How sad is this?

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

A young psycho demolitions expert (Timothy Bottoms) threatens to wreak havoc at amusement parks across America until the proper authorities pay him and leave him alone. Pursuing him is a middle-aged safety inspector bureaucrat (George Segal), who's going through various mid-life crises like trying to quite smoking, visitations with his teen daughter (Helen Hunt) following a divorce, starting a new relationship, and so forth. Also along for the ride are various corporate/government/police officials who naturally often clash over how to best catch the bomber.The movie starts well enough, with Bottoms slickly planting a bomb on a roller coaster in broad daylight, then biding his time until nightfall when he remotely detonates the charge and sends derailed patrons to their doom. The photography and editing generate some good thrills, and the actors, minor and major, do their parts well.Now, with these kinds of movies, the real key is the interplay between the nominal good guys (the authorities, usually) and the bad guys. As Segal catches on to Bottoms and then has several conversations with him, it's all pretty involving. Bottoms acts very terse and businesslike, conveying the moral and emotional vacuity of a psychopath, while Segal becomes a wry and incisive analyst trying to crack a terrorist whose true motives are nearly as inscrutable as his emotions. The police think Segal a cocky amateur, but he turns out to be the better judge of criminal character.Less interesting is the bickering between aging law enforcement leader Richard Widmark and Segal. Widmark seems like a stodgy bully, outside of a few begrudging compliments to Segal. Perhaps the film-makers felt that since the psycho was in his late 20's it made it necessary to caricature the oldest character into a gruff scold, the better to pander to 70's Boomers..Segal deduces the location of the next attack, and we're left in suspense about several things. Is there a bomb? Where is it? Will they find it? Will they disarm it, before it's too late? Will they catch the perp? This isn't really a disaster movie, as it lacks the scope or spectacle. Had they wanted to, they could've upped these things with more bombings. Overall, though, the emphasis is on character interaction more than well, action. Since Segal and Bottoms make for an effective fire and ice pairing, that was the right choice to make.Why not a better rating? The movie definitely drags at times; there really isn't enough scale or plot or character depth to justify the running time. The movie wasn't a big hit, and that's probably because the marketing made it seem more epic than it is. And while the acting is good enough, only Segal and Bottoms really give something for the viewer to latch on to. A very young Helen Hunt has some presence, but her character is thankless, as are the women in Segal's life; would Dirty Harry be a better movie if the movie told us about his family? The conclusion has some things worth noting. Craig Wasson appears as an amiable "hippie boy" (that's his credit), and though he only gets about a half-dozen lines, his talent still shines through. A quasi New Wave/punk band named Sparks plays at Magic Mountain, and while their music isn't that hummable, it does have a pretty wild energy for it's time, and one particularly tensely rhythmic song bridge is used to convey the anxiety of the bomb defusing scene.

I first saw this aged 13 in 1977 in my local cinema & was blown away by the whole thing including the Sensurround effects. Timothy Bottoms' character still creeps me out a bit and I love George Segal's relaxed but determined approach to get the bomber. Great script, a Hitchcock soundtrack & it has Sparks belting out Big Boys...a single gem to treasure in these days of ad-nauseam action franchises!

When safety inspector Harry Calder (George Segal) realises an accident at a fairground is actually more than it first appears, psychopathic bomber Timothy Bottoms (whose character has no name and is only credited only as "Young Man") threatens to blow up more rollercoasters unless he's paid ONE MILLION DOLLARS and chooses Segal as the man to hand it over. Of course, thanks to the sneakiness of FBI boss Richard Widmark, the money is marked and therefore completely useless. Bottoms isn't exactly happy about this and there just happens to be a brand new roller-coaster opening in California in the next couple of days...Coming off the back of a run of classic disaster films like The Towering Inferno, The Poseidon Adventure, Airport '77, Earthquake, and of course, Jaws, 1977's Roller-coaster doesn't quite manage to reach those same heights, but it is by no means a second rate film. Bottoms is excellent as the intelligent psychopath, and Segal is perfectly cast as the grumpy, reluctant hero type, unhappy at being chosen by the killer, unhappy with the FBI, unhappy with businessmen, and unhappy at having to stop smoking. Richard Widmark is just as grumpy as Segal, Susan Strasberg and Henry Fonda don't get to do much, but the film does see the first big screen appearance of Helen Hunt as Segal's teenage daughter.The tension in the build up to the first roller-coaster crash is very similar in style to Jaws, and just as effective until the actual crash. As good as that whole scene is, the impact is lessened because you can clearly see the cars are filled with wobbly shop dummies. The ending suffers the same way, the tension being built nicely as Bottoms plants a second bomb on the roller-coaster itself, but the grand denouement is again hampered by another strategically clothed shop dummy. Overall though, a very enjoyable slice of '70s disaster.

