Rollerboys

Amazingly enough, I think it's cute. Tongue-in-cheek teen flick about semi-post-apocalyptic world ruled by a racist, drug-dealing, high-tech, self-obsessed, rollerblading street gang. The characters were interesting, the relationships explored to a somewhat greater depth than I expected, and the actors gave it their all.

Corey Haim in probably the last thing I saw him in where he seemed to care, establishes great rapport with the other characters in the movie and makes you actually care about his life. (As I said, amazingly enough--I wanted to just laugh this movie off, but really did like it...)

Don't expect Speed or something that polished, but see the movie if you would like to have an enjoyable couple of hours where you won't have to think too much.

I saw this movie shortly after it came out in 1991, and I immediately fell in love with it.

This movie takes you to the worst place possible: the not too distant future! In this future, the government has failed, and there is total chaos in society. There are hardly any jobs left, you have to pay even for basic education, Harvard has been relocated to Japan, homeless shelters have become homeless CAMPS (which look like prison camps), and the pizza guy delivers the pizzas with an M-16!

A gang called the Rollerboys is "buying back America, one piece at a time". but in doing so, they are sterilizing the populace with a drug called "The Rope". The Rollerboys talk about "The Day of the Rope", which is the day they say they will get even, and hang all their enemies. The Rollerboys are a prejudiced group, and their enemies are those who are not white, and those who are too weak and who take their drugs.

It is left up to the pizza delivery boy (Griffin, AKA Corey Haim) and what is left of the governmental agents to stop this madness, and to capture the leader of the Rollerboys, Gary Lee, before he can do any more harm to those that Griffin cares for.

This movie is a great combination of the movies Solar Babies and Class of 1999, with it's own twists....a must have for any one who is a fan of bleak futuristic movies!

You know it seems that just because it had Corey Haim in it people knock the movie. Corey my not be my favorite actor but he did good in this movie. The story line was also good with some most excellent blading in it. I give this movie a hmmmm 8/10 for good soundtrack, story, and ok acting. Give this movie a chance you may like it.

The Oklahoma City Bombing, according to American government officials, was inspired by an obscure controversial novel named "The Turner Diaries." The novel depicts a future race war initiated by White racial supremacists against non-Whites. A similar world exists in "Prayer of the Rollerboys," where an Adolf Hitler-like charismatic leader,Gary Lee (Christopher Collet), motivates his group of dominant young paramilitary skaters known as the Rollerboys. They envision an all-White world achieved through violence and the overthrow of governments. Depression-level economic turbulence have weakened local authorities. Gary Lee and his gang fills a void; a somewhat parallel to Hitler's ascension during the Weimar Republic.

There is a plausible case to be made that screenwriter W. Peter Lliff had a deep familiarity with "Turner Diaries." The novel and the film presents a "The Day of the Rope" for the unmerciful elimination of perceived enemies. They parts ways in its implementation. On that eventful day in the book, many "race traitors" end up in nooses. The "rope" of the Rollerboys is a chemical modification to the recreational drug Mist, an adjustment which sterilizes its non-White users. (Compare that to Walter Mosley's "Futureland," where an artificial plague bypasses anyone whose DNA is at least 12.5% African.)

By the time "Prayer Of The Rollerboys" was released, Corey Haim's career was in decline. Long gone were the theater-ready times of "Lost Boys." Because of personal issues, Corey became a true lost boy--with skates--eager to get by, having lost the power of selectiveness in his movie roles. True life wasn't better, as his character Griffin avoided addiction. My standards for movies are not high, maybe that's why I will watch a Corey Haim film post-super stardom.

The futuristic nature of the movie was promising, while the unconvincing unfolding of events and the frequently sub par performances went below my low requirements.Yet the movie got me hooked like a Mist addict. It retains a significant appeal in a "Lord of the Flies"-like environment with minimal parental authority. The Rollerboys feed the "what if" imaginations of those eager to escape the restrictions of society. Ideology aside, the Rollerboys are cool skaters swinging in reinforced rhythmic uniformity, well at home in a semi-dystopia.

Though the material is now familiar to us all, this is a very good post nuke sci.-fi. movie. Features excellent stunt and set work and features an incredible amount of style. This film got unfairly tossed when it played in theaters, but go out and rent this movie you won't be sorry. Rating: 8/10