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Rollerball [2001]
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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
RRP: £5.99
Our Price: £0.45 (subject to change)
Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review
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.
Editorial
Special Features
Actor's Commentary
Roller ball Yearbook
Interactive Featurette
Theatrical Trailer
Editorial
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 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.
Editorial
From the Back Cover
Roller ball is a fast-paced, slick action-thriller that goes full throttle with excitement from its death- defying opening until its explosive end.
Bloody Awful
Review date: 2008-04-16 Rating: 2 out of 10
Lots of blood and totally awful steer well clear, why did Jean Reno make this appalling film.
If it had the original sound track ie Bolero it may have been worth 1 point, maybe Amazon could do a 0 star as this is certainly worth that.
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Reviews
Complete rubbish!
Review date: 2006-03-01 Rating: 2 out of 10
I am a massive fan of the original Rollerball and yet when I saw the trailer for the new one at the cinema I was very excited. Sadly after 10 minutes watching it my joy was turned to one of bitter disapointment for it was not worth the entrance fee. The actors were all miscast, the performances poor, the action laughable and the storyline boring. Who thought that it would be a good idea to put LL Cool J into the movie anyway? I found him to be more irritating than entertaining and I had to confess that I have never watched the movie all the way through simply because I found I had better things to do with my time. A waste of a classic film license.
Terrible
Review date: 2004-02-24 Rating: 2 out of 10
The original must be rated a classic. This was so bad I almost gave up watching it. There are considerably better B movies.
Poor.
Review date: 2004-01-09 Rating: 2 out of 10
Very disappointed. The original was a classic and the actual match scenes were superb. This remake is dreadful. The arena is absolutely rubbish and everything becomes too cluttered on screen to actually see what is happening. The kernel of the story was OK and if they had used the original set then it might have worked. However, this was very, very poor. Don't bother, just watch the original again!
I'd give it zero stars but that isnt a option :(
Review date: 2003-05-23 Rating: 2 out of 10
Were can I start its going to be hard to review this film without swearing but I'll try......
As a fan of the original I was quite looking forward to this film, when it came out it received poor reviews so I never bothered getting it, however after a good few months I did decide to get it, the original is one of the most powerful films I have seen and is certainly in my top 10, this is by far the worst film I have ever seen in my life. The arena has been modernized and now resembles a circus ring rather than a sports arena, the players are like WWF characters and the action is just lame.
Motorbikes are still a factor however they serve no purpose, the scoring mechanism looks like they have made a prequel rather than a sequel. Chris Klein (a Keanu Reeves wannabe it seems) is the worst actor in the world, he portrays a real soft geezer, a wet fart so to speak and at one point when he was referred to as "The angriest man in the game" I nearly choked to death... Maybe that would have been a good thing as I would not have been able to see the rest of the film.....
The story is pants, the action is superficial, and acting is terrible, the editing (especially the sound) is the worst ever... It is an embarrassment to the word Rollerball, the only good thing to came out of it is REBECCA ROMIJN-STAMOS however that just does not make up for it unfortunately.
Don’t buy, however if you want to be able to tell your mates that you have seen the worst ever film in the history of man, then rent it, and if you haven’t seen the original, then buy that, its a must see film........ sooo disappointed
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
L.L. Cool J.
Rebecca Romijn-Stamos
Chris Klein
Jean Reno
Naveen Andrews
Creators:
Chris Klein (Primary Contributor)
Jean Reno (Primary Contributor)
Director(s):
Recording label: Uca
Manufacturer: Uca
EAN: 5050582238853
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Anamorphic, Dubbed, PAL,
Release date: 2004-03-08
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Audience rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 94 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2001
Language: Arabic (Subtitled)
Language: Dutch (Subtitled)
Language: English (Subtitled)
Language: French (Subtitled)
Language: Hindi (Subtitled)
Language: Portuguese (Subtitled)
Language: Spanish (Subtitled)
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: French (Dubbed)
Language: Spanish (Dubbed)