Bus 17 - Ultima fermata

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.

As with most if not all TV movies, their budget is lower than those of mainstream motion pictures and acting a little more sub-par. However, this is a pretty suspenseful little TV movie, based on a true story, where a madman hijacks a school bus boarded by disabled children.

Instead of relying on the usual gunfights and explosions, a good deal of thrills, drama and suspense are put in, making the plot pretty intriguing and making the audience eager to find out how the course of events would play (almost having the exact adrenaline as the movie Speed).

The acting wasn't bad, except, the plot tends to drag a bit and is slow-paced. But, not at all a bad movie to spend with on a Saturday night.

Grade B-

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.

i watched this movie last night and I love it because it had a good plot,great cast,and great skills.I am a disablitly child and this would be a good flim to teach childern who have specail needs what to do in a dangerous situation like the one in the flim.

I was sitting there thinking this was a really bad movie. And, then, I see Welton Barker's comments. Out of the blue, it hits me. Well, actually that was the remote being hurled at me by my wife as she yelled for me to change the channel. I would have done just that had I not been mesmerized by Barker's stunningly in-depth critique. With tears in my eyes, I watched the rest of the movie. Every time I thought I was getting bored, I reread Barker's comments. I can tell you that it changed my life in such a profound way, that I am now able to use the word "profundity" with pride. Thank you Welton Barker, and, of course, thank you IMDb for making this whole thing possible.