This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

"Rollercoaster" is a decent 70s disaster-type film that was shown in "Sensurround" in theatres; this process would involve the shaking of selected theatre seats to try to give audience members a more visceral experience. You of course can't get this effect at home, so you're left with the story, which is reasonably entertaining, and the filmmaking, which is competent but not particularly distinguished. George Segal stars as Harry Calder, a civic inspector who picks up the trail of a young man (Timothy Bottoms) who's already caused a horrible accident at one amusement park, and who threatens to do so again, motivated purely by financial gain.It is indeed the acting that keeps this interesting for just under two hours. Bottoms is a case study in minimalism; all you need to know about his villain is that he's a really cool customer, is extremely efficient at what he does, and that people are naturally going to underestimate him. Segal is dynamic as the flawed but still likable hero, a true Everyman type who makes up in brains what he lacks in tact. It's fun to watch these characters interact, as Bottoms puts Segal through a lot of paces in order to get his money. Segal also has some great scenes with Henry Fonda (who plays Segals' superior) and hard nosed Federal agent Hoyt (Richard Widmark). The script by Richard Levinson and William Link is sometimes funny, giving the main characters opportunities to take shots at each other. Thrilling roller-coaster sequences, featuring some good camera-work, do get ones' pulse racing. Granted, this story could have been tightened a bit, and doesn't end all that well, but Segal, Widmark, and Bottoms prevent things from ever getting painful to watch.This isn't a star studded affair, as some of these disaster films tended to be, but there are a number of familiar faces present. Susan Strasberg is wasted as Segals' new girlfriend, and Helen Hunt makes her film debut playing Segals' daughter. Harry Guardino co-stars as a detective, and he never gets to do very much. Robert "Count Yorga" Quarry plays a mayor, Craig Wasson has a tiny role as a hippie dude, and that's none other than a young Steve Guttenberg as a messenger.Not bad as these things go.Seven out of 10.

Though somewhat inflated in length and detail, the movie's a pretty good nail-biter. Almost all the scenes are shot at amusement parks with real crowds, so there's plenty of color, human and otherwise. Then too, the plot's suspenseful—how to keep lone nut Timothy Bottoms from blowing up rollercoasters from LA to Coney Island. George Segal's on the bomber's trail even if Segal does look like he needs a week of sleep. On the bomber's trail too is a commanding Richard Widmark, with dozens of his agents always fanning out somewhere. Looks like Fonda, however, gets a tacked-on cameo role to build up marquee appeal. At the same time, Segal's family of Strasberg and Hunt play no part in the plot, but do get some girls' names up on the marquee. And at least they're a change from having to look at all the ugly guys.Some reviewers criticize Bottoms for a bland performance. But that's appropriate for the bomber's success since he's not supposed to draw attention in a crowd as he goes about his evil business. Frankly, I thought Bottoms was perfect for his role. Certainly his super- organized bomber is as slick as the intricate devices he puts together. I also thought the ending was appropriately ironic considering what had gone before, though the event itself is definitely under-dramatized. All in all, the pacing may be uneven at times, along with some needless repetition (the roller-coasters). Still, the movie remains a colorful nail-biter with a good imaginative premise. Anyway, I do hope Segal got some sleep.

Roller-coaster (1977) ** (out of 4) The disaster genre was certainly running on fumes by the time this thing struck but I'd say this has a lot more in common with JAWS. A nut case (Timothy Bottoms) blows up a roller coaster ride and then blackmails the park owners for a million dollars. He forces a inspector (George Segal) to go along with the ride but after a detective (Richard Widmark) double crosses him, the psychopath picks out another park to blow up. There's barely enough plot here to fill up a TV episode so stretching it out to two-hours was just crazy because after the first deadly ride nothing happens for the rest of the film. A lot of the problem is due to the screenplay but director Goldstone doesn't do the film much justice either as there's no suspense ever built up, which is the same thing that happened to the director's next film, the real disaster WHEN TIME RAN OUT. Back to this film, I'm really not sure what they were thinking making this thing so long unless there was some unwritten rule that any disaster film had to run extra long. At the start of the film it seemed like the screenwriters were going to do something smart and that is do a JAWS on us. In that film, they gave us something everyone like (water) and made us scared of it. This film starts off by showing why people love roller coasters but then it tries to make us scared by showing bodies being broken apart after the first accident. This is all good but then the movie continues and it just goes downhill. There's really not much you can do with a plot like this because rides are either going to blow up or they're not. Here, they don't. We get a long cat and mouse game at an amusement park as Bottoms has Segal walking all over the place to try and get away from the police. This sequence feels close to an hour and not one second of it contains any suspense. The film tacks on an extra ending with the possibility of another bomb being on yet another ride but again we get no suspense. By the time the final act comes along I was struggling to stay away. The one thing the film does offer are some fun performances with Segal doing a very good job in the lead. The screenplay doesn't offer him too much development but the actor keeps thing alive with the fun performance. Widmark is also pretty good in his role and gets to play off that classic attitude in a few nice scenes. Bottoms isn't the greatest villain in history but his calm attitude works. Henry Fonda is kind enough to show and pick up a paycheck. Look quick for Helen Hunt and Steve Guttenberg. One could debate the importance of the 70s disaster flicks but there's no doubt that as the decade went along they got a lot worse. This one here isn't as bad as THE SWARM or WHEN TIME RAN OUT but at the same time there's not enough here to make it worth wasting two hours of your life.

