I finally got around to watching Prayer Of The Rollerboys. I was aware of this movie when it came out, but I opted not to see it back then. As I recall, I figured there were other movies with similar types of themes that were more interesting to me. Since then, I've noticed people tend to slam this movie and don't say very nice things about it. Was it really that bad?
The movie stars Corey Haim and Patricia Arquette. Corey plays Griffin, a rollerblade enthusiast who has been taking care of his younger brother since their parents died. A nice older man named Speedbagger, played by Julius Harris, has taken the two brothers into his home and cares for them. Griffin is hoping that one day he can get into college and make a better life for himself. Arquette plays Casey, who seems to be in the drug scene at first. However, it turns out that she is an undercover cop. Her performance, while adequate, just didn't grab me
This is another one of those dystopian society movies, where the future of the United States looks grim. People are being herded into camps, and you do what you have to do to get by. Thanks to Speedbagger giving Griffin and his brother a place to live, Griffin manages to find work as a pizza delivery boy. Though he has a plan to make a better future for himself, he's not without compassion. This is demonstrated when he backs his delivery van into the wall of a burning house to save somebody, much to the chagrin of his boss Pinky, played by John P Connolly.
We do see early on that gangs pretty much do what they want, but the Rollerboys are more than just a gang. They are the corporation that runs things in the area by using gang tactics. They are also racist and preach a message that all of the immigrants caused the downturn of society. After Griffin saves the person from the burning building, it's revealed that he was a member of the Rollerboys. We soon get a meeting between their leader Gary Lee, played by Christopher Collet, and Griffin. It turns out that these two knew each other when they were younger, and Collet would like to recruit Griffin into his group.
Griffin knows better than to be a part of the gang. They are dealing a destructive drug within the community called Mist, and Griffin wants no part of it. Unfortunately, his younger brother is enamored with the group and becomes a drug runner for them. It's explained that the Rollerboys use the young kids as runners so they can keep their hands clean. Though Griffin doesn't want any part of this, he realizes that he needs to join them to protect his brother and to ultimately try to bring the Rollerboys down.
For those who like rollerblading, which was a big deal back in 1991, you'll get lots of that. There are some explosions, though not on par with some of the other dystopian movies that are filled with more special effects. This story is more plot driven. Everybody in the cast gives a solid performance, but I'm particularly impressed with the way Haim, Collet and Harris carried this movie. Though it starts slowly, it picks up the pace from there and builds to an exciting conclusion.
Even though the movie wraps up well enough in the end, there's the hint of a sequel. I can only imagine that when they started the process of putting this movie together, they had dreams of making a nice little franchise. When you look at this movie, you could certainly make a case for a TV series being created based on the story. Unfortunately, box office numbers dictated that this would be the only movie. I can't help but think that Corey was disappointed as I've seen interviews where he was very enthusiastic and proud of this movie. He had reason to be proud. It wasn't a bad movie.
It is a bit ironic, given the fact that he was battling his own demons with drugs at the time, that Haim would pick a movie with an anti-drug message. While some might call that hypocritical, you have to look at it from his eyes. He was aware that he had a problem, and you can damn well believe that he wasn't happy about that. So, if making a movie with a message like this could steer anybody away from the path that he had taken, he was going to do it. I can't help but respect him for that, and it makes me sadder knowing that he was an actor who had great potential. His demons prevented him from achieving the big success that he deserved.
I find it interesting that Haim talked about wanting to play the older brother in his mini documentary Me, Myself And I, and he got that opportunity here. The other thing is this movie was an opportunity for Haim to get a more adult role as he set his sights on transitioning from child actor into adult actor. His acting in this movie was solid, but it didn't manage to help him move his career forward. The movie quickly became lost in the shuffle.
If I can make an observation about that, I can't help but be a little surprised that this movie didn't perform better. According to Box Office Mojo, it was released at a time when there was nothing big going on at the box office. The Pope Must Die, Beastmaster 2 and Child's Play 3 came out that weekend. Dead Again came out the week before and performed well, and Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare came out two weeks later. In theory, it should have performed better in the theaters.
Corey's drug issue was known by then, so it might have affected his younger audience. The fact that this movie, much like Dream A Little Dream, starts off slowly didn't help. To the younger crowd, that would probably have been a turn off and affected the word of mouth negatively. New fans just didn't join the party. That's all speculation. Whatever the case, this movie didn't do good numbers, and unfortunately, we didn't see much of Corey Haim in the theaters after this. It was pretty much direct to video from this point on.
While I would say that other movies did the dystopian thing better, that isn't a reason to dismiss this one. It's an above-average movie that has its good points. I like the connection between Griffin and his younger brother. I like the connection that they had with Speedbagger. Not only was Collet impressive as Gary Lee, Morgan Weisser did an exceptional job as Bullwinkle, the character that Griffin saved from the burning building who ultimately became his rival.
It's always easy to go back and look at things through hindsight. You think about what could have been and what should have been, but the bottom line was the movie-going public was not ready for this movie. With the benefit of hindsight, it does have its merits. If you were planning to have a Corey Haim movie marathon that excluded The Two Coreys movies and Lucas from the list, this movie belongs in the rotation. You'll start to appreciate just how good of an actor he was.
