Solarbabies - Guerreiros do Sol

Silly nonsense about a post-apocalyptic future where it doesn't rain and the kids are raised in a prison. There they play a game that's kind of a kids' version of Rollerball and wait to grow up and become guards or something for the corporation running the world. They find a glowing alien ball called Bohdai and uninteresting stuff happens. Laughable to the extreme, with ugly-looking '80s costumes and an odd fascination with rollerskating. It's unintentionally funny at times, and I totally give it points for that, but ultimately it's just embarrassing for all involved. See it for Jami Gertz, because you should see anything with Jami Gertz.

"Solarbabies" apparently wasn't given much of a theatrical release by MGM. After seeing the movie, I can understand why they apparently decided to cut their losses. To be fair, the outdoor locations are pretty eye-catching (the movie was shot in Spain), and the sets look like some serious money and time was spent on their construction. But aside from those things, there's not much more praiseworthy to bring up. The movie is really confusing at times, with several plot points brought up so suddenly in the narrative that I'm pretty confident I'm correct in thinking the movie was severely cut in the editing room, taking away the introduction and explanation to these plot points. Despite this editing, there are still plenty of ridiculous things to be found in the movie, like the youths getting around in this post-apocalypse world on roller-skates. But most of these ridiculous things are just mildly amusing, not insane enough to make this worth seeing on a camp level. Will anyone like it? Well, I have an idea that (very young) kids - especially kids who have not seem many better fantasy movies - might get some enjoyment out of it, but I'm sure they'll still question a lot of the movie's incoherent moments.

I remember when I first saw this film, I must have been about six years old (1990 or so), I thought this film was amazing at that time. I've since watched it several times as an adult and all I can do is laugh at every serious scene in this movie. This film is about a future in which roller skates apparently make a huge come back. All of the worlds water (or most of it anyway) is being stored in a building about the size of Yankee stadium. There is no rain because apparently there is also no such thing as evaporation (although plenty of the cast are sweating throughout the film). All animals except a few birds and a couple of attack dogs are dead (or hiding really well ^_^). All plant life is dead and gone which means two things, No salad, and oxygen must be supplied by planet Druidia! My favorite scene in the whole movie is when "Rabbit" dare I say the only back person left alive on the planet, does a very non-offensive Harlem Globe Trotters routine with the "Sphere of Longiness". You will enjoy this movie if you want some chuckles, please watch it and, "Enjoy a decent life grid!" (That line cracks me up!)

After about 20 years of having little more than vague memories of this movie rollerskating about in my head, I finally broke down and re-watched Solarbabies.

All I can say is, well, bless them for trying. It really isn't a BAD movie... it does manage to be entertaining even though it occasionally drags. The only problem is that it borrows a lot from other movies and never seems to decide on a style of its own.

Overall I didn't feel as drawn in to the story as I'd hoped, but despite the somewhat vague plot and generic characters, it was still good fun. And if nothing else, it teaches us that all we really need to set things right in the world are friendship and roller skating. And maybe a magic ball from outer space.

Totally stupid 1980s junk has a group of adolescents (Jason Patric, Jami Gertz and Lukas Haas among them) finding an orb of special powers in the post-apocalyptic future. They are really orphans (or prisoners) in a future that is run by evil people (Richard Jordan being the main villain here). Oh by the way the youngsters love to skate around and play hockey in the desert (no kidding). Silly and unnecessary venture for all involved. Still not as bad as some other similar movies of the period, but that is not saying much. 2 stars out of 5.