Recxpectation: The Lost Bus

The Lost Bus is an Apple+ movie with a limited theatrical release starring Matthew McConaughey and America Ferrera. It’s a ripped-from-the-headlines movie; a true story about a bus driver who went to pick up some kids who were deep into the Camp Fire of 2018.

I’m not going to go too deep into this one because these kind of “Too Soon?” movies - usually made by Peter Berg/Mark Wahlberg - aren’t my cup of tea and a pet peeve of mine is when people who don’t like a genre of films pass judgement on new films in said genre. But let’s just say that this film didn’t change my mind on the genre.

EXPECT: a well-made movie of the week
Paul Greengrass (Bourne Supremacy/Ultimatum, Green Zone) directed the film and it has the feel of his previous films. The script, however, is pretty rough. The character moments are schmaltzy. The storyline about Cal Fire team trying to stop the spread of the fire is pretty much just there to serve as expository dialogue. While the direction was good, there were a few gimmicks they tried out that I didn’t think worked. And there’s also a random story that, as far as I could tell, they completely abandoned (but I could have misremembered that.)

Personally, I felt the film was probably 10 - 20 minutes too long. It ranks at #33 in my Movies of 2025 list.