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Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Paynbob It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

calvinnme .. 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 This has become a camp classic turkey over the years, originally made to cash in on the short lived roller-disco craze.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.

oprlvr33 I'd first seen this on HBO in 1981; and I was a kid, so it didn't truly ring with me then. I'd only remembered the fancy rollerskating and disco moves, and how fun it all looked. Well fast-fwd to present. For the most part the script is okay, but many areas fell somewhat flat; either bad casting or simply mediocre actors, though it was low- medium budget.Totally ridiculous and unrealistic, the vintage car (Terri) drove, even for a wealthy teenager heading off to college at summers-end; a fancy jeep or sports car would have been more realistic and appropriate. Jim Bray isn't bad, for his first (and only) film role as Bobby; the skater king. Some of the sight gags that were intended to be funny, weren't. And again, I blame that on a mediocre script and the director - though I've seen a few of Mark lester's other films, like 'Class of 1984', 'Firestarter', 'The Funhouse', etc. each of which were good or decent.Overall, this is an interesting film, especially for the 70's nostalgic boogie fever fans. And some great caption action shots during the roller-rink and the skating contest.

aimless-46 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

MartinHafer This is a truly awful movie and it reminds me of a part of American history that many of us would rather just forget. Yep, the time when Disco forged an unholy alliance with roller skating! This craze lasted about a week and a half and spurred on the creation of this terrible film. The movie is less a musical and more a teenagers save the roller disco from the evil corporation--all set to a disco beat. Linda Blair seems to try hard enough, but the horrid script, direction and the idiotic supporting actors they paired her with doomed this movie to oblivion. BUT, it's so bad, it's good. In other words, it will provide hours of laughter and the ineptness of the film.In addition, you should be aware that 1979-1980 also gave us perhaps the WORST musicals ever--not just Roller Boogie. Can you remember the horrific and big budget mess that was XANADU (Gene Kelly's body is STILL spinning in his grave for having appeared in this film)? Or, perhaps the West German sci-fi disco religious musical THE APPLE (where the good hippies were saved by a Cadillac driving Jesus at the end of the film)? Well, my advice is watch these terrible films to relive your past OR watch them so you can laugh at your parents who actually paid good money to see them!