4/5 Blair boogie-oogie-oogies til she just can't boogie no more
  by Daniel Jolley (Shelby, North Carolina USA)
Hey, the fact that I'm actually reviewing Roller Boogie surprises me as much as it does you. I sort of have this thing for Linda Blair, you see, and she was twenty years old when this film was released in 1979 - instead of turning her own head around (The Exorcist), she was now old enough to starting turning guys' heads instead. Unfortunately, all of the guys in this film are full-fledged, knee-high-tube-sock-wearing products of that awful decade called the 1970s, but Linda was looking fine from start to finish, and that's really all that matters.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I actually liked this movie. It doesn't look good on paper, though. You basically have the world's most ubiquitous cookie-cutter plot, a good deal of bad acting, tons of terrible disco music, awful 70s attire, and about ten times more skating than you find in the film Xanadu. You could give yourself a lobotomy and still predict everything that is going to happen in this movie, yet for reasons I can't explain, Roller Boogie isn't that bad. Linda Blair plays Terry Barkley, a poor little rich girl whose parents ignore her and thus drive her to rebel; she doesn't enjoy being a musical prodigy, and she certainly doesn't want to go to Juilliard. What does she do? She goes roller skating and, after meeting up with local roller boogie whiz kid Bobby James (Jim Bray), she announces her new ambition in life is to win the roller boogie dance contest down at Jammer's skating rink. You see where this is going? It's your classic poor boy-rich girl love story. Something is still missing, though. Oh, I know, let's throw in a sleazy businessman and his two goons, and - yes, I've got it! - let's have them threaten to burn down Jammer's skating rink as part of their evil plan to put up a shopping mall. Obviously, those crazy kids are going to have to come up with a plan to save their beloved skating rink. We cannot possibly let this movie end without that big roller boogie dance contest we were all so looking forward to.

As you can see, apart from Linda Blair's starring role, there is no discernible reason for me to have enjoyed Roller Boogie, but I did. That doesn't mean I want to watch it again any time soon, though. For my fellow Linda Blair fans, I say go ahead and bite the bullet and watch this movie; you'll be glad you did - maybe.

5/5 More cheesy fun than a trip to the Kraft factory
  by Michele Lange (Austin, TX)
One of the heartbreaking things about getting old, aside from, you know, the dying part, is realizing the things that gave you such joy and happiness as a kid are no longer fun. Endless games of Battleship, washing down Poprocks with Koolaid, fart jokes* - one day you just wake up and think, This is really kind of lame.

Roller Boogie is the exception to the Corinthian curse. I watched this as many times as I could catch it on circa 1981 HBO** and I never got tired of it. I was starting my teenage years and just like Mulder, I wanted to believe. I wanted to believe that in a few years, after I permed my hair, coated my mouth with cherry lipgloss, and tucked my spandexed legs into a pair of skates I too would meet the boy of my dreams, fall madly in love and skate away, arm and arm, into the sunset.

Roller Boogie doesn't quite end that way***, but it's still close enough to be a lot of fun, even __ years later (I don't know when you're going to read this.) First of all, there's the essential corny love story. The male lead, Bobby James, is focused on his goal of winning the gold at the next Olympics. He's so determined that he doesn't let the trivial fact of that roller skating is not, has never been, and will never be an Olympic sport dissuade him. Bobby meets up with rich girl Terry, who's a concert flutist destined for Julliard (she's such a phenomenal flutist that she can play an entire concerto without moving her fingers). They have an instant attraction - Bobby sees the sweet, vulnerable side that Terry tries to hide, and Terry sees....well, I'm not sure. Unfortunately, Bobby is a doofus. He wears wristbands and kneesocks and talks like a Minnesota/New York hybrid. "Furst chew wanna skaaate, den chew don wanna skaaate. Whut is it wit chew?" But he's nice enough, and Terry, like most teenage girls, is not too picky. Before you can say Xanadu these two are an item.

