Tanya Batson-Savage, Freelance Writer
Bow Wow (left), Brandon T. Jackson (second left), Marcus T. Paul (centre), Rick Gonzalez (second right) and Khleo Thomas in 'Roll Bounce'. - CONTRIBUTED
ROLL BOUNCE is clearly a close relative of Saturday Night Live and its poster can tell you that.
The lineage is most evident in the period, the 1970s, and so like that earlier disco craze flick, Roll Bounce is filled with sufficient disco to make any '70s lover's heart flutter.
Directed by Malcolm D. Lee, Roll Bounce is written by Norman Vance Jr. Bow Wow, who has outgrown the 'L'il' in his moniker, plays the lead while Chi McBride plays his father.
There is a cadre of supporting roles, including Mike Epps (Byron), Charles Murphy (Victor), Nick Cannon (Bernard) and Wesley Jonathan (Sweetness).
As is, Roll Bounce is a relatively enjoyable film; the music is great and the roller-skating is good (with the exception that it included break dancing moves, which was a feature clearly ahead of its time period).
LIGHT ON SUBSTANCE
It would have been a much better film if it paid less attention to the more distracting elements and went for the heart of the story, exploring the elements that would have made it much more than a movie about dancing. Saturday Night Live and Dirty Dancing (of course, as a dance movie it must evoke some memory of Dirty Dancing) were able to become classics because their creators realised that while the dancing element adds the thrills, a movie needs substance.
Roll Bounce has enough fluff, but it is light on substance. This is, although it contains enough emotion to have made it a very heart-warming flick, if it had chosen to explore the father/son element more.
STORY ABOUT MANHOOD
Behind the skating, Roll Bounce is a story about manhood. It shows a boy learning to become a man and a man learning how to tap into his softer side to become a better father.
Xavier is a roll skater from 'the South Side' and he and his friends are bent on showing that they are good enough by winning a skating competition.
At the same time, he is learning to cope with his mother's recent death, as well as how to handle romance.
Chi McBride (Curtis) makes a good stern father-figure and his height and deep voice alone are enough to make him a good contrast to Bow Wow.
For his part, Bow Wow seems to be taking to the acting well and gives a natural enough performance.
Epps and Murphy make an interesting duo in their first appearance on the screen, but after that they become quite irrelevant. Cannon delivers a performance that is at best questionable.
Along with the dancing, Roll Bounce also features much humour, as Xavier and his friends trade insults that make for some good funny moments.
STORY FALLS DOWN
Where it falls down is in following the underdog story a little too closely to the formulae, which tends to nullify its attempts to deviate from it.
Essentially, the flick has enough roll and one can definitely bounce to its beat, but it needs more heart, more substance - something to make it a little less light on its feet.
