Rollercoaster (1999)

User Rating:

5.5/10   

Director:

Scott Smith

Writer:

Scott Smith (written by)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

A film about a choice - between a life holding on, or a death letting go.

Plot:

In pursuit of fantasy, five teenagers hop the fence of a now defunct amusement park. While apparently a mindless diversion, for two of them the park is the setting for a more fatal bid at escape.

Plot Keywords:

Amusement Park | Girlfriend | Security Guard | Vancouver British Columbia | Teenage Runaway

Awards:

7 wins

Cast

Brendan Fletcher	...	Stick
Kett Turton	...	Darrin
Crystal Buble	...	Chloe (as Crystal Bublé)
Brent Glenen	...	Justin
Sean Amsing	...	Sanj
David Lovgren	...	Ben

MPAA:

Rated R for language, sexual content, drug use/drinking, all involving teens.

Runtime:

90 min | USA:88 min

Country:

Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Certification:

USA:R

Filming Locations:

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Company:

British Columbia Film Commission

Goofs:

Continuity: Ben puts Justin in car number 16 of the octopus ride. At the end of the ride Justin gets out of car 12.

Quotes:

Darrin: I don't know. I never really got into it. I mean it's like you climb all the way up here and it's like you know it's going to be bad. Then you get to the top. After that you're just trying to hold on.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Weird Sex and Snowshoes: A Trek Through the Canadian Cinematic Psyche (2004) (TV)

A movie that works....

Part of the success or failure of a movie is whether it can create a plausible sense of time and place. "Roller-coaster" succeeds. It effectively employs scenes that, under different circumstances, would disparagingly be called overused or uninspired, but here they seem fresh and compelling. It reminded me a lot of "Hurricane Streets".

Roller-coaster is the story of five seemingly aimless, conflicted teens from a group home in Vancouver who break into a defunct amusement park. Each of them has a problem or a secret the movie will eventually reveal. Mix all of this with the teens' confrontations with a security guard who at first bullies and torments them. Later it appears that, whether out of boredom or a change of heart, he befriends them. However, his kindness is just a means to an end.

Too many movies are guilty of playing down to the audience. When they show angry teens, the emotion seems contrived. However, "Roller-coaster" manages to make the anger, frustration, confusion, and boredom of growing up seem real. You develop sympathy for the characters because they don't come across as spoiled or irritatingly self-pitying.

Epilogue (added March 14, 2006:) I rented Roller-coaster this past weekend and was amazed at how faulty my memory is. Several years had gone by between the time I first watched the movie and did my review. Roller-coaster is actually better than I remembered. I would now say that it is in the same league as the incredible movie, "Mean Creek".