Plot
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 Sweetwater Roller Rink, where they feel like country mice in the big city among the expert skate dancers and beautiful women. But skating means a lot to X -- with his widower father, Curtis (Chi McBride) going through a bad patch, skating gives him a sense of accomplishment and a belief in his own talent. So X and company keep heading uptown to Sweetwater, where they prepare to take on Sweetness (Wesley Jonathan) and his crew of the rink's best dancers for the upcoming Roller Jam Skate-Off. X befriends a young local girl named Tori (Jurnee Smolett) and finds a good reason to go uptown when he meets a pretty skater girl, Naomi (Meagan Good). Meanwhile, Tori's mother, Vivian (Kellita Smith) takes an interest in Curtis. Featuring a score of classic '70s R&B and disco, Roll Bounce was directed by Malcolm D. Lee, who enjoyed a breakthrough hit with 2002's Undercover Brother. ~ Mark Deming, RoviReview
Steeped in nostalgia, but not too sugar-gum-drop to make it a nonstop ride to cheeseville, Roll Bounce is a refreshing cocktail of teen love, flashy roller-rink action, and more than a bit of urban drama added in for good measure. Lil' Bow Wow has grown up and shed his "Lil'" moniker -- and for good reason. Bow Wow makes a genuine and effortless impact on the screen as X, a teen on the brink of maturity whose hang-ups over his mother's death create the central arc to the story. While the film might suffer from some unevenness because of its dramatics, the emotional crux of the film is in the strong hands of veteran Chi McBride, whose role as X's father is predictably written, but thoroughly sympathetic, thanks to his strong performance. When it comes down to it, Roll Bounce exists because of the skating and there are enough larger-than-life scenes of free-wheeling abandon to suck in any audience member looking for a flashy dose of blast-from-the-past fun. Musical selections are for the most part authentic, as are the costumes and production design. As any archetypical underdog story, the end is a rousing conclusion that surprisingly doesn't end up playing by all the rules. Despite the finale's slight detour, the final scenes still make for a marvelously fine capper that delivers on all the split-screen roller-boogie antics that one would expect. While Roll Bounce didn't exactly heat up the box-office tallies, it is partly responsible for the roller resurgence in America's urban youth following its release. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, RoviCast
- Bow Wow - Xavier "X" Smith
- Chi McBride - Curtis
- Meagan Good - Naomi Phillips
- Wesley Jonathan - Sweetness
- Kellita Smith - Vivian
Credit
Gary Baugh - Art Director, Tyrone D. Dixon - Associate Producer, Monica Swann - Casting, Kishaya Dudley - Choreography, Danielle Hollowell - Costume Designer, Malcolm D. Lee - Director, George Bowers - Editor, Paul Millspaugh - Editor, Jeremiah Samuels - Executive Producer, Dana Reid - Executive Producer, Adam Robinson - Executive Producer, Stanley Clarke - Composer (Music Score), Barry Cole - Musical Direction/Supervision, William Elliott - Production Designer, J. Michael Muro - Cinematographer, Robert Teitel - Producer, George Tillman, Jr. - Producer, Scott D. Smith - Sound/Sound Designer, Rick LeFevour - Stunts Coordinator, Norman Vance, Jr. - Screenwriter, Greg Hedgepath - Supervising Sound Editor, Richard E. Yawn - Supervising Sound Editor, Patricia Schneider - Set Decorator, Cara Giallanza - Assistant Director| Roll Along Cowboy (1937 Film), Rolie Polie Olie: Zowie, Queen of the Pumpkins (Film) | |
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