Roller Boogie lacks good music, and so much more! Were it not for the hotness of Linda Blair and Kimberly Beck, this film would lack any reason to even glance at it. This should be on the bottom 100 list with R.O.T.O.R. and the Kirk Cameron movie. It's amazing some of the things that TCM will slip into their lineup some nights if you stay up late enough. I kind of remember this film from my childhood... back in the days of school-sponsored rollerskating parties, white men with Afros, and Jimmy Carter. After watching most of it as an adult, its hard to believe anyone could have enjoyed it. Even with rollerskating being so hip at that time.
Roller Boogie would like to be Saturday Night Fever, or something along those lines. But it takes talent and so much more to make a lasting film based only a certain popular craze. SNF had the charismatic John Travolta. Roller Boogie has..... some guy who never did anything else as its male lead. SNF had a memorable Bee Gees soundtrack. Xanadu had Olivia Newton-John and ELO for its exceptional soundtrack. Roller Boogie has not one memorable song, and few memorable scenes. Honesty, what was the most memorable scene of Roller Boogie? I'd have to say it was when the kids throw a whole food truck worth of fruit at the bad guy and his henchmen. What else happened? There was another scene where a bunch of stiff old people fall into a swimming pool for no other reason than they probably couldn't think of any other way to end the scene. There is some decent skating, but there had to be. The problem is with how stagy it all looks. A couple characters will be talking in the foreground, and there will be these extras in rainbow-colored clothing doing choreographed skating routines on the sidewalk behind them. Doesn't look authentic at all.
The film was shot in a few weeks, but doesn't end up looking like they spent even that much time on it. Any momentum Linda Blair had in the 1970s pretty much ended with this film. It could have been interesting. It isn't. It should have been fun. It isn't. Roller Boogie might be worse than American Anthem. It's that bad. 2 of 10 stars.
The Hound.
Roller Boogie would like to be Saturday Night Fever, or something along those lines. But it takes talent and so much more to make a lasting film based only a certain popular craze. SNF had the charismatic John Travolta. Roller Boogie has..... some guy who never did anything else as its male lead. SNF had a memorable Bee Gees soundtrack. Xanadu had Olivia Newton-John and ELO for its exceptional soundtrack. Roller Boogie has not one memorable song, and few memorable scenes. Honesty, what was the most memorable scene of Roller Boogie? I'd have to say it was when the kids throw a whole food truck worth of fruit at the bad guy and his henchmen. What else happened? There was another scene where a bunch of stiff old people fall into a swimming pool for no other reason than they probably couldn't think of any other way to end the scene. There is some decent skating, but there had to be. The problem is with how stagy it all looks. A couple characters will be talking in the foreground, and there will be these extras in rainbow-colored clothing doing choreographed skating routines on the sidewalk behind them. Doesn't look authentic at all.
The film was shot in a few weeks, but doesn't end up looking like they spent even that much time on it. Any momentum Linda Blair had in the 1970s pretty much ended with this film. It could have been interesting. It isn't. It should have been fun. It isn't. Roller Boogie might be worse than American Anthem. It's that bad. 2 of 10 stars.
The Hound.