Dallas Fisher

Paul Greengrass perfected a genre in directing with what he did on a few of the Bourne films. Bringing that same style to a movie where a bus driver is operating a vehicle while talking on the phone doesn’t quite hit on the same level. Now listen, The Lost Bus absolutely has its place in front of the right audience. I might not be that audience.

Matthew McConaughey came out of a 5+ year leading man retirement to act against a cell phone, that is the most disappointing aspect of this entire project. You had two pretty great actors in Matthew and his cohort America Ferrera, but neither one of them got the opportunity to do much outside of those phone calls and shooing faceless children along. As you can tell, I don’t like movies where the main character is on the phone for a majority of their screen time. Maybe this story just wasn’t meant to be told in this format, because drama and disaster are shoved to the side in an attempt to give big names for screen time.

Aside from the acting from our leads, this movie is a disaster movie that repeatedly hits you over the head with tragedy. A lot of the runtime it’s things that do little to nothing to move the plot forward or to give our leads exposition. It’s more of a trauma dump than anything. Dialogue is too explanatory and over the top C-level acting from the surrounding cast fills the air. I’m glad both sides are portrayed, but the responsibility of everyone involved is muddled with movie logic (especially with the kids) that made me want to step into the fires instead of away from them.

Circling back to Mr. Greengrass. His direction was all over the place. On the positives, some choices made this feel like a found footage film that brings you into the realism of the situations. If a camera crew was on site for this type of disaster, I’d be more invested in the stakes. His camera movements also made it feel like a zombie war film, which did not fit the vibes. There were shots that felt stolen or unfinished, all while some POV shots reminded me of the black smoke from LOST, and all of that resulted in more of a comedic effect.

Suffocating nightmarish situations are absolutely portrayed here, but they felt more like fiction in a non fiction world with the intermediate levels of acting and direction.

5/10