While trying to find another angle towards the many disaster films that materialized back in the 1970's, "Rollercoaster", though not the worst film of this particular genre, but you'd be kidding me if you all think this was the best of of its genre, because in reality it never even comes close. Sure this film delivers a cornucopia of footage from the rollercoasters, but what brings this movie down was the narrow-thin plot and a poorly structured story. Directed by James Goldstone and running for exactly two hours, "Rollercoaster" is an excuse to exploit audience people who have short-attention spans, which leads to the gripping amusement park scenarios are awkwardly pasted on as a ploy to bring this story to feature-length. For the genre being a crime-drama, it's tedious and mundane which is rare because most crime dramas are both exciting and settling, "Rollercoaster" is simply not like that.Timothy Bottoms stars as a unnamed bomber who's modus operandi is to wring out $1 million from amusement park owners after observing that getting through security is a piece of cake. While at the amusement parks, he places explosives on the roller-coaster tracks and releases the bombs with the help of a remote trigger and promises to inflict more damage unless his demands are compromised. George Segal plays Insp. Harry Calder, a cantankerous man trying to quit smoking by using shock therapy, seems to have more access knowledge than the other detectives and just knows the right strategy needed to outsmart this sadistic fiend. He becomes the right person for the job while sacrificing his safety and finds himself in one precarious situation after another.Like its predecessors, this movie has an ensemble of talented thespians, although it doesn't really feature very many A-list performers. The only two standouts are popular 1970's performer George Segal and the very iconic Henry Fonda who was lowered to a very low supporting role and doesn't really have much to do here. There are debuts from younger performers who would go onto bigger and better roles in the future. Helen Hunt is in this movie playing Harry's daughter Tracy Calder. Although he did not get credit for his performance, Steve Guttenberg has a cameo role as a messenger. And voice legend Michael Bell is here in a small role as Chuck Demerest.During the time of its release, there was some speculation that theatres wanted to add more to the sound systems by creating more dimension to get the audience pumped up by creating sound-waves where bass speakers came into effect which would manipulate the theatre chairs to tremble on impact and to add extra sound during explosives, almost as though the audience was in on the action. This archaic technology was there way before HD and 3D were invented. I guess this was desperate move to keep the audience awake from their slumber because it sure didn't keep me awake.Even the technical features were a bummer as well. Lalo Schifrin's pedestrian score sounded like a giant rip-off to Hitchcock's "Psycho". And who in their right minds though that glam-rock musician Russell Mael of Sparks could act? Now "Big Boy" will etched in my mind for a very long time. For amusement park aficionados will marvel at the amusement park footages, but will not grab anyone else's attention if you are not. Even though there are a lot of casualties I the movie, the audience gets to witness only one. I guess the audience must be dumb or hard at seeing, but there are obvious dummies replacing live actors during the sporadic graphic scenes makes one felt like they were cheated by low-budget obviousness."Rollercoaster" is an obscure and dated film that was released at a time when disaster films were wearing out its welcome by the late 1970's. This movie might appeal to those who are nostalgic junkies or fans who love old movies and of course there are a few enthusiasts who insist that this movie is a top-notch heart-pulsing thriller. Sorry folks I'm not on your side for this one. This movie is one long, slow ride that will inspire you to seek elsewhere for more fun rides. Even the shaking, trembling seats would not have held my interest if I was old enough to had seen when it was released in 1977.