Rollerball (2002)

User Rating:

2.7/10   

Director:

John McTiernan

Writers (WGA):

William Harrison (short story "Roller Ball Murder")
William Harrison (1975 screenplay)

Release Date:

8 February 2002 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Sci-Fi | Sport

Tagline:

Get In The Game.

Plot:

The big thing in 2005 is a violent sport which can have some pretty serious consequences... like dying.

Plot Keywords:

Face Slap | Inline Skating | Ratings | Topless | Sauna

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Chris Klein	...	Jonathan Cross
Jean Reno	...	Alexis Petrovich
LL Cool J	...	Marcus Ridley
Rebecca Romijn	...	Aurora (as Rebecca Romijn-Stamos)
Naveen Andrews	...	Sanjay
Oleg Taktarov	...	Denekin
David Hemblen	...	Serokin
Janet Wright	...	Coach Olga
Andrew Bryniarski	...	Halloran
Kata Dobó	...	Katya
Alice Poon	...	Red Team #7
Lucia Rijker	...	Red Team #9
Melissa R. Stubbs	...	Red Team #12 (as Melissa Stubbs)
Paul Wu	...	Red Team #16 - U Chow
Yolanda Hughes-Heying	...	Red Team #28

Also Known As:

Rollerball (Germany)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for violence, extreme sports action, sensuality, language and some drug references.; Rated R for violence, nudity and some language. (video version)

Runtime:

98 min | Germany:95 min

Country:

USA | Germany | Japan

Language:

English | Russian | French | Arabic | Korean | German | Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Malaysia:18SG | Iceland:16 | South Korea:15 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Finland:K-15 | France:-12 | Germany:18 | Hungary:16 | Peru:18 | Philippines:R-18 | Portugal:M/16 | Singapore:M18 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:PG-13 (original rating) | USA:R (home video version)

Filming Locations:

Blainville, Québec, Canada

Company:

Atlas Entertainment

Trivia:

Cameo: [Shane McMahon]Son of WWF mogul Vince McMahon.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: When Jonathan climbs into the Porsche in the beginning, the front wheel of the camera car becomes visible when the Porsche turns down an alleyway.

Quotes:

Chinese Sports Announcer: It's simple, about as simple as using a name-brand condom!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Oh, No! Zombies!!! (2003) (V)

Soundtrack:

Ride

How to get an awful mess remaking a good film

I suspected 2002 "Rollerball" was an ugly movie, but not that ugly! Well, let's get rid of the only merit of the movie: the presence of Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, beautiful and tremendously sexy. Indeed, a statuesque female warrior is always sexy, all the more with that alluring scar on her face.

The tragic fact with "Rollerball" is that the story should be good, per se. The authors took the ideas from the original (and true) 1975 "Rollerball". They deleted the political and moral messages, which were somewhat a weakness of the 1975 film, and placed the story in some remote countries of a near future, allegedly ruled by violence, greed, abuse. But the way the film is made turns it into a disaster.

There is an over-long (and boring) preamble, with a race down-hill of some cretinous youngsters, in San Francisco. This is a great narrative mistake. The audience is anxious to know about the Rollerball game, and you excruciate them with idiots, easily found, alas!, in everyday life. In the next scene Jonathan (a remarkably blunt Chris Klein) has become the undisputed superstar of the Rollerball. We don't understand anything of the rules of the game. As a matter of fact, we don't understand anything of the plot! The guys on the screen keep talking about other guys, seemingly killed by the bad ones, or something like that. Who are who? The audience utterly ignores it. The next scene (say: someone escaping from somewhere) has no logical connection with the previous one. I bet that in the final editing of the movie a good 30 minutes were cut, making the story a complete mess. The only thing we get is that the villains deliberately provoke accidents on the field to raise the TV audience of the game. And then there is the lousy greenish nocturnal scene. Up to my knowledge, the worst visual idea in the history of cinema. Some 15 minutes of sufferings for the innocent viewer. The ending is even more ludicrous than expected.

But what is really incredible, even in a terrible movie, is that, in spite of the enormous technological improvements, the scenes of the game, and related special effects, are by far less spectacular, exciting, violent than those of the 1975 "Rollerball". The possibly interesting presence of women playing Rollerball is not exploited at all. The uniforms of the teams are worse than horrible, they are stupid.

There's nothing to save in "Rollerball". Just take Romijn-Stamos and bring her to another movie (keeping the scar on her face, if possible).