The Lost Bus
Apple TV+ | Release Date (Streaming): September 19, 2025 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
64
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
14
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
EmpireHelen O'HaraSep 18, 2025
The fire scenes are terrifying and may well sear themselves into your brain, but however well-intentioned, the human element is less involving than the disaster they must endure. Read full review
60
Little White LiesDavid JenkinsOct 9, 2025
There’s something of a ​‘so what?’ aspect to the film where it all comes down to the thrill of potential escape and, eventually, a whole lot of good luck. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleSep 23, 2025
There are scenes of nerve-jangling terror that weld you to your seat, but they’re sandwiched in between a lot that feels very much sculpted for three-act character arc effect by Greengrass and co-writer Brad Ingelsby. Read full review
60
Next Best PictureGiovanni LagoSep 6, 2025
Greengrass can conjure up some magic in those final twenty minutes as The Lost Bus, on all levels, feels like it’s in rhythm. Unfortunately, by the time it does, the film is winding down to its inevitable conclusion. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMichael OrdoñaSep 22, 2025
The narrative is hamstrung by cliché attempts to build McKay’s backstory, shamelessly changing key facts. McConaughey’s performance is just fine, as is Ferrera’s, but the personal stuff feels like a distraction. Read full review
60
Screen DailyRobert DanielsSep 6, 2025
For every moment The Lost Bus impresses with it scale and craft, there are other instances where it feels like we’re watching these screaming kids be dragged through a Disney amusement park ride. Read full review
60
Screen RantMae AbdulbakiSep 6, 2025
There are certainly lulls throughout, and the story needed some tightening. But what it lacks is more than made up with a great cast, distressing moments, and some well-shot action. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineMark HansonSep 8, 2025
Paul Greengrass employs a peripatetic restlessness to the material, and while that brings an often thrilling sense of verisimilitude to the film, the cliché-stuffed screenplay too often plays against the intended solemnity of the project. Read full review
60
The GuardianBenjamin LeeSep 6, 2025
The writing might be disappointingly inelegant but The Lost Bus is forthright and frightening regardless. Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla DargisSep 18, 2025
Greengrass knows how to shoot and cut, but The Lost Bus is at once too high-minded and too exploitative to work. However skilled the cinematography and editing, there is no saving a movie predicated on looming death with badly written characters and such a frustratingly narrow point of view. Read full review
58
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezSep 9, 2025
Both McConaughey and Ferrera’s characters embody the idea of an everyday hero: perhaps imperfect but unselfishly stepping up to help others in a time of crisis. While the movie’s artifice makes it a thrilling watch, its real-life inspiration is equally just as moving. Read full review
60
The RevealScott TobiasOct 2, 2025
The film indulges in the Speed-like fantasy that a skilled and intrepid bus driver can blow through the inferno, but that’s Hollywood. The Lost Bus is convincing enough to expose its own nonsense. Read full review
60
VarietyPeter DebrugeSep 6, 2025
The Lost Bus resembles several other Greengrass films in that it’s also slim on character (only one of the kids has a name and personality), but succeeds in plunging audiences into the action — which, in this case, means trying to steer an unwieldy vehicle through hell itself. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithSep 19, 2025
The film is plagued by flaws: James Newton Howard’s relentlessly bombastic musical score, an elementary storyline, underwritten characters. As expertly as Mr. Greengrass recaptures the flaming horrors, his film is a somewhat superfluous successor to an excellent documentary on the same subject, Ron Howard’s 2020 feature “Rebuilding Paradise.” Read full review
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