Save your money for something good and enjoyable

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Months after the final 'On The Buses' series ended on television, the cast, including Michael Robbins ( who had left the series in 1972 ), were all reunited for one last cinematic outing - 'Holiday On The Buses' - which went out on release in December 1973. It did not do the same big business as the first two films, partly because of its lack of advertising, but was popular all the same. A new director, Bryan Izzard, who had also worked on the series, was brought in.It had to happen. Stan and Jack end up being sacked from the bus depot following Stan's negligent driving. A visit to the local labour exchange yields nothing. However, after responding to an advertisement requesting an experienced bus crew for a tour bus at Pontins holiday camp, North Wales, Stan and Jack's troubles look to be over. Well, not quite, as Blakey is working there too, as a security guard! And as if that is not bad enough, Stan's family arrive at the camp on holiday.Predictable mishaps ensue - Olive falls into the pool and loses the bottom half of her bathing costume ( was I the only one who thought she had a nice bum? ), Stan and Arthur have to redecorate the chalet after little Arthur coats the walls in Olive's make-up, Olive and Arthur join a ballroom dancing contest at the entertainment complex and make a right chump of themselves and Stan tries to seduce a sexy young woman on board a ferry and ends up coming down with seasickness. Arthur Mullard and Queenie Watts appear here as Wally and Lil Briggs, the same characters who appeared in Wolfe & Chesney's 'Romany Jones' and later its sequel 'Yus, My Dear'. Kate Williams from 'Love Thy Neighbour' plays a sexy nurse who Blakey is besotted with while Wilfrid Brambell ( Albert Steptoe from 'Steptoe & Son' ) appears as a randy Irish pensioner, who ends up having a fling with Mrs. Butler. Henry McGee, who graced 'The Benny Hill Show' for many years, appears here as the camp site manager.'Holiday On The Buses' could easily have been a 'Carry On' film. Overall, it was good-natured saucy fun. Denis King provided a bouncy theme tune which wouldn't have sounded out of place on one of Peter Rodgers' aforementioned films. Unfortunately, as was the case with the film's predecessor 'Mutiny On The Buses', interest starts to wane towards the end ( it does for me anyway ). The scene where Stan is roughed up in the canteen kitchen does not work at all and the moment where the bus is submerged in the sand when the tide comes in is just plain unfunny. A year and a half after this went on release, Stephen Lewis' Blakey appeared in his own show - 'Don't Drink The Water' - in which he and his sister retired to Spain, but it never caught on in the way that 'On The Buses' had done.Definitely not a great example of the series but a good enough film to round off the trilogy. A fourth film 'Still At It On The Buses' ( in which Stan and co went on holiday abroad ) was planned but did not get made, probably not a bad thing to be honest.Funniest bit? Stan throwing his cigarette end down the toilet, unaware that Olive has poured petrol down it, cue massive explosion!

New York, 1973. Unknown film student Martin Scorcese was sitting in a darkened Manhattan cinema. He was watching Brian Izzard's Holiday On The Buses. It was this experience that made him the filmmaker that he became.Scorcese was devastated at the beauty of Izzard's vision, his glorious understanding of photographing a scene, his eye for detail, his ability to coax incredible performances from Reg Varney and Bob Grant. Scorcese was wildly impressed at Izzard's ability to put on film a coherent, realistic portrayal of an underclass struggling amidst poverty and work pressures. This was one of Scorcese's favourite themes.Indeed, Scorcese immediately ran home and penned Mean Streets as a response to Holiday On The Buses. His Mean Streets script originally included a character called Blakey but Scorcese edited it at the last moment to avoid plagiarism. Indeed, Scorcese's Taxi Driver was initially to be called Bus Driver, with it's central character of Stan Bickle spiralling into insanity amid a sea of bare breasts and exploding toilets. Scorcese did try to secure Varney for the role of Bickle but Varney turned him down, citing that if Scorcese wanted him he would have to come to the UK to film Bus Driver.This film had a profound effect on Scorcese. Holiday On The Buses deserves a 10/10 and I shall give it a 10/10.

