{"id":3875,"date":"2024-09-06T14:34:49","date_gmt":"2024-09-06T14:34:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=3875"},"modified":"2024-10-14T13:24:48","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T17:24:48","slug":"roller-boogie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/09\/06\/roller-boogie\/","title":{"rendered":"Roller Boogie"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Roller Boogie<\/strong> (1979)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 United Artists\/Comedy-Musical\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 103 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (language, threatening behavior, a drug reference)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Mark L. Lester\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Barry Schneider\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Craig Safan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Dean Cundey\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 19, 1979 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 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.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $13.2M (US)<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0I LOVE Roller Boogie<\/strong> and I don\u2019t care who knows it! This movie is freaking awesome! I enjoy it on the same level as Can\u2019t Stop the Music and Xanadu. I\u2019ll never understand why the roller disco fad didn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Roller Boogie<\/strong> is wall-to-wall clich\u00e9s and won\u2019t win any acting awards, but that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s not an enjoyable movie. It\u2019s actually a lot of fun in a silly sort of way. It\u2019s 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\u2019s never been released on any kind of home entertainment format.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I caught Roller Boogie<\/strong> on Cinemax in September \u201986 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\u2019s 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\u2019s 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<\/strong>. It\u2019s just good, clean, silly fun that moves to a disco beat.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The 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\u2019s heading to Juilliard in the fall. She hangs out at Venice Beach as a form of rebellion against her inattentive parents who don\u2019t even raise an eyebrow when she announces that her plans for the day include suicide. She hates her life of privilege and can\u2019t stand the boring parent-approved boyfriend Franklin (Nelson, Without Warning) who persists in making unwanted advances.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Bobby 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\u2019t too long before they\u2019re making goo-goo eyes at each other. Before long, they\u2019re practicing a routine for the big contest. Naturally, Terry\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u00a0However, that\u2019s not the teens\u2019 biggest problem. A ruthless developer\/mobster named Thatcher (Goddard, Lost in Space) is strong-arming Jammer into selling him the rink and won\u2019t take no for an answer. He threatens to burn the place down with the teenage customers still inside. One of Bobby\u2019s friends, Phones (Jackson, Streets of Fire), unknowingly records this conversation. It\u2019s a safe bet that somebody will discover this before the end of the movie. You\u2019d also be right in assuming that Terry\u2019s 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?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Roller Boogie<\/strong> is as campy as they come. The dialogue is positively hilarious at times. We get treated to howlers like when Terry\u2019s father says, \u201cIt\u2019s the skating, isn\u2019t it? It\u2019s that insane disco music thing!\u201d while trying to figure out what\u2019s troubling his daughter and Terry whining, \u201cSo what, I\u2019m a musical genius! Whatta drag! Whatta bummer!\u201d Blair actually gets the lion\u2019s share of dippy dialogue with lines like \u201cI swear, you\u2019ve got more hands than a poker game!\u201d (to perpetually horny Franklin) and \u201cYou\u2019re heading for the Olympics; I\u2019m heading for broken bones!\u201d to Bobby as they attempt to elude Thatcher and his goons. Like I said, no acting awards here.<\/p>\n

\u00a0On the other hand, Jim Bray does a half-decent job for a non-actor. He\u2019s not particularly good, but he isn\u2019t terrible either. He has the right kind of personality for an air-headed feel-good flick like Roller Boogie<\/strong>. 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\u2019s also freaking HOT!<\/p>\n

\u00a0I love the soundtrack to Roller Boogie<\/strong> which includes the song \u201cBoogie Wonderland\u201d by Earth, Wind and Fire. Director Mark L. Lester (Class of 1984, Commando) does a good job with the material. Let\u2019s face it, it\u2019s a predictable movie and the ending is a foregone conclusion. The whole movie is a total no-brainer. Fortunately, you don\u2019t really need to think about a movie like Roller Boogie<\/strong>. It exists simply to entertain those who prefer less cerebral entertainment. I\u2019ll refer the opposite demographic to the films of Frederico Fellini and Woody Allen.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I like Roller Boogie<\/strong> very much. It\u2019s 100% fun and a total guilty pleasure. I can\u2019t think of a better defense than that and I don\u2019t need to. Remember, coolness is in the eye of the beholder. I know, I\u2019m misquoting the saying, but you get the idea.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Roller Boogie (1979)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 United Artists\/Comedy-Musical\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 103 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (language, threatening behavior, a drug reference)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Mark L. Lester\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Barry Schneider\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Craig Safan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Dean Cundey\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 19, 1979 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Starring: Linda Blair, Jim Bray, Beverly Garland, Roger Perry, James Van Patten, Kimberly Beck, Sean McClory, Mark Goddard, Albert Insinnia, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5220,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guilty-pleasures"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Roller-Boogie-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\/3875","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=3875"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5221,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3875\/revisions\/5221"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}