CULT WONDERMENT OF 'ROLLER BOOGIE' STARRING LINDA BLAIR

Our very own screen-capture YEAR of Release: 1979

B-movie/drive-in director Mark L. Lester takes a simple script and throws in enough distractions to make it, at the very least, entertaining enough to forget the novice acting of real-life skater Jim Bray, who always seems on the verge of laughter, blowing his lines, or both... yet his genuine skating talent gets him through: after all, that's why he's in this at all...

Autographed Blu Ray BoogieScore: ***1/2

Enter EXORCIST starlet Linda Blair who... often seeming a form of pop culture exploitation by merely being cast... turns in a decent if idyllic performance as a pouting rich girl who'd rather hang around the sun-soaked beach than her parent's stuffy mansion, which includes a big preppy jerk with a crush...

But she falls for the poor dreamer underdog Bray, who teaches her how to skate and dance (hence the title), and eventually the duo, along with their skater friends, discover that mobsters are trying to extort the owner of their disco-haven rink...

Thus the low budget, formulaic, chase-around action ensues... director Lester's element... all the great camp rolling smoothly till a predicable ending. And if you expected more from a movie titled ROLLER BOOGIE, that's your problem. Because it's all about the good times of the glossy late seventies era, the skating, and seeing Linda Blair dressed for summer beach weather.