{"id":3865,"date":"2024-09-06T13:51:17","date_gmt":"2024-09-06T13:51:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=3865"},"modified":"2024-10-13T19:39:58","modified_gmt":"2024-10-13T23:39:58","slug":"rollercoaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/09\/06\/rollercoaster\/","title":{"rendered":"Rollercoaster"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Rollercoaster<\/strong> (1977)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Action-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 119 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (language, violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: James Goldstone\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Richard Levinson and William Link\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Lalo Schifrin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: David M. Walsh\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 10, 1977 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: George Segal, Richard Widmark, Timothy Bottoms, Henry Fonda, Harry Guardino, Susan Strasberg, Helen Hunt, Dorothy Tristan.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0Rollercoaster<\/strong> isn\u2019t exactly a disaster movie nor is it a routine good guy-bad guy suspense-thriller. It\u2019s a little bit of both yet doesn\u2019t wholly succeed as either one. This is a roundabout way of saying I don\u2019t know exactly what to make of it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0The plot is simplicity itself, FBI agents and a ride inspector work together to stop a psychotic mad bomber that\u2019s been attacking amusement parks around the country. I\u2019m not exaggerating when I say this synopsis basically summarizes the entire movie. Granted, movies have been built on flimsier premises, but this one leaves the viewer wanting more. It\u2019s a great story idea, but very little is done with it. Yet somehow director James Goldstone (When Time Ran Out) still manages to stretch it out to just under two hours, a lot of which is filler. We get unnecessary scenes of the hero at home and prolonged conversations about dealing with the central threat. The movie\u2019s pacing suffers because of this. Rollercoaster<\/strong> would have benefited from tighter writing and directing. However, it\u2019s still a reasonably entertaining movie.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The villain in Rollercoaster<\/strong> is never referred to by name; he\u2019s known only as \u201cYoung Man\u201d and is played by Timothy Bottoms (The Last Picture Show). We know nothing about him except that he served in Vietnam and is an expert on bombs and electronics. The movie opens with Young Man detonating a bomb on the tracks of a rollercoaster. It results in a catastrophe that claims the lives of several riders. He sets a fire at another amusement park across the country. It\u2019s all part of a scheme to extort $1 million from the heads of five major parks.<\/p>\n

\u00a0This is what ride inspector Harry Calder (Segal, Fun with Dick and Jane) finds out when he starts looking into the matter. He\u2019s also the one that Young Man selects to deliver the money to him. Under the supervision of FBI Agent Hoyt (Widmark, Kiss of Death), Harry is made to run all over Kings Dominion Park (Richmond, Virginia), going on various rides until the bad guy is satisfied that the hand-off will go undetected.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Naturally, the FBI tries to pull a fast one and Young Man calls them on it. By way of retaliation, he tells Calder there will be another attack. He correctly deduces the latest target will be The Revolution (at Magic Mountain), scheduled to open July 4 meaning it will be a major media event and attract thousands of customers\/potential victims. Will he be able to figure out the identity of the mad bomber in time to stop him?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Rollercoaster<\/strong> is a bumpy ride, but not without a few scattered thrills. The first bombing is pretty cool. If that doesn\u2019t make you avoid rollercoasters for the rest of your life, I don\u2019t know what will. Although initially suspenseful, the sequence with Segal being sent all over the park is overlong. It becomes redundant and self-defeating. Goldstone and the writers attempt to add personal drama to the proceedings with facets of Calder\u2019s home life: his relationships with his girlfriend (Strasberg, The Manitou) and teenage daughter (a very young Helen Hunt) and his attempts to quit smoking. This is the filler I was talking about earlier. None of it really serves the plot other than to have the two girls at Magic Mountain at the same time as the bomber. That they\u2019re not taken hostage by Young Man is a sign of either originality or laziness.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Now let\u2019s talk about the lack of character development as it pertains to the villain. There is none. We know he\u2019s deranged. We assume that it has something to do with his fighting in Vietnam (aren\u2019t all Vietnam vets in the movies crazy?). We have no idea why he wants the money. Is he broke? Does he feel it\u2019s owed to him by an ungrateful country and unfair system? One can make the same observation about the sniper in Two-Minute Warning, but there\u2019s a difference. The bad guy in the 1976 movie basically remains faceless and voiceless until the climax. Here he\u2019s introduced as a major character with dialogue. We need more information than what we\u2019re given.<\/p>\n

\u00a0As the hero, Segal does okay, nothing particularly noteworthy about his performance. Henry Fonda makes a customary brief appearance as Segal\u2019s boss. He can do this kind of role in his sleep; he built the latter part of career on such roles. Widmark does well as the FBI agent who barely tolerates Segal\u2019s character. It\u2019s a great cast that\u2019s borderline wasted here.<\/p>\n

\u00a0When released theatrically, Rollercoaster<\/strong> was shown in Sensurround which means the theater was equipped with devices that caused the seats to vibrate during the rollercoaster scenes allowing the audience to experience the feeling of being on the ride. Only three other films utilized this gimmick: Earthquake (1974), Midway (1976) and the theatrical version of Battlestar Galactica (1979). Obviously, it didn\u2019t prove popular with the moviegoing public. I don\u2019t know how much it enhanced the experience of watching Rollercoaster<\/strong>. What I do know is that the producers probably felt that the gimmick would compensate for the movie\u2019s shortcomings so they didn\u2019t concern themselves too much with things like narrative, pacing or character and plot development. It\u2019s not a bad picture per se, just a comparatively weak one. It\u2019s kind of fun, but far from the ultimate thrill ride it promises.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rollercoaster (1977)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Action-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 119 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (language, violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: James Goldstone\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Richard Levinson and William Link\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Lalo Schifrin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: David M. Walsh\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 10, 1977 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: George Segal, Richard Widmark, Timothy Bottoms, Henry Fonda, Harry Guardino, Susan Strasberg, Helen Hunt, Dorothy Tristan.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A Rating: ** \u00bd […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5224,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-suspense-thrillers"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Rollercoaster-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3865"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5225,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3865\/revisions\/5225"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}