SGL Café ...

The music. The thump.

The bounce.

Just came from seeing Bow Wow in Roll Bounce. (All pics are camera-phone captures taken in the theater.) I expected a flashback to the glory days of the roller-skating venues that were more like thumpin’ clubs on wheels … and I was not disappointed.

The movie itself has been done to death though … along the lines of Bring It On and that ilk. Nothing new here. Same ol’ same ol’.

But it was the feeling that I expected and got … reliving the experience of the Friday’s at Twin City Roller Rink in Newark that I used to frequent in the very early eighties. It all came back to me. God I miss those days. You could just take off your skates and dance on the side lines if you wanted to, the music was that good, and no one ever got shot. There is nothing that compares to that today. Nothing. I guess, maybe, rollerblading at night with your favorite jams pumping through your iPod at max volume … while tripping on mushrooms would be pretty close.

Yeah. It was like that. Twin City Roller Rink, I mean … the movie, not so much.

I did have a flashback though. But maybe it was from all those eighties drugs I took.

The movie did have some redeeming features: 18 year old Bow Wow (he ain’t so little no more) as leading man, clad in tight seventies gear and who’ll probably make fans forgive the clichéd plot, and Nick Cannon for his surprisingly corn-ball and forgettable cameo.

Chi McBride’s strong performance as his father was a treat … and Boston Public (he played the principal) fans would expect no less. And lastly, Wesley Jonathan (City Guys, What I Like About You) as the aptly-named antagonist, Sweetness … gave the film the necessary eye-candy, proudly displaying his well-chiseled torso while battling Bow Wow in the rink.

I was most pleased.

Overall, if you’re a Bow Wow fan (like me), or an eighties head who lived for the rink (like me), a Wesley Jonathan fan (like me) or just starved for seventies nostalgia … you won’t be disappointed.