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Making a movie is hard work, and making a movie with little to no budget is even harder work. As a podcaster and a reviewer, I have spoken with many influencers and their upcoming projects only to never see them launched. This is why whenever I manage to see another super low budget British indie film, I feel eager to take a look at it. Because of this, I do my best to attempt to watch and enjoy the film.
My willingness to engage with unusual films like these pays off when I find a gem, but then again there are a few duds at the opposite end of the spectrum that I rarely review. This time around, I got a request to watch Roller Squad which was shot during the Lockdown of 2021. The streets of London were pretty empty at that time and provided a unique setting for the film. The film also promised a roller-blading serial killer so to be honest, who would not be thrilled!
Roller Squad is an insane film about a roller-blading serial killer stalking the streets of London and killing innocent roller-bladders left and right while the police don’t seem to care at all. The movie features four main characters, Kat, Hugh, Sophie, and Arthur, who form an elite “Roller Squad” to avenge their fallen comrade. They start a manhunt and piece together everything they have to formulate a plan. Using outrageous tech in their makeshift command center, they monitor everything from a distance while trying to figure out what exactly they have scammed themselves into.
Let’s be real here, I would not go ahead and claim Roller Squad is fantastic because it clearly isn’t.
But, during an era when films were scarcely produced, this crew put everything on the line, making them worthy of immense respect. Now, let’s move on to our cast. Speaking of them, some thoughts it is a rather basic and quite ordinary group of people that we are most likely to be spending a lot of time within the command center, which, contrary to what the name suggests, is merely a flat. Admittedly, there are some very bad dialogue scenes, but they are not so far above that it ruins any of the characters for me or my enjoyment of the film. There’s some good chemistry on show here and I really bought these guys as friends. I cannot forget to mention that Benjamin McMahon and Alice Sanders are extremely strong in the roles that they are portraying.
Let us shift gears and discuss the events beyond the walls of the flat. Truth be told, I was taken in by the idea of a roller-blading psychopath being pursued through London. Fictional characters deeply influenced my childhood. I remember going on skating escapades with my friends and feeling like a part of Mighty Ducks or Hackers. But, to my dismay, this is more akin to Superrank on roller sets. No, that’s a touch unfair, there are some decent action scenes in the movie, but they definitely span too long and, due to an unusual choice of editing, they are one moment right next to the killer, and the next they are miles behind. Then there is the rollerblade fight in the skate park, where the two guys seem to be dancing around each other and every now and then they are tapping feet against each other. It just sucked the fun out of it. And then there’s the finale of this chase where, after what seems to be 20 minutes of joy, our dance kick fighting blade hero finally manages to catch up with the killer. But, as the killer pulls out a knife our hero shrugs and says, “Nah you’re alright mate, I’m good,” while skating away.
All in all Roller Squad is an impressive tiny masterpiece. Completed on what fairly bizarre times leads me to suppose was an unclear little budget. The plot is solid, albeit much of the dialogue is awful. The city is beautiful thanks to some neat camera work and there are some great comedy scenes. I think director Berty Cadilhac has done a superb work on Roller Squad maybe I don’t know if it is going to set your world on fire, but at least I think you could do a hell of a lot worse (World Cup Heist on Amazon Prime is an example of this).
While I was disappointed by the action scenes at some points which would have given this a 2.5 / 5 score, when looking back However, I was entertained by the action shots, so I’ll increase the score to…
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