Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Derrick Gibbons An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

gavin6942 A blackmailer threatens to sabotage roller-coasters at various American amusement parks if he isn't paid a huge ransom.Look at this: Helen Hunt, in her first feature film role, has the supporting role as Tracy Calder, Harry's teenage daughter and a potential victim of the young man. Steve Guttenberg, also in his first brief film role, plays a messenger at Six Flags Magic Mountain who brings the plans for the Revolution to Calder and Hoyt. Gotta love that.But really, you have to love this movie. A great, high-stakes game of cat and mouse, and one of the few really centered around a theme park. I'm surprised that doesn't seem to be a more common location. I could have done without the music from Sparks, though... that "Big Boy" song is not good.

irishm I saw this in the theater… yep, in SENSURROUND… on July 13, 1977, and I'll never forget it. Mostly because after we left the theater in Times Square and began to walk back to our hotel, all the lights in New York City went out, people started screaming and glass started breaking… but that's another story."Rollercoaster" has more suspense and less action than many of the 1970's genre disaster movies… whether or not that's a bad thing depends on your point of view, I suppose. For me, I didn't find many aspects of it that really stood out, and 20 years or so after I'd seen it in New York and finally watched it again, I found I remembered almost none of it except for the crashing coasters. None of the plot and none of the characters had stuck with me… oh, I remembered the kid with the bomb fetish, but not in any meaningful way. (Tim Bottoms looks like a cross between Ryan O'Neal and Ted Bundy, by the way.) Just last week my dad offered me the loan of his DVD, and I immediately said "oh, the blackout movie!", and he too remembered it well… being trapped with two children in a pitch-dark, paralyzed metropolis filled with looters and muggers hundreds of miles from home appears to be seared into the man's memory, far worse than any "disaster" that could be presented on a movie screen. This third time through, my expectations were a bit lower and I found I enjoyed it more than I had the second time.There are a couple of things that really date it… can you imagine in this day and age finding a bomb on an amusement park ride, simply taking it off, and then deeming the ride safe and starting to load it with unsuspecting people? "Nah, it's fine, we found the bomb… okay folks, step right up, no problem, you'll have a blast… er, a great time." There's also a lot of smoking… I don't object to it; I just notice it and get taken back to 1977 by it. I'd also have to say I found the end a bit abrupt and simplistic. That was IT? Not "The Poseidon Adventure" and not "The Towering Inferno", two superior period disaster flicks, but an interesting enough little movie.

TheLittleSongbird I do like suspense thrillers, and for me Roller-coaster was a good one. I personally had little problem with the length or with the pace here, what I wasn't so keen on was that there were times when the music could have been less obvious while still enhancing the tension, there are times when it succeeds in that but others when it is rather monotonous, and also while I loved how sympathetic her character was Susan Strasberg was underused. However, there is so much that I liked about it. The production values are of high order, with crisp photography and editing and striking locations, the script is often tense and involving and the story is very taut and intrigues right from the start. The acting is fine, and I have no qualms about the characterisation either. It was nice seeing the legendary Henry Fonda here, and Richard Widmark is good value. But it is the performances of Calder and The Young Man and how they're constructed character-wise that really impresses. George Segal is excellent as Calder, and Timothy Bottoms is very chilling as The Young Man, and how they are written as individual characters and how they're set off against one other is what makes Roller-coaster such a good watch. Overall, I don't know why the rating is as low as it is, but regardless I think this movie is a very good one. 8/10 Bethany Cox

medic249a2 I remember seeing part of this little gem when it came out on TV around 1985. Unfortunately, I didn't see it again until about 1997 when I found a copy on VHS. This one isn't a true disaster film; it's more of a suspense/thriller/mystery. I was actually quite impressed with this flick about a terrorist/extortionist targeting rollercoasters and the innocent people on them.The film opens on a pier, with a young 20-something man (the villain) watching a maintenance man walk up a roller-coaster called 'The Rocket' in Virginia. He then disguises himself as a maintenance man, and plants a bomb for remote-detonation on the tracks. Later that night, when the park opens, he re-visits the park, watching as the roller-coaster loads up. We see him stealthily take a remote detonator from his coat, then detonate the small explosive. The track is damaged on a turn, and when the roller-coaster hits the spot, horror ensues. Cars crash through the rails; bodies are thrown from the cars; and one car falls off a roof & lands upside-down on top of its passengers.An amusement park inspector named Harry Calder, who had inspected that coaster only 2 months before, is called in to investigate. He soon discovers it was the work of a terrorist, and rules out structural failure. It isn't long before the bomber strikes again, this time in Pittsburgh, causing a fire that destroys a ride but everyone escapes safely. When the bomber threatens the owners of 5 different parks with a simultaneous attack against their rollercoasters unless his $1-million ransom is met, Harry suggests calling in the FBI, which his bosses do. Harry is also tasked by the terrorist to deliver the ransom, to be dropped at an amusement park. Led all over the park by the bomber, Harry makes the drop, but the money has been marked in defiance of the bomber's orders, and the fiend vows revenge - this time at a major park in California! Harry suspects that his target will be the Revolution roller-coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain, and his bosses reluctantly allow him to go to the park & try to stop the bomber. The fiend places another bomb on the tracks, but the FBI discovers it & disarms the bomb. Enraged, the fiend buys a ticket for the Revolution's inaugural ride, and plants a second bomb in the last car of the train.Harry soon catches up to the bomber, who tells him that the bomb is in the last car. Unable to stop the train (it had climbed over the hill), the FBI jams the remote frequency for the detonator, foiling the bomber's plans. The fiend tries to use Harry as a human shield, but that fails when Harry shoots him in the leg. A wild chase ensues as the bomber runs through the hills around the roller-coaster, not realizing he is going in circles that lead back to one place - Harry. The fiend climbs up on the Revolution's track, spots Harry, and freezes, not seeing the roller-coaster coming from behind. The bomber is killed on impact when he is hit by the roller-coaster.I was quite impressed with the visual effects of the original roller-coaster crash; I've read that some of the more graphic scenes were supposedly edited out, but all the same, it did convey a chilling scene when the cars go flying out of control. The sheer terror that would be felt is unimaginable: there is no way to protect yourself, no way to stop it, and no apparent help at hand.The story is one that isn't impossible; in fact, especially today the potential for a real-life version of this exists (even remotely). The acting isn't all that bad; the bomber (Bottoms) is especially chilling for such a simple character - he just wants MONEY, $1-million of it. Henry Fonda also turns in a stellar performance as an FBI man in charge of the investigation. Harry Guardino (best known for his roles in the 'Dirty Harry' movies) has a smaller but effective role as one of Harry's bosses.Not a bad movie, certainly worth seeing. I give this one 8/10 for a good story & exciting visual effects (by 1977 standards).