It's dull, spiritless, silly and monotonous: an ultra-loud blast of pointless mayhem, going nowhere fast.
Rollerball (2002)
Tomatometer
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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.
Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating] for violence, extreme sports action, sensuality, language and some drug references
Runtime: 3 hrs 14 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
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... 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 join him playing for the Zhambel Horsemen, in Kazahkstan. The highly paid Marcus and Jonathon are teamed with low-paid locals, who are routinely severely injured in the game, which is an extraordinarily violent extension of roller derby involving motorcycles, a metal ball, and many trappings of the World Wrestling Federation. Soon the team's star and the darling of promoter Alexi Petrovich (Jean Reno), Jonathan, is thrilled by the high-octane sport, the hype, the sports cars, and female team mate Aurora (a glowering, scar-faced Rebecca Romijm-Stamos). But gradually Jonathan discovers that the cynical Alexi and his opportunistic assistant Sanjay (Naveen Andrews) will go to any lengths to manipulate the game in order to provide an evermore gory spectacle and improve the game's television ratings. Director John McTiernan's movie is grungy and even more violent than the original 1975 ROLLERBALL. He conveys the visceral nature of the game with sharply edited action sequences and a goosed-up soundtrack, and then he shows the volatile game convulsively spinning out of control and causing social upheaval. [More]
Starring: Chris Klein, LL Cool J, Jean Reno, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos
Starring: Chris Klein, LL Cool J, Jean Reno, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Naveen, Andrew Bryniarski
Director: John McTiernan
Director: John McTiernan
Screenwriter: John Pogue, Larry Ferguson
Producer: Charles Roven, Beau St. Clair, John McTiernan
Composer: Eric Serra
Studio: MGM/UA
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Reviews for Rollerball
A lot like the imaginary sport it projects onto the screen -- loud, violent and mindless.
Composed almost entirely of smash cuts and camera gimmickry, it makes most rock videos look like Ingmar Bergman dramas.
Dreadful acting, confusing action cinematography, choppy editing and embarrassing dialogue, with the added bonus of a plot almost as dumb as that of the original film.
By the end, you just don't care whether that cold-hearted snake Petrovich (that would be Reno) gets his comeuppance. Just bring on the Battle Bots, please!
Derailed by bad writing and possibly also by some of that extensive post-production reworking to aim the film at young males in the throes of their first full flush of testosterone.
Klein, charming in comedies like American Pie and dead-on in Election, delivers one of the saddest action hero performances ever witnessed.
The action makes no sense, the death-metal soundtrack drowns out most of the dialogue and the acting feels half-hearted.
McTiernan and the talent-deprived buffoons who wrote the remake took away the futurism and stripped most of the social satire from this cautionary tale.
I went with it. So, I'm guessing, will a lot of that cherished demographic, 14- to 34-year-old boys.
Disjointed, puerile and ugly-looking to boot...a visual, as well as a narrative, wreck.
The uneven Rollberball still feels like the dopiest, punchiest studio satire since Starship Troopers.
An incomprehensible story, lackluster actors, embarrassing acting, and, get this, no villains!
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. ![]()
More...
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