User Reviews

I gave this flick a shame faced 7 (a baseline 6 + 1 because I've thoroughly enjoyed it...twice!) I saw it first in 1991, a full 5 years before I learned to roller blade myself (at the ripe old age of 44) and again last night. I think the mistake made by those rating it so lowly was in taking it seriously. It certainly didn't take itself seriously. Not with lines like (paraphrase) [after a criminal is shot by a cop] "thank God we could take care of him here. I hate court". Or with newspaper headlines that read "Germany buys Poland". Or with a radio newscast describing Mexican INS agents rounding up and deporting American fruit pickers who had illegally entered their country to find work. Any sense of reality exited my mind as I watched them do everything in those skates, I, myself, having gotten hopelessly bogged down in the neutral ground trying to cross the street in my blades at City Park in New Orleans. The movie also had a refreshingly original take on the "doomed future" theme. Instead of the grim setting being a post nuclear apocalypse, we have a wasteland created, instead, by the crash of the American stock market. And this well explains the sad state of affairs (no money for police, a greatly weakened government, extensive homelessness, etc.) that is the backdrop for the film. The rollerboys seemed to be a blurry composite of all the evils of mankind since the beginning of time...racial hatred, greed megalomania, anti-semitism...you name it. The visage of the rollerboy gang materializing from the end of a dark tunnel, gliding effortlessly in white trench coats and black rollerblades, their arms swinging mightily in unison immediately called to mind goose stepping Nazis. The two undercover cops, who seemed to literally dwell in their van, making off the cuff quips about the rollerboys were a hoot. True, the acting was, at best mediocre but had it been excellent it would have spoiled the film. Occasional lapses into the melodramatic only added savor to the stew. Much of the dialog was so bad it was not only good but great. I guess this movie will remain one of my guilty pleasures. If it comes on again...I'll watch it again. I only wish Corey Haim hadn't grown up so they could make Rollerboys 2.

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 only watched this movie in the first place because I always kind of had a crush on Corey Haim. The plot didn't sound particularly interesting or original -- I didn't expect much. But this movie surprised me. It is without question messy -- it needs more time for character development, it goes right for a bunch of stereotypes that take away some of its credibility. But there's a lot in this film that's worth considering. The idea is half-"1984," half-"Lord of the Flies" -- a futuristic society where kids rule the world, yet there's less freedom or honesty than ever. It's a little scary in that thrilling way because it's something you can imagine, especially in light of recent history. And the constant use of iconography from the "Golden Age" of family values in American culture was stunning (an evil character named "Bullwinkle," an otherwise-bleak roller park with a giant record painted on the ground, Patricia Arquette's many costumes including cowgirl and sailorette). This is a movie that would do well to be remade a little more carefully. More focus on the obvious symbolism, more thought given to character. I'd like to see that, because I actually think this story has quite a bit to say to us today that might have seemed unimportant in 1991.

This movie is awful in a really great way. If you don't like bad movies you shouldn't be looking at the work of Corey Haim. But that doesn't mean that bad movies aren't enjoyable. And this one has everything.

By everything I mean post-apocalyptic, drug dealing, fascist skating around in formation wearing trench coats.

I know what you are thinking "Wait, wait, I have seen this a million times", but you haven't seen an apple eaten as viciously as you will in this film.

I wept for that apple, it was violated.

Plus you get Corey Haim and Patrica Arquette.

I say gather a group of like minded friends, some adult beverages, and enjoy a truly enjoyable bad movie.

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

(Credit IMDb) Set in an unspecified time in the future, USA has declined and become a country of violence and racial prejudice. Griffin earns his living delivering pizzas while he tries to take care of his little brother. An old friend of his, Gary Lee, is the leader of a gang with big ambitions, the Rollerboys. Gary joins them to help the police keep track of the gang.

I saw this movie on You Tube a few months ago, and don't remember too much about it. Corey Haim's drug troubles were starting to get bad at this juncture. His status of a teen hunk was still there, but it was diminishing. Corey Haim is a very talented actor, and it's a shame that he had to succumb to drug use, and pressures of Hollywood. This was a ballsy project for him to take on. It's set in a post-apocalyptic future, and it's quite a grim experience in all honesty. Haim had yet to really sink his teeth into dark material as of yet, and Haim pulls it off very well. He reportedly did all of his own blading stunts, and I was quite impressed with it. Haim has to deal with a below average script, which kinda negates his excellent performance a little bit, but Haim was terrific in a part that was potentially miscasting for him. Patricia Arquette doesn't have a whole lot to do, nor was she as famous as she is now. This movie is interesting, and never boring, but the script lets people down. I wish they had done more, but it's worth a look for Corey's performance

5.2/10

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.

Holy cow. *EXTREMELY* terrible script, horrifyingly inept direction, fairly bad acting. Throw in a prop budget of $4, continuity mistakes, and a soundtrack that makes you want to kill yourself, and you've got one of the worst movies of all time. If you see only 14,000 movies this year, make sure this isn't one of them.

