This film was like a trip back in time. The roller skating, moves, and clothes all supply a trip down memory lane. The character Sweetness was bad (meant in a good way)! Bow Wow's performance blended well with the other characters. It was also great to see Jurnee Smollet and Meagan Good again!! (They were sisters in Kasi Lemmon's Eve's Bayou--exceptional film!) This movie is cute, fun, and great to watch. I would recommend it.

I had no upsets with the filming. The language can be a little spicy for little ones. But overall, the story is kept at the roller rink. The Southside Boys are a wacky group. They love to crack on each other. Overall, I thought the movie was great. Lots of comedy, family drama, and roller skating action.

Engaging disco fantasy set in 1978 from writer Norman Vance, Jr., who seems to have overdosed on a mixture of roller-boogie movies and reruns of "What's Happening!!" Five teenage friends from the Southside of Chicago are let down after their local skating rink is closed for good, forcing them into the city's deluxe roller palace, where all the coolest cats hang out; soon they're engaged in a winner-take-all skating contest. Since there were absolutely no decent movies made about the roller disco craze during the 1970s, it's nice to finally get a good one. However, Bow Wow's broken family dynamic--which chews up far too much of the screen-time--is doggedly sincere and "emotional". Perhaps showing more skating practice on the boys' part might have been more beneficial to the big showdown at the finale. That last act is pure commercial pandering, nearly losing the film's heart and comically-grounded focus. The cinematography is disappointing, as is the editing, although the cast is uniformly excellent and the music is terrifically energized: disco never sounded so good! **1/2 from ****

A young boy (bow wow) enters an unattainable skating contest in order to win prize money when he realises that his father has been keeping a secret from him and his little sister about the real state of the family's financial affairs. There is also the issue of the death of the boy's mother which is a lingering but undressed subject until the culminating points of the film.

Meagan Good co-stars as bow wow's love interest and Nick Cannon plays a perpetually high roller blading superstar in this very predictable, sometimes corny, cliché ridden, lame joke running wannabe hilarious comedy.