Inside the arena, it's a fantastic action movie, but outside, it's starchy and pretentious.
Rollerball (1975)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 25
Fresh: 17
Rotten:8
Average Rating: 6/10
Runtime: 2 hrs 8 mins
Genre: Science-Fiction/Fantasy
Synopsis: In the year 2018, corporations rule a world where there is no crime or war... only the game of Rollerball, a violent combination of football, rollerblading and hockey. The man who has been the... In the year 2018, corporations rule a world where there is no crime or war... only the game of Rollerball, a violent combination of football, rollerblading and hockey. The man who has been the champion player for over ten years has become too good, and the corporation, apprehensive of his skill and popularity, wants him to retire. He resists, and the authorities decide he must be stopped -- whatever the cost. [More]
Starring: James Caan, John Houseman, Maud Adams, John Beck
Starring: James Caan, John Houseman, Maud Adams, John Beck, Moses Gunn, Pamela Hensley, Ralph Richardson, Shane Rimmer
Director: Norman Jewison
Director: Norman Jewison
Producer: Norman Jewison
Screenwriter: William Harrison
Composer: André Previn, J.S. Bach, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Dmitri Shostakovich, Tomaso Albinoni
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Reviews for Rollerball
James Caan, on roller skates, is trying to save the world. This needs a bit of explaining, which is only the beginning of the trouble with Rollerball.
Norman Jewison's sensational futuristic drama about a world of Corporate States stars James Caan in an excellent performance as a famed athlete who fights for his identity and free will.
Seems to being going around in circles trying to say something but is not sure about what it wants to say, as it keeps stumbling around every bend.
The performances of Caan and Richardson are excellent, and the rollerball sequences are fast-paced and interesting.
Lifeless, uninspired, and crammed with enough hints of intellectual consistency to give the socially conscious critical establishment shivers of excitement.
This original version could EASILY have been trimmed down quite some with plenty of repetitive moments popping up throughout the film.
Ultimately, Rollerball gets by on its sheer monolithic quality - an abundance of quantity. Despite indifferent direction and dire humour, it is well mounted and photographed.
Everyone else, including Mr. Caan and John Houseman, who plays a leading Houston executive, is more solemn and serious than the movie ever merits.
The combination of Roman Empire-styled decadence and violence mixed with a vision of a bizarre, loveless corporate future is evocative and unsettling.
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