Prayer of the Rollerboys

Two years after Die Hard, which served as a pressure valve for the bruised self-confidence of an America roiled by the Asian economic boom, the Japanese struck back with this bizarre trash flick that literally rides on the trend of skating movies that were fashionable at the time. This American-Japanese co-production tells the story of a future America where most of the domestic companies and public institutions have been sold off to foreigners because of the previous generation’s mismanagement (the highlight is the brick-by-brick relocation of one of America’s main universities to Japan :)). In response to the dismal social conditions, a radical nationalist organisation is established, with its membership comprising exclusively white boys aged 10 to 25 who roller-skate in white trench coats and white trousers with suspenders. Their leader recruits new members with the promise of a better future and bringing American companies back under American control, but he finances these sincerely intended plans by dealing drugs, an activity that also conceals his grand plan to eradicate the weak. Standing against this nineties trash Hitler Youth is fading teen star Corey Haim, who lets himself get recruited into the group so that he can be a police informant, though the logic of his motivation for doing so is shaky. Few period trash films targeting adolescent video rental-shop customers can boast such a crackpot premise (and there were all kinds of off-the-wall flicks back then). From roughly the midpoint of the runtime, when the film’s world is introduced and the plot lines are sketched out, Prayer of the Rollerboys unfortunately becomes a formulaic action melodrama. Though the situation is occasionally saved by the inner lack of logic and the tremendously formulaic nature of the characters’ actions, it’s impossible to shake off the impression that this could have been a more lustrous camp gem. On the other hand, however, the very fact that someone would, with a completely straight face, combine skater dystopia, the tastelessness of ’90s fashion, a subversive ideological pamphlet against American nationalism, agitprop about the dangers of youth organisations with charismatic leaders promising personal and physical growth and cleansing of foreign poisons, and then approach the whole thing as a serious action movie makes Prayer of the Rollerboys an undeniably unique film. (12/05/2013)