There's more to the movie - the kids must save the local roller rink from the local mafia goons - but it's really just a backdrop to the skating. Mark Lester's got skaters galore and puts them to good use, along with a B list soundtrack. It all designed to lead up to the very last skate - where Bobby and Terry skate in the Roller Boogie Contest. Of course, they win, and I think Bobby deserves some kind of Olympic medal - power lifting, maybe - for managing to hoist the chubby thighed Terry over his head.

Roller Boogie is fun because, unlike the horrible Dirty Dancing, it makes no pretentions about what it is. It's just a cheesy, entertaining love story with lots of good skating scenes. That's all it needs to be.



*I'm lying. I still enjoy a good fart joke.
**Prior to shows like Sopranos, SATC, 6FU, HBO and Cinemax played the same movies over and over and over. Their monthly playlist was maybe ten movies long, endlessly looped.
***Neither did my life, I'm sad to say.



4/5 We want Roller Boogie on DVD
  by Maricarmen Garcia (Mexico, D.F., Distrito Federal Mexico)
I know Roller Boogie has not big cinematic values. Maybe that's why it hasn't been released on DVD. The story is the classic tale about a rich girl who defies her parents by hanging out with a poor skater. The teenager cliches are all over the movie. In spite of this, I think that the real value of this movie (besides the sentimental one), is that it shows a particular moment in late 70's culture that a lot of people enjoyed as teenagers. The music and the way the characters have fun disco-skating, is one of my happiest movie memories of that time. I don't understand the reason why they haven't released it on DVD yet. There are a lot of bad, bad movies out there being sold on DVD. But the most incredible thing is that the best element of the movie (¡the soundtrack!), has not been released on CD ever. I've tried to make an LP-MD transfer from my old record but the sound is awful. I love Bob Esty's songs and I don't find them anywhere. Please, release both, the DVD and the soundtrack! A lot of buyers will appreciate it, I'm sure.

4/5 A bunch of dumb fun
  by Michael Rogers (Webster, New York United States)
This is one of those movies that I would totally dismiss if it weren't for the nostalga factor.

I saw this film 2 times in the mall theater back in 1979. Linda Blair was hot and the short lived "roller disco" craze was something I was invested in.

Then I could (and did) always catch the movie on cable. Then it all but disapeared until the VHS was released in the 90's. When I rented it and was old enough to see how completely ridiculous it was it only added to it's charm (and Linda Blair was still hot).

What sticks out when I watched the film a few years ago is that the "gang" wants the boogie contest, no matter what.

The owner of the club gets threatened by the "evil businessmen" that if he doesn't sell the rink to them (so they can build a shopping mall) they will burn down the rink with the everyone inside.

Once the gang finds this out, they are not as interested in saving thier lives as they are making sure the roller boogie contest will go on.


You gotta love it.

Now, in a couple weeks from now, "Roller Boogie" will come out on DVD. It will have an anamorphic widescreen transfer (great! MGM has dragged out thier old pan and scan transfers for some lesser library titles being put out on DVD. A new Anamorphic transfer on this film remembered by only a few is really appreciated) and a theatrical trailer (Great! After all, it coming out on DVD in 16:9 is almost a miracle, I didn't expect that they would spend too much money on supliments. But I still would've gotten a kick out of a Jim Bray and Linda Blair commentary). Guess who will be looking for it on that "new movie Tuesday"?

Yup! Me!

This movie came at the right age for me to innocently fall for it and now it will get to come home.



5/5 Finally On DVD-Thanks MGM!
  by Mr Doug Gordon (Toronto, ON Canada)
I was really happy to see this late '70s "rollerploitation" movie on DVD. It was really difficult to find on VHS a few years ago, and the ones I found were over $50! This movie looks great on DVD, the transfer is clear, and the colours are vibrant. On this disc, you have a choice of full-screen or wide-screen. It's a double sided disc. There are not a lot of features, you just get the movie trailer, but it's still great to see this gem released on disc. For fans of '70s disco music, the soundtrack has lots to offer and sounds great on DVD. I am glad to see that MGM re-released this Linda Blair classic because they always do a nice job with making sure that the prints they use are prestine, unlike some junior distributors that will use the worst print available, and put it on DVD. If you are a fan of Linda Blair, or just like a fun movie to watch, you can't go wrong with this boogie classic!