Corey Haim looks like he's 14 in this film, but I guess in real life he was about 19. His arms are so skinny and he's so short. Hard to picture him as an action hero/undercover cop. He played Chris Collet's little brother 6 or 7 years before this in First Born, yet we are supposed to believe that they are contemporaries in this movie. Haim looks like the Rollerboys' little brother.

The writer wrote Point Break, which came out a year later. I think the director was also involved with that film. Instead of surfing, the adrenalin comes from roller blades. Instead of a surfing bank robber/guru, you have a neo-Nazi blading guru.

Patricia Arquette has a certain appeal, but is she really a hot girl? She's supposed to be one in this.

Fun Blade-Runnerish plot, great performance by the little kid and nice work by Chris Collet, the head Rollerboy, who now owns a Pilates studio.

I love the opening credits with the classic 80s graphics in neon blue and the skating footage.

Good photography of the beach and empty building shots.

The cop characters are cartoonish, but that just makes it fun.

Enjoy.

This was intended to be a sizzling action film but quickly metamorphoses into silly ass, mindless teen boredom. The acting was sub-pathetic, the choreography junior grade, and the story on a third grade level [assurance that all the teens could easily keep up]. And what is with all the anguishing over this Haim kid? Just some punk second rate actor wannabe in dire need of a competent hairdresser. This bilge was so juvenile I wonder if a 10 year old could go for it.

Prayer Of The Rollerboys occupies a place of pride on many a website or documentary about crap cinema. One might see this as being natural where films featuring Corey Haim are concerned. But Prayer is even worse than one should expect from a Haim film. Put very simply, Prayer is in the same league as Plan 9 From Outer Space or Cool As Ice. You do not watch it for entertainment value, unless you mean the unintentional variety. You watch it for the right to brag that you have seen a film so incredibly bad that it makes you of a sterner quality than more discerning viewers. After all, why else would one watch a film in which Corey Haim attempts to impersonate a gangster that a small-time businessman from an urban environment of the very late twentieth century would be afraid of? Sadly, the only DVD presently available of the film is of distinctly ordinary at best quality. Whomever presently owns the rights to this film, I beg of you, bring us a decent DVD. I will even buy ten of them if that is what it takes to make it worth your while.

The story itself could have been the basis for a good, possibly even great, film. Set at an unspecified point in the future, Prayer tells the story of Griffin, a man old enough to have a twelve year old younger brother yet not old enough to have a voice that sounds like that of an adult. The scary part is that Corey is not the only actor at the age of twenty or more in this crapfest to start sounding like an excited old woman at inopportune moments. About the only actor in this film beside Christopher Collet to come out looking like he might even have a second's worth of future in a serious action film would be Mark Pellegrino, who subsequently had a bit part as one of the armoured car robbers in Lethal Weapon 3. Yet Prayer expects us to believe in Corey nutting him with what appears to be a very small iron bar. Hell, even the 5'1" Patricia Arquette can be taken more seriously as an action hero in this mess than Corey. One has to wonder exactly what the moneymen in this endeavour were smoking.

Most Corey Haim films, with the noted exception of The Lost Boys, are nowhere near this pretentious. They know they suck, and they make no attempt to convince anyone otherwise. As I hinted earlier, Prayer is a different bucket of barf primarily because it had potential. With a cast consisting of actors like Anna Paquin, Hugh Jackman, or James Marsden, a remake of Prayer might have a chance. But as it stands, Prayer is one of those films that makes one wonder exactly how the executive producers reacted when they saw what their money had bought them. We even get a highly disturbing sex scene between Haim and Arquette. Arquette would almost apologise for being involved in this film in years to come, which I suppose is a better fate compared to what has become of other poor women who have acted in sex scenes with Haim. Arquette has since gone on to better things, but the advent of digital video ensures that Prayer will keep embarrassing her for all time. This would be one of the few times I think I have felt sympathy for a Hollywood actor.

The final nail in the coffin is in the screenplay. A common problem for bad writers is the failure to think through the results of the characters' actions. For instance, a mock newsreport details how Havard University has been moved over to Japan. Not just the organisation running it, the charter, or the faculty, mind you. They have literally moved it to Japan brick by brick. I fail to follow how America can possibly be in such financial peril if entities in the rest of the world can contemplate spending the enormous cost it would entail to pack every brick, every stone foundation, and every wooden support beam by boat (nobody in their right mind would move this kind of weight by air). With this kind of expenditure, any recession would have to be entirely global. Early on in the film, Christopher Collet attempts to explain this with a speech about how our parents borrowed more money than they could ever repay, and the rest of the world foreclosed. To call this an overly simplistic view of present-day problems is quite flattering.

