Sudden Terror: The Hijacking of School Bus #17

I'm surprised that any of the other reviewers actually watched the whole movie, given their extreme dislike of it. I found it perfectly in keeping with the general style of such movies. Yes, there IS a lot of emphasis on sentimentality in the face of danger, but that's exactly what people look for in a Lifetime movie and, don't forget, this actually happened to real people, so I doubt it was completely unrealistic. What impressed me was the spirit of the bus driver in the face of extreme stress. There is no parent alive who would not wish for someone of her character and strength to be the one to protect their child in such an ordeal, were they not there to do it for themselves.

Oh man. I've seen some half-cocked attempts at a TV movie before, but this really takes the biscuit, and anything else that happens to be around. I don't have the time or the space to list out all the faults with this, so I'll skip to the best/worst parts.

For a start, the title should be had up for flagrant mis-advertising. 'Sudden'- yeah right. This film accelerates to the action at the same speed as the bus. 'Terror'- where exactly? I've been more scared watching an ice cube melt. The terror of not knowing if that ice will drip on your clean jeans. The horror, the horror!

For 99% of the film's running time, nothing happens. Except it gets worse, of course. This film starts badly, and digs itself into a hole from then on. After this, instead of stopping digging, it takes a pneumatic jack-hammer and seems determined to dig itself right to the centre of the earth.

Acting. Acting. Yep, this film had it I'm sure, but not in the bits I saw. You could go see a group of 5 year olds do a play and be blown away by the acting after having watched this. The scripting flowed like set cement.

After having sat through most of the film, I then saw the SRT (Special Rescue Team) kick into action. Now we're getting somewhere I thought. But obviously it was the real SRT's day off, so instead we had the Sort-of Ready Team 'in charge'. You would think that they've never seen a gun before the way they acted. I'm just glad someone told them which end of the gun is the dangerous one, or we would have a very messy situation on our hands. They also seemed to lack any training in explosives. Having found out that there was C4 on board, the SRT thought they had a useful bit of info. But no, no-one around seemed to be trained properly in explosives. At one point, the bus was going down hill fast (much like the film itself) and over bumps. Seeing this, the SRT ran around for cover, thinking the bus would explode. So now I sat there, screaming at the screen, 'Fools! C4 needs an electrical charge to detonate! Going bumpy bump ain't gonna do it! Fools!'

Having lost faith in the SRT now, I wasn't that surprised when the commander didn't give the order to fire to the snipers when they had a clean shot. Typical. So what was her plan exactly? Ask him if he wanted to discuss this over coffee? I don't condone unnecessary killing, but for geezes sake, he had a bomb on a bus full of kids. This bomb was supposedly going to make Oklahoma look like a sneeze. In that case, why did they let the madman drive this bus through the centre of a massive city? Is it cheaper to blow up buildings (with people in) than knock them down? That must be it. The SRT were getting back-handers from a property developer. It all makes sense now.

So the end of the film came. The SRT snipers shot the bad guy. They were pretty lucky actually. You see, the bad guy got shot once, then twice more, but never showed any signs of bullet wounds, or any wounds at all. The shock must have killed him then. Bless.

Conclusion? You already know. I hope that they keep this film in an archive so that directors of the future have a way of making a good film. I can just picture the scene:

FILM ENDS: Media/Film Teacher: 'You see that film we just watched. What I want you to do when you make your film is to do exactly the opposite of everything you just saw. You'll thank me oneday.'

Boy, it's Friday. I've been working hard all week an I'm looking forward to a quiet TV night. I look at the TV guide and see that there is an action-filled "based on a true story" film on Iceland's Channel 2 about a man who hijacks a school bus. I thought it might just be interesting to watch it considering I liked movies like Speed and Executive Decision. I sit down and I start watching. The thing that pops into my mind after 5 minutes of watching is that Sudden Terror might just be a strong competitor of being the worst film I've ever seen. (Caligula is on the top of that list by the way). So this Asian-American guy owes the IRS $16.000 and hijacks the CX-17 school bus to pay others attention to the unfairness he has to suffer. In this schoolbus are kid who are "special". Of course they start to panic, but not to worry...The bus driver is a Cuban immigrant who doesn't panic under pressure according to her husband. Well anyway, this has to be one of the worst acted films ever. Marcy Walker who plays the SWAT-leader gives the viewers a stunning performance (I kid you not)and she almost made me cry. No wonder this was her last film according to IMDb. The casting director probably looked for actors on a list containing Razzie-nominees and winners. I feel truly and deeply sorry for the children who play these special children and the day they watch this film when the get older, the average depression rate among american teenagers will definitly rise. WHAT A WASTE OF A FRIDAY NIGHT!!!!!

There is nothing wrong with the acting in this movie; why do people always blame the actors for poor film making? Watch it for what it is, a low-budget afternoon/midnight movie loosely based on a true story.

People have gotten used to (((ACTION!!!!)) and ((EXPLOSIONS!!)) but this being a sort-of true story, it's lacking in that kind of visual stimulation. What it does have is a paranoid weirdo who may or may not be carrying a real bomb on a schoolbus in a moronic attempt to clear his tax debt. It's not CSI Miami. The only thing really wrong with this movie is that it's too slow-paced, the whole thing could have been fitted into a 45 minute episode on a TV show but it's been dragged out for 2 hours.

Back in the mid 1990's myself and several other cops were hired to do stunt driving of police cars in the chase of the school bus. The actual incident occurred in Miami previously but this was filmed in Jacksonville, Fl. And the production executives were short on drivers that knew how to pursue. We also helped wit the uniform set up's, gun belts, fake Beretta 9mm. I know I notice BS cop rigs in movies and we tried to get them to set it up correctly.

The stars were very nice folks to us all. We were on set out around Bartram School off Atlantic & University Blvds. One day and a full banquet of food was set up for everybody. We also went over on the old Haines St. Expressway to stage the bus & police car chases. A lot of filming occurred but the movie of course was edited. Bruce Weitz was one actor that stood out to me as a down to earth guy. Many of us cops watched him in Hill Street Blues and that ensemble of actors were all awesome. Mr. Weitz would talk with you in relaxed times and I enjoyed speaking with him.