What seems absolutely incredible is that – given the utter carnage and destruction meted out – that only 84 people lost their lives in the tragedy. I mean, horrific and tragic for those 84 poor souls, but – as the fire chief says – they could have been expecting hundreds if not thousands of casualties.
Summary Thoughts:
This is an exciting action/disaster film that suffers a little from centring on characters that you feel pretty sure are going to make it through. But the action scenes, with the camera at times ‘being’ the fire snaking through the countryside towards the bus, are very well done.
“The Lost Bus” is still showing in some UK cinemas but is also available to stream on Apple TV+ (where, sadly, unless you have a humungous 4K TV screen, much of the effect may be lost on you).
Where to watch?
Trailer:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSDHjkuwaic.
Subscribe
Don’t forget, you can subscribe to One Mann’s Movies to receive future reviews by email right here. No salesman will call!
