Sure to appeal to enthusiasts of extreme sports, this revamped Rollerball (a remake of Norman Jewison's 1975 original) transplants the violent hybrid of hockey, polo, and barroom brawling to the fragmented states of the former Soviet Union. Jonathan Cross (Chris Klein) is Rollerball's reigning superstar, and he's out to stop the game's Russian inventor (Jean Reno) from promoting excess violence and death to boost the game's global TV ratings; Rebecca Romijn-Stamos (as Klein's intimate Rollerball ally) provides a few moments of teasing titillation along the way. The anticorporate substance of the original has been subverted by shallow style, chaotic action, a sorely miscast lead, and a superfluous plot, while choppy editing prevents any grasp of the game's rules or kinetic momentum (surprising, since John McTiernan directed the impeccably crafted Die Hard). Providing a strong argument against remakes, this lifeless movie qualifies as a disaster of Battlefield Earth proportions. --Jeff Shannon
2.
From the director of Die Hard comes this high-octane thriller that "roars along at a … breakneck pace" (Los Angeles Times)! Starring Chris Klein (American Pie), Jean Reno (Ronin), LL Cool J (Charlie's Angels) and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos (X-Men), Rollerball goes full-throttle with excitement from its death-defying opening until its explosive end! Jonathan Cross (Klein) is the newest recruit in the most extreme sport of all time - where his fast moves and killer looks make him an instant superstar. But Cross' life in the fast lane collides with reality when he learns that the leagues owner (Reno) is orchestrating serious on-court "accidents" to boost ratings. Now Cross plans to take down the owner and his ruthless sport… before the game puts an end to him.
3.
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.
4.
Jonathan Cross (Chris Klein) is an all-American hotshot, the most popular player in the fastest and most extreme sport of all time: Rollerball. Along with teammates Marcus Ridley (LL Cool J) and Aurora (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos), Jonathan is living the high life — fame, money, incredible cars — all for giving viewers what they want: a dangerous game packed with visceral thrills, breakneck speed, and head-slamming action.
Things go wrong when Rollerball's creator, Petrovich (Jean Reno), realizes that serious on-court accidents bring higher viewer ratings. Soon Jonathan and his friends are playing for their lives. The teammates find themselves trapped in intrigue, pawns in a new game without any rules.
5.
Strap yourself in for an adrenaline rush of in-your-face action, as Chris Klein, LL Cool J and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos battle the ruthless owner of an ultra-violet sports league, where blood, speed… and murder… are all part of the game.
6.
This Rollerball, a 2002 remake of the excellent 1975 original, is one of the most notorious failed would-be blockbusters of recent years. Chris Klein struggles as Jonathon Cross, star of the violent game of the title, a mixture of speedway, hockey and rollerskating for the WWF generation. Perfunctory support comes from Rebecca (X Men) Romijn-Stamos, while Jean Reno is the promoter prepared to sacrifice player's lives for TV ratings. The remake could not be more different from the original in tone, as formal elegance is replaced by a cacophonic heavy metal soundtrack and MTV-style editing that makes the games impossible to follow. Set in the present, this Rollerball ironically fulfils the original's suggestion that the near future would be a big business, media-dominated world of blood and circuses. The film's best asset is relocating the story in a crumbling and corrupt Russia, a world sufficiently alien to have a genuinely science fictional resonance; the elaborate production design and wild profusion of costumes suggest post-communism, post-modern, global melting pot freefalling out of control, paying homage to Ridley Scott's seminal Blade Runner (significantly, perhaps, LL Cool J's character is called Ridley). Not quite as disastrous as expected, one still wonders how John (Die Hard) McTiernan made an action thriller this mediocre.
On the DVD:Rollerball's commentary by Chris Klein, LL Cool J and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos is jokey, amiable and reveals plenty of filmmaking trivia without offering anything substantial. The "Rollerball Yearbook" presents text profiles of the four teams and 11 key players linked to "highlights", i.e., montages taken from the film of the participants. This also has sections on six areas of the "Roller Dome" and three sections on "Game Gear", which amounts to a photo gallery of costumes, masks and bikes. Also included is the theatrical trailer and trailers for three other SF movies. The anamorphic 2.35:1 transfer is excellent, and the Dolby Digital 5.1 sound is suitably dynamic and raucous. There are subtitles in six languages as well as English and English for Hard of Hearing, while the disc also contains French and Spanish dubs of the main feature. --Gary S Dalkin
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