Roller Boogie (1979)

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Memorable, crazy movie

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

I saw this at Graumans Chinese on Hollywood Blvd when it came out. Because a friend wanted to go. Caught it again the other night and was surprised as I could remember nothing about it from the first time, it's that bad.Linda Blair shows zero acting skill, which is a surprise as she had a good number of credentials behind her. And never ever wear ankle straps when you're big legged like that, Linda. Even EYE know that.With the exception of Cher singing "Hell ON Wheels", the soundtrack is dreary Z grade disco schlock. Embarrassing. As is the skating. It's like disco dancing in slow motion, such is boogying in roller skates.The comedy bits are contrived and labored. The plot points are borrowed from so many movies from the silents to the modern era: Evil developer plans to destroy roller rink to make big bucks on a high rise. Kids save the day. The same plot was used in "Six Pack Annie" with a more risqué solution to "saving the day".Best scene was the always professional Beverly Garland as Linda Blair's Mother, sitting on the stairs stressing out and pulling pill bottles out of her purse: diuretic, diet pills, quaaludes just to find her valium. The only laugh in the entire picture.The only positives:seeing Venice Beach in the raw, 1979 style and the 70s fashion drek. There's plenty of it as much of the action takes place on location on the beach, but that's hardly enough to hold one's interest given the wretched soundtrack, strained attempts at comedy and leaden skating scenes. I love bad movies as much as anyone, but this doesn't even reach the level of being a bad movie entertainment. It's just irritating.

It'an innocent final 70s movie, where Linda Blair moves to skate with her boyfriend, expert roller skater Jim Bray and her friends making a plan to safe the disco palace where a devilish business man tries to build a Shopping Mall there. At the end of the night is the roller skating championship. Evertything must go perfect. The movie is bad, but you cannot denied to be amazed about the disco music, the roller skates and Linda. There's innocence in this movie. This kids loves sport, to hangout with girls not only for sex and loves have fun drinking a soda in the roller boogie place. This are times hard to get now, and the nostalgia wins a 10. Maybe will bore some, but still got it's cheesy magic.Directed by Mark L. Lester.

"roller Boogie" is an absolute time capsule. It features Linda Blair at her ultimate cutest and a full bevy of roller skating teens. Undoubtedly this is the best roller boogie movie ever made! Which isn't saying much, but still its enjoyable fluff from start to finish, and considering its run time of over two hours, it never gets dull.Terry barkley is a talented musician who'd rather skate at the local hot spot than get into Julliard! Wow, there s plot to root for. Her father, played by Roger Perry of "Facts of Life" fame, is not thrilled. Doesn't matter, Terry's heart is in her skates. But watch out, there are bad guys, rotten land-developers who want the roller rink for themselves! And they'll do anything to get it! Can Terry and Bobby save the day and win the big roller contest? DAre we hope? OK, you won't be on pins and needles, the plot in this flick is telegraphed so a two year old could get it.Like I said, though, Roller Boogie is a time piece. If you want to see life in southern California in the late 70's this is it. I actually felt sorry for some of the guys and gals cause those outfits were really skin-tight! Linda looks great though. Jimmy Bray doesn't make an impression and that does hurt the film, but just enjoy the silly music, the stunts, some of which are righteous and the cheesy plot and your'e bound to have a good time. Note the extreme sports preview when Terry and Bobby are on the run and cross a pipeline! The party scene is also classic and was ripped off a dozen times after this.Roller boogie has it all, pathos, passion, pepperoni! Hey, you can't take this too seriously, just enjoy and let your'e brain freeze.

This one is a complete hoot. I caught this low-budget, formulaic 1979 film this past weekend on the big screen at the fully packed Castro Theater in San Francisco as part of a roller-disco midnight madness program. The crowd went wild at every absurd turn of the plot, and it's no wonder. Directed by potboiler specialist Mark L. Lester, this ultimate cheese of a roller disco musical avoids a permanent home in the video junk heap simply because of the sheer idiocy of the storyline and the wealth of unintentional humor permeating the film. There are movies that are intentionally vile and not worthy of reviewing, but this one is actually full of good spirits albeit with nothing in the way of taste, wit or common sense.In what has to be the steepest career free-fall for a former Oscar nominee, an extremely nubile, twenty-year old Linda Blair stars as Terry Barkley, a prodigious flautist on her way to Juilliard, who tires of being ignored by her wealthy, 90210-based parents and decides to run away for a whole night. Upon meeting Bobby James in Venice Beach, the king of the disco-driven roller skaters, she decides she wants to learn some moves to win the big roller boogie contest at Jammer's, the local roller disco rink. My favorite plot point is Bobby's aspiration to become an Olympic roller skating gold medalist...even though no one tells him it isn't an Olympic event. Of course, Terry is rich, Bobby is poor, and consequently, romantic sparks are inevitable. Complications, however, occur when a thuggish land developer blackmails Jammer to sell his rink, so he can raze the building and build a shopping mall. The rest of the plot is not worth disclosing except to say that it is as preposterous as the convoluted set-up, and thanks to the wooden acting, horrendous dialogue and hilarious skating sequences, it makes for grade-A camp entertainment.In skin-tight leotards and enough make-up to scare off a Santa Monica Boulevard hooker, Blair makes a sincere attempt at portraying Terry's teen-aged angst. Of course, it helps her professional standing that she is playing opposite real-life roller skating champion Jim Bray, a non-actor who was cast as Bobby only because the producers could not find a leading man who could actually skate. Innately geeky, the never-to-be-seen-again Bray certainly tries hard, though he is defeated by the film's numerous skating sequences which have been inserted so we can be impressed by his expertise. Instead, they provide the film's biggest laughs - the opening where he leads dozens of fellow skaters to the boardwalk to the strains of Cher's disco-diva anthem, "Hell on Wheels"; the ridiculous chase sequence through the streets of Venice where Terry and Bobby are chased unsuccessfully by a speeding car; the concluding roller boogie contest (of course); and in what has to be the absolute nadir, a solo skating number full of cornball treacle dedicated to the drunken Jammer.Familiar faces from the baby-boomer TV generation dot the supporting cast, among them Beverly Garland ("Scarecrow and Mrs. King" and "My Three Sons") and Roger Perry ("The Facts of Life") as Terry's parents; and Mark Goddard ("Lost in Space") as the villainous land developer. If all that is not enough, there are other lures to consider - the blaring disco music; the groovy, circa-1979 clothes; the forced slapstick (in particular, a fruit-throwing mêlée and a very non-spontaneous pool dunking at a garden party). It's hard to think of a movie more execrable, yet the film has an endearing charm for all its misguided inanity. It's worthwhile just for the unintended guffaws. In the 1979-80 holy trinity of roller disco cinema, "Xanadu" may be "Gone With the Wind" and "Skatetown U.S.A." may be "West Side Story", but this one must certainly be "Citizen Kane".