Roller Boogie (1979) United Artists/Comedy-Musical RT: 103 minutes Rated PG (language, threatening behavior, a drug reference) Director: Mark L. Lester Screenplay: Barry Schneider Music: Craig Safan Cinematography: Dean Cundey Release date: December 19, 1979 (US) Starring: Linda Blair, Jim Bray, Beverly Garland, Roger Perry, James Van Patten, Kimberly Beck, Sean McClory, Mark Goddard, Albert Insinnia, Stoney Jackson, M.G. Kelly, Christopher S. Nelson, Patrick Wright, Dorothy Meyer. Box Office: $13.2M (US)
Rating: ****
I LOVE Roller Boogie and I don’t care who knows it! This movie is freaking awesome! I enjoy it on the same level as Can’t Stop the Music and Xanadu. I’ll never understand why the roller disco fad didn’t last; it looks like so much fun. If I were younger and better coordinated, I might be tempted to don a pair of skates and shake my booty.
Roller Boogie is wall-to-wall clichés and won’t win any acting awards, but that doesn’t mean it’s not an enjoyable movie. It’s actually a lot of fun in a silly sort of way. It’s like a time-capsule of the late 70s disco era with the outrageous clothing and bouncy music. It came out around the same time as another roller disco flick called Skatetown USA that I saw on cable TV more than 30 years ago. I remember liking that one very much too, but it’s never been released on any kind of home entertainment format.
I caught Roller Boogie on Cinemax in September ’86 and recorded it on a VHS tape that I subsequently used for something else. I want to say I taped a Cheech & Chong movie over it. Anyway, I ordered the DVD and had an absolute ball reliving what many see as one of the most embarrassing eras in recent history. It’s no more embarrassing than the preppies that insisted on wearing their Miami Vice blazers to school every day in the 80s or the idiots who walk around with their pants on the ground these days. It’s a subjective kind of thing that some people can look back on with a sense of nostalgia. I really wish I had been a teenager in the late 70s so I could have taken part in these fun activities that were off limits to most (if not all) sixth graders. In any event, I still thoroughly enjoy Roller Boogie. It’s just good, clean, silly fun that moves to a disco beat.
The movie opens with clean-cut hero skater Bobby James (real life competitive skater Bray in his only movie) skating to work with his friends (and a whole slew of extras) on the Venice Beach boardwalk. He dreams of competing in the Olympics someday. He meets up with wealthy Beverly Hills brat Terry Barkley (Blair, Savage Streets), a talented flautist who’s heading to Juilliard in the fall. She hangs out at Venice Beach as a form of rebellion against her inattentive parents who don’t even raise an eyebrow when she announces that her plans for the day include suicide. She hates her life of privilege and can’t stand the boring parent-approved boyfriend Franklin (Nelson, Without Warning) who persists in making unwanted advances.
Bobby first encounters Terry on the boardwalk and she spurns his advance. They meet again later at Jammers, the local skating rink owned by former competitive skater Jammer (McClory, My Chauffeur) She offers to pay him to teach her how to roller boogie for an upcoming contest. She rebuffs him again, but it isn’t too long before they’re making goo-goo eyes at each other. Before long, they’re practicing a routine for the big contest. Naturally, Terry’s parents pay attention to her long enough to let her know that they strongly disapprove of her new friends, especially after they cause a major scene during an outdoor party at their home.
However, that’s not the teens’ biggest problem. A ruthless developer/mobster named Thatcher (Goddard, Lost in Space) is strong-arming Jammer into selling him the rink and won’t take no for an answer. He threatens to burn the place down with the teenage customers still inside. One of Bobby’s friends, Phones (Jackson, Streets of Fire), unknowingly records this conversation. It’s a safe bet that somebody will discover this before the end of the movie. You’d also be right in assuming that Terry’s attorney father (Perry, The Facts of Life) represents Thatcher and refuses to help her newfound friends. Will the kids be able to set things straight before the big roller boogie contest? What, are you kidding me?
Roller Boogie is as campy as they come. The dialogue is positively hilarious at times. We get treated to howlers like when Terry’s father says, “It’s the skating, isn’t it? It’s that insane disco music thing!” while trying to figure out what’s troubling his daughter and Terry whining, “So what, I’m a musical genius! Whatta drag! Whatta bummer!” Blair actually gets the lion’s share of dippy dialogue with lines like “I swear, you’ve got more hands than a poker game!” (to perpetually horny Franklin) and “You’re heading for the Olympics; I’m heading for broken bones!” to Bobby as they attempt to elude Thatcher and his goons. Like I said, no acting awards here.
On the other hand, Jim Bray does a half-decent job for a non-actor. He’s not particularly good, but he isn’t terrible either. He has the right kind of personality for an air-headed feel-good flick like Roller Boogie. Blair, a long way from her Oscar-nominated role in The Exorcist, retains her crown as Queen of Camp. I like her! Her post-Exorcist roles include Hell Night, Chained Heat, Savage Streets and Night Patrol. Are they crappy movies? You bet your ass! Are they fun and enjoyable? Again, you bet your ass! She brings that special something to B-movies like those. Her talent shines through all the dreck. It helps that she’s also freaking HOT!
I love the soundtrack to Roller Boogie which includes the song “Boogie Wonderland” by Earth, Wind and Fire. Director Mark L. Lester (Class of 1984, Commando) does a good job with the material. Let’s face it, it’s a predictable movie and the ending is a foregone conclusion. The whole movie is a total no-brainer. Fortunately, you don’t really need to think about a movie like Roller Boogie. It exists simply to entertain those who prefer less cerebral entertainment. I’ll refer the opposite demographic to the films of Frederico Fellini and Woody Allen.
I like Roller Boogie very much. It’s 100% fun and a total guilty pleasure. I can’t think of a better defense than that and I don’t need to. Remember, coolness is in the eye of the beholder. I know, I’m misquoting the saying, but you get the idea.
