Roll Bounce (2005)
Average Rating: 5.9/10
Reviews Counted: 88
Fresh: 56 | Rotten: 32
Roll Bounce dazzles us with a classic late 1970's feel, but this coming of age film could have been more than just a spin around the roller rink.
Average Rating: 5.8/10
Critic Reviews: 29
Fresh: 17 | Rotten: 12
Roll Bounce dazzles us with a classic late 1970's feel, but this coming of age film could have been more than just a spin around the roller rink.
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Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 55,977
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Movie Info
A handful of inner-city kids move up to the big time in this teen-centric musical. Xavier Smith (Bow Wow), known to his friends as X, is a teenager growing up on the South Side of Chicago in the late '70s. X and his buddies are the hotshot skaters at the Palisades Gardens, a neighborhood roller rink where local kids roll to the latest disco sounds, but X loses his status as king of the hill when the Palisades closes down. With no skating action close by, X and his friends head uptown to the
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Cast
-
Bow Wow
Xavier "X" Smith -
Chi McBride
Curtis -
Meagan Good
Naomi Phillips -
Wesley Jonathan
Sweetness -
Kellita Smith
Vivian -
Jurnee Smollett
Tori -
Khleo Thomas
Mixed Mike -
Nick Cannon
Bernard -
Rick Gonzalez
Naps -
Marcus T. Paulk
Boo -
Brandon T. Jackson
Junior -
Mike Epps
Byron -
Charlie Murphy
Victor -
Paul Wesley
Troy -
Wayne Brady
D.J. Johnny -
Darryl "D.M.C." McDaniels
Garden D.J. Smooth Dee -
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All Critics (98) | Top Critics (32) | Fresh (58) | Rotten (33) | DVD (11)
Sometimes a film wins you over with its sheer exuberance and sweetness.
Top CriticIt will remind you what it was like to be a teenager during the last few days of summer. And even though the plot is a little thin, you probably won't even notice until long after the music stops.
The end of the dismal summer movie season couldn't have been blessed with a more satisfying coda than the rollicking, funny, relentlessly cheery and genuinely touching spirit that makes Roll Bounce a captivating delight from start to finish.
A movie made in the spirit of: what the world needs now is a bit of innocent diversion.
If it doesn't exactly kick out the jams, it does move them around a little bit.
The film can't get its rhythms right, fluctuating wildly between comedy and pathos.
For the most part though, the honesty of the performances keeps everything afloat when it could drift into easy sentimentality.
Mostly innocuous, sometimes tedious, mostly fine for young teens and up.
For some reason, teasing people about their skin color has become a big theme of brainless black comedies like this. Plus, it unfolds like one long Pepsi ad, with dialogue extolling the cola's virtues in virtually every scene.
For some reason, teasing people about their skin color and ethnicity has become a big theme of brainless black comedies like this.
Worthy of a 99-cent rental, if only so you can witness the howlingly awful performance by Wesley Jonathan as a self-appointed roller-disco mega-lord called "Sweetness." Kid had me in tears, I swear.
Nothing about this film is as cathartic as it tries to make itself because the characters just aren't that absorbing. Instead of tugging your heart, it just spits in your eye.
This is the 40th "skating movie" to hit the screens since Charlie Chaplin's The Rink (1915). It is neither the best nor the worst of them - skater dudes may think its cool, but 25 years ago there was the much maligned Xanadu with ELO, ONJ and (sigh!) stil
A spunky, fun little film.
It would take a critic more churlish than this one to sneer and bare chickenlike talons at Roll Bounce
The skating routines are a lot of fun to watch, filled with great choreography and backed by great tunes.
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