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 .. Read more
| Starring | Chris Klein, Jean Reno, L.L. Cool J., Rebecca Romijn |
|---|---|
| Director | John McTiernan |
| Genres | Action/Adventure, Sci-Fi/Fantasy |
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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 World Wrestling Entertainment. 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.
| Starring | Chris Klein, Jean Reno, L.L. Cool J., Rebecca Romijn, Naveen Andrews |
|---|---|
| Director | John McTiernan |
| Studio | UCA |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 34 mins Blu-ray: 1 hr 38 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Action/Adventure, Sci-Fi/Fantasy |
| Language | DVD: English Blu-ray: English |
| Dubbed | French, Spanish |
| Hearing-impaired | English |
| Subtitles | DVD: Arabic, Dutch, English, French, Hindi, Portuguese, Spanish Blu-ray: Croatian, Dutch, Finnish, Slovene, Danish, Hebrew, Greek, Spanish, Hindi, Czech, Norwegian, French, Portuguese, Hungarian, Bulgarian, English, Swedish, Arabic, Turkish, Polish |
| Released | DVD: 08 Mar 2004 Blu-ray: 25 Aug 2008 Production year: 2001 |
| Format | DVD |
Despite its cult kudos, Norman Jewison's 1975 futuristic nightmare was never an exceptional film. However, compared to this pointless reinterpretation, it's a masterpiece. Turgid, spiritless and excitement free, this remake is like an optical lobotomy. Magnifying the original's weaknesses to excruciating levels, it compounds its brain-numbing banality with wooden performances, risible dialogue and an emotionally bankrupt plot. Chris Klein lacks charisma as the sporting hotshot who uncovers global conspiracy, while female lead Rebecca Romijn-Stamos is just an athletic clothes horse. Yet although this is a movie preoccupied with image and gloss, director John McTiernan delivers no visual thrills. Instead he settles for lacklustre set pieces that make the rollerball action sequences about as electrifying as a school sports day. Shameful mediocrity for a man who, in his prime, made Predator and two Die Hard films.
The original Rollerball (1975) was a blend of portentousness and bone crunching, picturing the consumer society of the... read more on Time Out
Unfortunately, the critical scathing that this movie got was well deserved. A fan of the original, I got this out simply from curiosity. It's not a terrible film in its own right - ok for the ADHD generation - but is more about flash than substance. The one-star rating is for making people think that the original must have been worse. I hate it when great films are re-made into stinkers. Leave them alone!! Do a sequel by all means, but just don't mess with something if it worked the first time around.
Skip this one and see the original.
If you read the RADIOTIMES or have seen the original then you will not like this film. If you like blood, action and hot ladys ( Rebecca Romijn-Stamos is hot in it ) Then you will like this film. Its not a GREAT film, but is worth watching. Look out for Paul Heyman and Shane McMahon.
Antonio Banderas' action film Ballistic: Ecks Vs. Sever has topped a new poll to find the worst film of the past decade. The Spanish actor's 2002 movie, co-starring Charlie's Angel Lucy Liu, is at the bottom of the 100 Worst of the Worst list, compiled by Rottentomatoes.com. Critics gathered thousands of reviews from the last 10 years for the countdown. Japanese horror flick One Missed Call closely trails Banderas' film at two, while Roberto Benigni's Pinocchio and comedies King's Ransom and... Read more