AllMovie

Steeped in nostalgia, but not too sugar-gum-drop to make it a nonstop ride to cheeseville, Roll Bounce is a refreshing cocktail of teen love, flashy roller-rink action, and more than a bit of urban drama added in for good measure. Lil' Bow Wow has grown up and shed his "Lil'" moniker -- and for good reason. Bow Wow makes a genuine and effortless impact on the screen as X, a teen on the brink of maturity whose hang-ups over his mother's death create the central arc to the story. While the film might suffer from some unevenness because of its dramatics, the emotional crux of the film is in the strong hands of veteran Chi McBride, whose role as X's father is predictably written, but thoroughly sympathetic, thanks to his strong performance. When it comes down to it, Roll Bounce exists because of the skating and there are enough larger-than-life scenes of free-wheeling abandon to suck in any audience member looking for a flashy dose of blast-from-the-past fun. Musical selections are for the most part authentic, as are the costumes and production design. As any archetypical underdog story, the end is a rousing conclusion that surprisingly doesn't end up playing by all the rules. Despite the finale's slight detour, the final scenes still make for a marvelously fine capper that delivers on all the split-screen roller-boogie antics that one would expect. While Roll Bounce didn't exactly heat up the box-office tallies, it is partly responsible for the roller resurgence in America's urban youth following its release.