I saw this movie as a kid in the theater a few times and loved it. But a recent DVD viewing bored me to tears. After the first coaster derailement, NOTHING ELSE HAPPENS! It's not even all that suspenseful. Great soundtrack, though.
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I've always enjoyed this movie every time I've watched it over the years (and saw it originally in Sensurround theatrically). Some reviews at the time compared it to Hitchcock...it's actually very suspenseful in a droll Hitchcock kind of way, the whole point being that you KNOW from the beginning who the villain is and how he crosses paths with the ordinary-man hero, and are awaiting to see how he will eventually get caught. Hitchcock did the same thing many times.
shareI agree, a bit more action would have been nice.
shareI disagree. I saw it in theaters as a kid and I still like it today.
shareI agree with you. I saw it first run as a teen in Sensurround. I love it then and watched it last night and still like it. Was cool to see Helen Hunt in it again as a teen in one fo her first roles.
shareI watched it today - it's very old school in that there's not necessarily a lot of stuff blowing up. The sub plot about the daughter and girlfriend didn't go anywhere either - I thought for sure that when they showed up at the park, they'd end up on the coaster. But instead, Harry ran into them and sent them home. I also thought it was silly how a roller coaster inspector was giving orders to federal agents to hand over their guns, and that they listened to him (Hoyt wouldn't have been pleased). Oh well, that's the movies for you.
share"The sub plot about the daughter and girlfriend didn´t go anywhere, either".
While I´m glad they ultimately avoided the "lil-gal-in-peril" cliche, I also don´t see what was the point in showing them make their way to the park, only to have them almost promptly sent back by Segal who just ´happens´ to run into them amidst thousands of visitors. A rather incomprehensible waste of time.
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan
Just watched this today. Haven't seen it since I was a kid (on a double feature with Star Wars...at a drive-in! sigh).
While I agree this is no action movie, I was really impressed with the performances. George Segal was quite funny in the lead role...he would have been a perfect Hitchcock leading man. I thought Timothy Bottoms was great...sexy and yet just on verge of going off the deep end. Enjoyed the banter between these two.
Looking back...maybe it is best that it didn't have more "action". They were going to blow up another classic wooden roller coaster that is still standing today, but whatever park it was backed out....and dammit right now I can't remember what it is. I want to say the Thunderbolt at Kennywood, but I might be wrong.
The park that backed out was Santa Cruz. It is in the original script along with the deleted motivation scene.
got it on DVD. Me likes it. A decent suspense thriller. Something Hitchcock would have made today.
These definitely sound like ill effects of modern frenzied-paced action cinema at work there - anything without nonstop action = boring.
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan
I can't believe I've never seen this movie before, in over 30 years. But I recently watched Rollercoaster and really enjoyed it.
George Segal and Timothy Bottoms were excellent in their roles, and the suspense was good. I liked seeing all those theme parks in their 1970's state, too, with several "rides" on the featured coasters for the audience.
The film had a good script (lacking in a lot of modern movies) and never felt boring. Pacing was not a problem for me. Gen Y maybe has shorter attention spans, I don't know.
I remember seeing it as a kid in the theaters in 77. All the sensurround and the hype, it was great. I also remember what seems to me at the time as a pretty spectacular crash at the beginning of the movie, and thinking this is going to be great a bunch of rollercoaster crashes, cool, but you're right, that was the one and only crash.
sharethe rollercoaster crash was very impressive. just watched it tonight and this movie is awesome
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