I'm sorry, but the movie ROLLERCOASTER is awful!!!

Forgive me for digging up this thread from 13 years ago, but I just saw this movie for the first time and I didn't think it was bad at all. I actually enjoyed it. It came in a 4 pack of disaster movies. I thought this movie was good for it's time.

Ah, the 70's. Sex, drugs, and disaster movies. And we didn't worry about any of em.
Good times.

I was able to make it to the end, which is more than I can say about many movies...

A friend of mine has a copy of the movie cut together with just the roller coaster and amusement park scenes with "pop up" details. It was pretty cool to see, having already seen the movie. I believe it may have been originally edited together for an ACE convention at Magic Mountain, which would place it's creation around 2002.

For those that enjoy the film, it got a Blu-Ray release from Shout Factory in June and looks and sounds great.

I've always enjoyed it and the 70s cheese factor has aged it like fine wine for me. In addition to the coaster and park footage, the awesome, jarring disaster nail biting score is so classic. Also Sparks playing while long haired Craig Wasson shows off what it was like to ride Revolution with free flowing laterals. (Suppose you can again now but have not been on it since the shoulder harness was in place.)

Heh. Going back and seeing what I had to say 13 years ago is a great nostalgia trip. It's also still entirely indicative of my opinion. In fact (and I swear I'm not making this up), I caught The Warriors again in its entirety just last night on Sundance.

With that said, if you're really considering how "good" of a film Rollercoaster is, you're likely missing the point entirely.

The movie's relevance to the coaster community is in no way indicative of its relevance to society at large.

Jason Hammond said:

I believe it may have been originally edited together for an ACE convention at Magic Mountain, which would place it's creation around 2002.

I was using QuarkXPress to do ACE's event fliers at the time, so I can't open the file to be sure (I moved up to InDesign ten years ago), but I"m 93.723% certain they showed the entire movie. They also had a Q&A with several people involved with the film, including Timothy Bottoms.

It's not a good movie. Then again, I'm partial to movies that have Bette Davis or Joan Crawford in them.

I wonder if somewhere out there there's a firefighters' site discussing The Towering Inferno right now.

I'm sure there is.
Just like I'm sure there's a cruise ship captain-centric site where they discuss The Poseidon Adventure.

Lord Gonchar said:

Heh. Going back and seeing what I had to say 13 years ago is a great nostalgia trip. It's also still entirely indicative of my opinion. In fact (and I swear I'm not making this up), I caught The Warriors again in its entirety just last night on Sundance.

With that said, if you're really considering how "good" of a film Rollercoaster is, you're likely missing the point entirely.

I don't really scan the TV listings, but I wish I had known the Warriors was on. One of my favorite flicks.

I always enjoyed Rollercoaster and still do every couple years! It's goofy, but sentimental and the footage of the coasters are worth it alone. And then that Sparks song "Big Boy." Good stuff!

I think it's brilliant story telling full of human feeling, conflict, and pathos.
I mean, who can say they didn't shed a tear with the discovery that in spite of it all he's still able to kick the cigarettes? What a meaningful, uplifting moment!

Is there an online clown community lamenting "Killer Clowns from Outer Space?"

There are skydiver forums where dudes discuss the relative merits of Fandango and Point Break.

ApolloAndy said:

Is there an online clown community lamenting "Killer Clowns from Outer Space?"

They're called Juggalos, and they love it!

It isn't the best movie BUT

you get to see King's Dominion in its full prime, in the days when Taft owned it and it was exactly like it was designed to be. Before Paramount ripped the living soul out of it.

In fact, that movie was the first time I had ever heard of King's Dominion. I remember watching the part where night becomes day thinking that it was King's Island, until the lake became visible.....

It's not a great movie, but it's not an awful movie .... but it's not a good movie :-) I saw it once, and once was enough.

Kings Dominion was owned by Family Leisure Centers, a joint venture between Taft and Top Value Enterprises. Canada's Wonderland was a joint venture with Great-West Life Assurance Company. It wasn't until the mid-80s, when senior executives at Taft formed the Kings Entertainment Company and acquired the parks that all the parks were wholly owned by the same company.

Actually it was later than that. If I remember right, KECO was formed when Taft Broadcasting got out of the amusement park business. I believe Canada's Wonderland remained a joint venture and management contract for KECO. Then another bit of weirdness happened, and Kings Island was effectively sold back to Taft (by this time called Great American and owned by the Carl Lindner organization) but KECO was retained on a management contract*. Great American was about to exercise an escape clause in the contract which would have seen Kings Island shift to independent operation in 1992, but before that could happen, Paramount bought KECO, Kings Island, and later Canada's Wonderland. So it was actually under Paramount ownership that the ownership of the parks was *finally* unified**. And even at that, I think even to this day under Cedar Fair there is some kind of weirdness associated with the ownership of Great America.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

* The Wikipedia page for Taft Broadcasting says that Great American bought KECO. I am not sure this is entirely true, as I do remember that Kings Island's ownership was separated from KECO when Great American took over, but KECO was retained on a management contract.

** But even that is interesting. The sale to Paramount did NOT include Coney Island, which had been retained by Taft Broadcasting and its successor companies, and in fact even today I believe Park River may still be connected in some roundabout way to Clear Channel...although the link may only be that Ron Walker, owner of Park River until his death in 1996, was an EVP at Great American. Kings Island and Coney Island were kept under common ownership from the time Kings Island opened until it was sold to Paramount, which explains why rides returned to Coney Island shortly after Kings Island was sold to Paramount.

--DCAjr