“Roll Bounce” (Fox Searchlight)
Bow Wow and Chi McBride star in the film “Roll Bounce,” a “Saturday Night Fever” type of film set in the world of roller skating. It’s the seventies and this is the craze of the day. Whether or not you can imagine enjoying this craze will determine your acceptance of the film.
Xavier (Bow Wow) and his friends enjoy going to the local skating rink, but one day it is closed permanently. Now they have to go across town to another rink where they are not looked upon as the best skaters there. This honor goes to Bernard (Nick Cannon) and his cohorts.
Things aren’t going too great at home for Xavier either. His mother has died and his father (McBride) is looking for work. The rink and his friends are what gets X through the day. Oh, and he does have a girl friend named Naomi (Meagan Good) who wants the friendship to be more romantic.
Eventually there is a skate off (there has to be a skate off!) and X is pitted against Bernard. Whoever wins will have the trophy and the title of best skater. Big woo!
This is the kind of movie that is predictable from the first minutes of the film. The acting is routine and the plot is tedious. Placing it in the seventies gives a reason to have Cannon dress up like a dancer from “Hair.” He looks silly and so does the movie.
Cannon is a better actor than this movie requires. Bow Wow is just biding his time until he can play more adult roles. McBride is probably still grieving over the cancellation of “Boston Public.
The movie is rated PG-13 for some violence and some strong profanity. For a film that is going for a young audience the language is inappropriate.
The storyline for “Roll Bounce” doesn’t roll along or bounce along. It just gets dragged along from one tedious point to the next. Viewers have mostly tuned out the whole thing by the time the “Skate off” comes on screen.
I scored “Roll Bounce” a plodding 4 out of 10.
