Bustin' Loose

1981 • 93 minutes

About this movie

Richard Pryor stars in this wild, wacky and warmhearted road movie with a difference, which later inspired a TV series. When budget cuts close a children's home in Philadelphia, Vivian Perry (Emmy Award winner Cicely Tyson) decides to help eight special-education students by taking them to her aunt's farm outside Seattle. In desperate need of a driver/mechanic for the bus, she teams up with Joe Braxton (Richard Pryor), an equally desperate ex-con who hates women and children. Fueled by Roberta Flack's songs, the action is fast and funny as this delightfully mismatched group battles the bus, the law, the Ku Klux Klan and even each other on their way west. But it all ends happily for the kids, the con and the straitlaced lady.

Ratings and reviews

I remember seeing this at the drive-in when it was first released, Richard Pryor's acting chops in this film were top notch. The subject of this film is both poignant and heart warming with just the right amount of hilarious mixed in to make it easy to digest. Pryor and Tyson together were incredible in this film, as were the exceptional child actors, who were all funny. This is a true classic that should not be overlooked.

This movie is a classic for my family and I. The lessons of real life experience and in encounters that are still relateable and timeless today. A classic that never get old.

I watched this movie today and I laughed a lot during this movie ritcherd p was so funny and even though he is gone his movies will live on forever