1977, James Goldstone, 117 mins.
American amusement parks are stalked by a maniac.
Connoisseurs of the art of screen acting sometime have to
look in the most unusual places – Rollercoaster
for example. It’s a ho-hum suspense movie which is never anything other than
predictable and is shot in a flat TV movie style which makes it visually
indistinguishable from the average cop show of the 1970s. The supporting
performances by the likes of Richard Widmark and Henry Fonda are strictly for
the money and Timothy Bottoms is peculiarly mannered as the bad guy who likes
to blow up fairground rides. But it’s worth it all for George Segal’s quite
sensational performance in the lead. It’s not a great part and the dialogue is
generally mediocre but he adds grace notes and gives the character so much wit
and style that he stands out as a credible, complicated person in the midst of
banality.