I remember seeing part of this little gem when it came out on TV around 1985. Unfortunately, I didn't see it again until about 1997 when I found a copy on VHS. This one isn't a true disaster film; it's more of a suspense/thriller/mystery. I was actually quite impressed with this flick about a terrorist/extortionist targeting rollercoasters and the innocent people on them.The film opens on a pier, with a young 20-something man (the villain) watching a maintenance man walk up a roller-coaster called 'The Rocket' in Virginia. He then disguises himself as a maintenance man, and plants a bomb for remote-detonation on the tracks. Later that night, when the park opens, he re-visits the park, watching as the roller-coaster loads up. We see him stealthily take a remote detonator from his coat, then detonate the small explosive. The track is damaged on a turn, and when the roller-coaster hits the spot, horror ensues. Cars crash through the rails; bodies are thrown from the cars; and one car falls off a roof & lands upside-down on top of its passengers.An amusement park inspector named Harry Calder, who had inspected that coaster only 2 months before, is called in to investigate. He soon discovers it was the work of a terrorist, and rules out structural failure. It isn't long before the bomber strikes again, this time in Pittsburgh, causing a fire that destroys a ride but everyone escapes safely. When the bomber threatens the owners of 5 different parks with a simultaneous attack against their rollercoasters unless his $1-million ransom is met, Harry suggests calling in the FBI, which his bosses do. Harry is also tasked by the terrorist to deliver the ransom, to be dropped at an amusement park. Led all over the park by the bomber, Harry makes the drop, but the money has been marked in defiance of the bomber's orders, and the fiend vows revenge - this time at a major park in California! Harry suspects that his target will be the Revolution roller-coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain, and his bosses reluctantly allow him to go to the park & try to stop the bomber. The fiend places another bomb on the tracks, but the FBI discovers it & disarms the bomb. Enraged, the fiend buys a ticket for the Revolution's inaugural ride, and plants a second bomb in the last car of the train.Harry soon catches up to the bomber, who tells him that the bomb is in the last car. Unable to stop the train (it had climbed over the hill), the FBI jams the remote frequency for the detonator, foiling the bomber's plans. The fiend tries to use Harry as a human shield, but that fails when Harry shoots him in the leg. A wild chase ensues as the bomber runs through the hills around the roller-coaster, not realizing he is going in circles that lead back to one place - Harry. The fiend climbs up on the Revolution's track, spots Harry, and freezes, not seeing the roller-coaster coming from behind. The bomber is killed on impact when he is hit by the roller-coaster.I was quite impressed with the visual effects of the original roller-coaster crash; I've read that some of the more graphic scenes were supposedly edited out, but all the same, it did convey a chilling scene when the cars go flying out of control. The sheer terror that would be felt is unimaginable: there is no way to protect yourself, no way to stop it, and no apparent help at hand.The story is one that isn't impossible; in fact, especially today the potential for a real-life version of this exists (even remotely). The acting isn't all that bad; the bomber (Bottoms) is especially chilling for such a simple character - he just wants MONEY, $1-million of it. Henry Fonda also turns in a stellar performance as an FBI man in charge of the investigation. Harry Guardino (best known for his roles in the 'Dirty Harry' movies) has a smaller but effective role as one of Harry's bosses.Not a bad movie, certainly worth seeing. I give this one 8/10 for a good story & exciting visual effects (by 1977 standards).