Rollerball (2002)

Simply A Masterpiece

Nice effects though.

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

The remake of Rollerball deserved all the bad reviews it received. Jean Reno who has saved worse movies than this, has his work cut out here.Plot In A Paragraph: In 2005 a character played by Chris Klein joins his best friend played by LL Cool J in playing the most popular sport in the world 'Rollerball' ran by a character played by Jean Reno, it can have some pretty dire consequences like horrific injury or death if it is thought it will boost the ratings. Some of it is so ludicrous I wondered if it was originally conceived as a spoof comedy of the original movie. My advice would be don't watch it give it a miss. Avoid it like the plague. Tell your friends to pass it by. The acting is bad, bad, bad (Chis Klein and L.L Cool J included)I would rather go see a firework display on a very rainy night, than watch this again. Jean Reno deserves much better than this. As for Klein I'm not sure his character is meant to be as funny as he seems. A generous and I mean generous 3/10

This film was simply to good for its own time period, i fully believe and predict by 2015 this film will climb exponentially up the IMDb rankings. Viewers will become more increasingly aware of its brilliant concepts and flawless acting, Chris Klein truly deserved numerous nominations for his top shelf delivery of the acting craft.I don't feel like i need to persuade you to see this film, just look at the cast list: Naveen Andrews, LL Cool J, Pink, Chris Klein, Jean Reno and finally the legend that is Alice Poon. Also it isn't unfair to say that Jean Reno delivers such a performance it rivals his own performance in LeonWithout giving too much away i have to say Bravo to the person who came up with the night vision scenes, they successfully envisaged scenes of the futuristic world in 2005Finalyy ... WOW at that tag-line "some pretty serious consequences...like death" BRILLIANT

Some movies people love to love, some movies people love to hate. The critics are always the ones responsible for a movies reputation. They reviewed this movie as a wrong remake. Like "Dawn of The Dead" it's more like a new movie with some elements from the old one, so see it with an open mind.It's a actually a great action movie from the director of Die Hard 1 and 3, Predator the 13th Warrior and several other okay cool movies. Actually it's one of the best movies from 2002.Right now it's one of IMDb.com 100 worst movies ever. After seeing it would you really say it belongs to the 100 worst movies ever made? If yes then give it a score under 3, if no then be fair.

So here it is then; the remake of a popular sci-fi film from the seventies that has a powerful, maybe political message of some sort. What the remake has going for it is that John McTiernan is directing it and it stars Jean Reno. It should be good, right? Wrong.What Rollerball is; is an absolute mess of colour, visuals, loud unnecessary rock music and atrocious plot devices. The bulk of these things are on show in the opening half an hour but first, the film hangs around a risky sport involving skateboarding down the sloped roads of San Francisco, risking life and limb for no apparent reason. Jonathan (Klein) likes his kicks and is convinced by a mentor/future team mate to travel to Kazakhstan to take up 'Rollerball'. Then we get to the conventions mentioned earlier. Up until the first Rollerball game starts, I was intrigued but then; any hopes of a film with half a brain cell completely evaporates when the mess that is the actual sport the film revolves around is introduced. Rollerball is, to me, a mix of Wrestling WWE style and Ice Hockey as the point is to score goals but to give the opposition team members a bit of a kick and a punch, pointlessly, along the way. Oh, by the way: for some reason motorbikes are allowed as well. Don't ask.There is a brief 'attempt' at the rules being explained but the American commentator does his best in screaming the point of the whole thing down a microphone in a fashion that is both quick and confusing. The bottom line is that even the writers, I don't think, knew what the rules were. What constitutes as a foul? Why don't the other team members attempt to block the goal attempts? And why the hell are motorbikes involved!? In fact, most things the players shout during the matches are quick and inaudible anyway.This brings me onto the players/actors. Reno's accent goes from Eastern European to French and then back again a few times and the lead shares some kind of relationship with a character named Aurora that has absolutely no build up what-so-ever. It's funny, because you don't see the love interest coming but at the same time: you do, if you know what I mean.Towards the end, the television ratings soar due to controversy and planned violence in the sport. The feeling of greed from the characters whom may as well hold up signs saying: 'we are bad guys' as they sit in their V.I.P. boxes dressed in suits and ties, is forced down our throats through the images in insanely narrow minded fashion. This is bad enough but then the players start having second thoughts and make plans of their own. What follows is, arguably, the most ridiculous idea for film content ever conceived: a ten minute chase sequence shot in night vision(!) Was there any need? Couldn't they be bothered to set up the lights since it was at night? Probably.With other laughable things Rollerball contains such as random cutaways to musical performances from rock bands as well as needless jump cuts and cheesy looking Eastern European TV footage; all of which are utterly pointless and given how long the film is, are probably just in there to bulk up the time. How sad.Rollerball is not worth the time but if you are going to watch it I can only recommend you do so just to see how bad it is.