In the 1970s, lots of movie spin-offs of popular British sitcoms were produced. Most of them turned out to be total disasters and were produced solely as lame attempts by ailing film companies, often working in a different genre (Hammer for example), to stop themselves from going under following the withdrawal of American financial investment. Having said that, ON THE BUSES was one of the few sitcoms that actually made a successful transfer to the big screen. Three movies were produced, more than any other sitcom managed to spawn.The movies are actually better than the TV series in some respects. For one, the daily goings-on at the bus depot receive a lot more focus. And they also use the medium of film to showcase some excellent outdoor scenes that were not possible in the series (due to both lack of budget and the fact that videotape equipment was much heavier to carry thus making location work very difficult without using very grainy film stock).The movies also capture the heart of the TV series, which is probably the biggest factor behind their amazing commercial success. All of the characters from the series are here and are played by the same actors. They behave the same as they would in any given episode, with Stan and Jack making fun of the inspector, Arthur insulting Olive and so on.This particular spin-off sees Stan, Jack and Blakey losing their jobs at the bus depot after Stan's bus ends up in a collision with that from another company. This is basically the set-up for the rest of the movie, which sees all three of them working at Pontins holiday camp at Prestatyn, Wales. Stan invites the rest of the family there for a holiday. That's basically the whole plot of the movie. The gang all go about their usual stuff. But, there are a few differences compared to the two previous movies:Stan and Jack cop off with more young women than usual and go through more comical escapades (like having to find ways to get the women by themselves, something that wasn't a problem in the previous movies or the TV series);Blakey has a love interest for the first time;A lot more outdoor scenes are used here and surprisingly the weather's decent with the movie obviously having been filmed in the summer compared to the previous ones that were filmed in the winter;And the movie benefits much more from a strong supporting cast, with first-rate talent involved in the form of Wilfrid Brambell, Kate Williams, Arthur Mullard, Queenie Watts and Henry McGee (all of whom were well known to British audiences at the time).It's all very dated and politically incorrect and could never be produced today due to fear of being branded with some undesirable label such as "sexist". But it is harmless fun and does never descend into vulgarity. There is very little, if any, swearing at all and sexual situations and gags are handled through innuendo. This movie goes a step further than the previous two by including a brief flash of bare breasts. But it's otherwise more of the same innocent fare.As usual, the main cast do a great job and are backed up by a strong supporting cast as mentioned earlier. The late Bob Grant stands out more in this one than usual and his performance is a true testament of his ability as a fine comic actor. May he rest in peace knowing he managed to bring such joy to the world.The one thing I find very puzzling about this movie is its low rating on the IMDb - 2.8 out of 10 at the time of writing this comment. What's going on there? It's really no worse than the first two movies yet for some reason it has a much lower rating that puts it in danger of being in the bottom 100.I wasn't alive in the 1970s so I am not able to say whether or not it truly reflects what Britain was like back then. But I can certainly say that the society expressed in this movie is far more pleasant than the one I live in today. The 1970s is portrayed as a simpler time when teenage pregnancies, family breakdown, and alcohol and drug-fuelled violence were problems that did not exist (at least not on the scale we have now anyway). In other words, it shows a society that wasn't broken, unlike the one that Britain has today.Overall, I would definitely recommend this if you're a fan of the TV series or have seen either of the other two movies. For those who haven't seen the series, I would recommend the movie if you are a fan of either the CARRY ON movies or Benny Hill-style humour.

When a woman's breasts pop out of her top running for the bus, it distracts driver Stan who crashes into several cars and a bus. As a result Stan, Jack and Blakey find themselves on the dole queue. Jack and Stan find a job driving buses as part of a holiday camp and are only slightly put off when they find that Blakey has also managed to get himself a job there too.As somebody who spent too many childhood holidays in Butlins-style parks and various caravan sites, I must agree that the horrors of the average holiday camp are ripe for a bit of mocking – a fact that makes it all the worse that the film completely misses the chance to make fun of it. In fact the film just accepts the holiday camps for what they are and sets about with a plot that just seems the characters chasing a series of girls. If you are familiar with the On The Buses series then there will be no surprises to you as it is all the usual stuff just transposed to the holiday camp. If you enjoy the TV series then you'll like this, but if you dislike the very basic sexist humour of the 1970's then you'll more than dislike this film. It's not particularly funny and I found it poor from start to finish. The few years since 'Mutiny on The Buses' meant that the film had become more daring and it opens with a flash of boobs that the previous film had only implied – if this plus sexist humour is what you are after then you'll be at home here, but my tastes are a bit above the poor British sex 'comedies' from the 1970's.The original cast all return and it helps the film keep the standard of the TV series (if only that was a good thing!). The only downside of this is that all the cast are pretty old and it's all a bit tasteless to see them chasing girls clearly in their twenties! Varney and Grant do their usual lecherous stuff and they are just what the material deserves – and I don't mean that in a good way. Lewis is easily the best character as his jokes are more physical than sexual and are at least a little funny. Robbins and Karen play the sort of British people that I would cross a country to avoid, never mind the street! Wilfred Brambell hasn't got much to do but his presence at least is something different to distract from the poor material all round.Overall this is a pretty poor film and the fact that it was produced by Hammer just makes it all the more amusing that it turned out to be a really dated horror. The gags are poor, the material very thin and it does nothing that makes it stand out from the hoards of crude sex comedies that the UK pushed out in the 1970's. Fans of the series will enjoy it but the rest of us will just be grateful that they don't make them like this anymore (well, not very often anyway!).