Being a child of the seventies I have a soft spot, cinematically speaking, for the various disaster films of that time. Iconic titles such as The Towering Inferno, The Poseidon Adventure and Airport franchise. The latter was superbly lampooned in the 1980 movie, Airplane! by Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker. The team of writer/directors went on to make numerous other comedies in a similar idiom. However Airplane! was not the first major spoof of this particular genre. Four years earlier, director James Frawley made The Big Bus which similarly sends up the standard tropes of all major disaster movies. Where Airplane!  was right on the money, The Big Bus is a little more scattershot in its approach and takes a while to find its feet. But James Frawley had a background in TV comedy, having worked on The Monkees TV show, and he does much within the limitations of the films budget. The films greatest asset is that it keeps up the pace. If a gag doesn’t work then don’t worry, there’s another immediately afterwards.