Roller Boogie (1979)

.. and just about as interesting. This has become a camp classic turkey over the years, originally made to cash in on the short lived roller-disco craze. Linda Blair stars as a rich, brilliant, young, concert-level classical flutist with a scholarship to Julliard. However, she's not interested in leaving for school, and would rather spend her days at Venice Beach rollerskating and her nights at the roller rink. She meets a working-class boy, played by real-life rollerskating champion Jim Bray, and they begin to practice roller-disco moves and they fall in love. Will Linda's snobby parents allow this romance? Will Linda have to leave for Julliard, or stay and pursue her disco dreams? Will the kids band together and save their favorite roller rink from shutting down? Will you care? Beverly Garland appears as Linda's pill-popping mother, Roger Perry plays her father, Sean McClory is the kindly rink owner, Mark Goddard is the bad guy. Rounding out the cast are Kimberly Beck, James Van Patten and Stoney Jackson as Phones, nicknamed thus because he wears headphones. The disco soundtrack includes songs by Cher, Earth Wind & Fire, and lots of filler.The story is trite and dumb, the acting about the same. There's lots of breath-taking eye candy on display, but some truly awful fashions as well. The rollerskating moves appear well-choreographed. This is really not much different from the Sam Katzman rock n roll quickies made in the 50's, or that would be made in the 80's to cash in other fads and trends, like break dancing in BREAKIN' or early rap music in BEAT STREET. If you're interested in the fad being exploited, you may find something here. Or if you are of a certain age and want a flash back to the late 70s it might fit the bill. All others I would advise to do something else with your time.

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.

Mark Lester invites you to take a slice of life out of the Roller disco movement of the late 1970's. What can only be described as Campy Fun, highlighted with several musical numbers. Roller Boogie delivers at times High Energy and Fun,at the Roller Disco "Jammers.", in Venice Beach. Opening with Cher's "Hell on Whells", we get a glimpse of lovely Santa Monica and the carrying ons of the Disco Roller movement.Beautiful Linda Blair, and skating guru Jim Bray star as star struck summer lovers , who desire to win the Disco Boogie Championship. Subplot of mobsters taking over the "Jammers", by extortion to create their own view on the Pacific Ocean. Mark Goddard of "Lost in Space" is the head baddie. Jim Perry and Beverly Garland are the rich condescending parents of Linda Blair. The film moves at a good pace, for a film that lasts about 120 minutes. It is cheesy, but never pretends to be more than sum of its' parts. It really is a celebration on wheels, everyone should experience Roller Disco, maybe the world would be a better place. A very honest film, I gave it a 7 out of 10.

Before the days of "in-line" skates there was a less forgiving variety that went in and out of fashion for a century with everyone but elementary school age children. "Roller Boogie" (1979) caught one of the periods when the activity had once again become trendy, especially with teenagers. Skate shops opened all over the place but the really trendy location was Venice, California. "Roller Boogie" involves a bunch of teens who hang around on the Venice boardwalk and do a lot of roller skating; and burn their eyeballs girl and boy watching. Because much of the film is composed of many cinema verite ("fly on the wall film-making" where the filmmakers attempt to make their presence as unobtrusive as possible) documentary shots of real skaters engaging in real skating at this real location, the film is more interesting and impressive now than at the time of its release. "Breakin" was a similar film from the same time period which also unintentionally documented a portion of social history (insert break dancing here). Of course those who went to "Roller Boogie" at the time of its release were mostly there to see Linda Blair in her abbreviated skating outfits; which had been widely showcased in the film distributor's marketing campaign. "Roller Boogie" was basically a cheap exploitation film that disappointed very few viewers because it delivered exactly what it promised and maybe a little bit more. Rich girls Terry (Blair) and Lana (too old television actress Kimberly Beck) do their slumming on the boardwalk, where they skate up and down to the pop music beat from their now ancient looking transistor radio headphones. The plot is mostly about Terry's puppy love romance with Bobby (real life super-skater Jim Bray) the summer before she heads off to college. There is also a story about developers conspiring to tear down the old roller rink. One of these is played by former "Lost in Space" pre-teen heartthrob Mark Goddard, whose career never took off after his adventures with Dr. Smith and the robot had made him famous. MST3K favorite Beverly Garland has a small part as Terry's rich mom. Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child