What do you get when you cross an MGM cult film with costumes from a World Wrestling Federation garage sale and an editor with a short attention span?
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02/08/02
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Rollerball (2002)
3
%
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Reviews Counted:115
Fresh:4
Rotten:111
Average Rating:2.5/10
Consensus: Removing the social critique of the original, this updated version of Rollerball is violent, confusing, and choppy. Klein makes for a bland hero.
Theatrical Release:Feb 8, 2002 Wide
Box Office: $18,894,427
Synopsis: It's the year 2005; the new sport of Rollerball is hugely popular in the unstable, ex-Soviet republics of South Asia. Marcus Ridley (LL Cool J) invites NHL-hopeful Jonathan Cross (Chris Klein) to... [More]
Starring: Chris Klein, LL Cool J, Jean Reno, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos
Director: John McTiernan
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Reviews for Rollerball
Laughably, irredeemably awful.
02/08/02
The editing is chaotic, the photography grainy and badly focused, the writing unintentionally hilarious, the direction unfocused, the performances as wooden.
02/08/02
Another reminder that most remakes are accidents waiting to happen.
02/08/02
It had a chance to improve upon the crude and stupid 1975 original, set in a future America. Instead, it's only cruder and stupider.
02/08/02
Top CriticMcTiernan tries to bury the idiocy of his high-tech Gladiator under flashy editing and unexplained rock-star cameos.
02/08/02
If you're a WWF fan, or you related to the people who watched the robots getting butchered in A.I., you'll probably like Rollerball.
02/08/02
This oddly scrambled new version eventually falls apart so badly you feel embarrassed for the people who made it.
02/08/02
Top CriticMissing a few key elements: a script, a reason for being and maybe a few Britney Spears ads strategically placed throughout to break up 98 minutes of solid tedium.
02/08/02
Top CriticAn incoherent mess, a jumble of footage in search of plot, meaning, rhythm and sense.
02/08/02
Top Critic20 years later it's still just as confusing and pointless (and now X-tremely boring, too!).
02/08/02
Little more than the skin and bones and ear-flaying soundtrack of a dubiously fleshed-out premise that seemed dated 27 years ago.
02/08/02
Top CriticThis re-do is so dumb and so exploitative in its violence that, ironically, it becomes everything that the rather clumsy original was railing against.
02/08/02
When the trailers for the film tell you... the big, astonishing twist, you end up spending the first 45 minutes of the movie wondering when the damn movie is going to start.
02/08/02
Rollerball is just plain bad.
02/08/02
...a virtually plotless, flash-bang failure...so devoid of substance it almost defies description.
02/08/02
What it might look like if Vince McMahon were to direct "Starlight Express" (with all the stage blood, testosterone, and suck such a union implies).
02/07/02
McTiernan ... offers a mild media critique, then caters to his audience's taste for brutal spectacle -- the very taste the picture purports to condemn -- to carry the picture.
02/07/02
McTiernan's remake may be lighter on its feet -- the sober-minded original was as graceful as a tap-dancing rhino -- but it is just as boring and as obvious.
02/07/02
Top Critic... a silly, stupid, incoherent mess.
02/07/02
Latest News for Rollerball
October 31, 2006:
RTIndie: Can Indie Studios Survive Without Big Studio Backing?
With the sale of independent-minded ThinkFilm last week, can indie film distributors survive without big studio backing? More...
July 15, 2005:
LL Cool J Finds a Multi-Pic Home at Lions Gate
The Hollywood Reporter brings news of a deal between actor/rapper LL Cool J and Lions Gate Films. Although the exact numbers have not been released, Mr. J (born as: James Todd... More...
July 11, 2005:
Pogue Pens Remake of a French Fright Flick
Screenwriter John Pogue has sold his pitch for a remake of the 2002 French horror film "Malefique" to Paramount, says Variety. Producer Neal Moritz... More...
June 05, 2001:
Romijn-Stamos, cast as the scarred Aurora the day before production started, had to learn to ride a hog. Fast. 
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