Adding to the idiocy is an induction ritual involving skating through a secure facility. Apparently, a real good skater can not only skate through the path of automatic gunfire without getting a scratch, they can outrun various kinds of automobiles. This is followed by a demonstration of what the parade ground scenes in StarShip Troopers would have looked like if Ed Wood had directed them with less than half the extras necessary to convincingly fill a Scout hall. What makes it even more hilarious is that after all this incompetent film-making, and the predictable somewhat happy ending takes place, one of our actors even hints that there will be a sequel. Try as I might, I cannot remember a single Haim film that has received a sequel. Even those that are a relative financial success seem to have some magical ingredient such as Haim's acting that convinces financiers that producing a sequel would be a bad idea on a similar level to inserting a white-hot nail file into one's urethra.

When all is said and done, Prayer Of The Rollerboys is a true one out of ten film. Sometimes I will say that you will see worse films, but not many. Prayer is literally so bad it is impossible to imagine others being worse.

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.

Don't feel bad for Corey Haim, he's already dead. Rollerblading has never been cool, well before Prayer For The Rollerboys, and long after, rollerblading will still be mocked. So to imagine a future were everybody rollerblades, man, that's got to suck. There are movies which can be described as best-worst movies, and then there are bad movies, this "film" is just bad, yeah, godawful. The sets are poorly constructed, acting and dialog are garbage along with the plot, it looks like a terrible piece of sh*t movie all the way through. If you want to see a drugged out Corey Haim, this is one of his movies. If your thing is watching garbage movies, here is Prayer With The Rollerboys, enjoy.

Prayer of the Rollerboys is set in the future, when most of the population are now hooked on "Mist"

Enter Griffin (Corey Haim) who has a crappy job in the local pizza joint, but a good set of morals. Story mainly revolves around Griffins initiation into the Rollerboys, helped along by an old school friend (Christopher Collet) who happens to be the guy in charge of the drug pushing brigade on Rollerblades.

The film has temptation (in the form of material goods and money) and a strong will (Griffin) to save his younger brother from a life of greed and drug pushing/taking and ousting out the guys responsible (Rollerblade boys)

Corey Haim gives a good performance and there is plenty going on to keep viewers occupied. Some stylish opening sequences and core "say no to drugs" message make the film a worthwhile watch (especially for teen target audience)

I have seen this movie a couple of times and i enjoy it. The movie is not one of the best i have seen, but it's a cool movie with some great action and some awesome roller-skating scenes.

I enjoy Corey Haims movie in the 80's and beginning of the 90's, but today you never see him in a good movie like this!

So see this movie, it's great.

This movie is set in the not so distant future of Los Angeles. The economy has gone bankrupt and Los Angeles has been over-run with violence, drugs and gang warfare.

Now, let us just get this out of the way: someone wrote a story about drug-dealing, inline skating white supremacists... a company bought this story, cast Corey Haim in it, and added Patricia Arquette as a moll. At no time did someone say "this is ludicrous" and stop filming. No. It was made and it exists, ready to be viewed on VHS, DVD, or YouTube.

The film is not good, but oddly entertaining because of its bizarre plot and situation. I mean, sure, maybe a world could exist where Germany rises up... maybe this film was inspired by Philip K. Dick's "Man in the High Castle"... but a white supremacist gang of skaters in California? Not so much.

Despite some nasty reviews I've heard, I think this movie is great. It's fun, has an original storyline, and best of all, the acting is great, particularly that of Morgan Weisser (Bullwinkle) and Christopher Collet (Gary Lee). The movie is definitely worth a look!

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!

I have a soft spot for this movie, primarily as Haim was a pin up of mine back in the day and it is so very 90's.

The plot itself had potential but the script and the acting (at times) was iffy. If it had a better director, script writer and a bigger budget then it could have been a lot more successful than it was, however it seems to have done well as a cult classic.

I recently watched this again and the things that make it watchable are the guys who played Gary Lee, Bango and Bullwinkle (their acting was the best in the entire movie) and the soundtrack (it was edgy for it's time and cause it has NIN). Haim's acting was hammy at best and i just didn't buy him as the 'action hero' but then he wasn't successful because of his talent (for me his best movies were Lucas, License to Drive and The Lost Boys).

I think this is one of those 90's movies that might improve on a remake.

Having just recently re-viewed the film, I am reminded of what teen-sex flicks used to be. All the sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll that are missing from todays films -- on rollerblades! What a wonderful film. A completely predictable plot never felt so good. The style is one that hollywood has unfortunately forgotten.

I saw the roller boys when it first came out on video in the UK and loved it to death. Not only did it have my teen idol in but the plot was different to what was out at the time. I would love to see the roller boys again so as to relive my younger days but along with my sister we have been trying to find this film for years. We both thought that we were mad as nobody seemed to remember the film let a lone have it. Lucky last week we realized we weren't mad as in the same day we found two people who had heard of it unfortunately we were still unable to find it.So please please if you can spare a copy or know where i can get one please let me know.