Rollerball (2002)

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

Director:

John McTiernan

Writers:

William Harrison (short story "Roller Ball Murder"), William Harrison

Stars:

Chris Klein, Jean Reno, LL Cool J

Bottom Rated Movies #32 | 5 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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

Storyline

In this fast action-packed thriller, Jonathan (Chris Klein), Marcus (LL Cool J), and Aurora (Rebecca Romijn) compete in a dangerous, fierce sport called Rollerball. Although, Johnathan and Marcus try to quit, cruel and vindictive promoter Alexi Petrovich (Jean Reno) encourages them to still participate. Petrovich sends his men to attack them while they are on a trip, but Johnathan survives. In the end during a game of Rollberball, Petrovich attempts a public execution of Johnathan, but the question is will Johnathan get revenge.

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Plot Keywords:

woman | 21th century | extreme sports | promoter | ball | 

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Taglines:

Get In The Game.

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Genres:

Action | Sci-Fi | Sport

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence, nudity and some language

Details

Official Sites:

MGM

Country:

USA Germany Japan

Language:

English Russian French Arabic Korean German Japanese

Release Date:

8 February 2002 (USA)

Also Known As:

Batalia pe role

Filming Locations:

Blainville, Québec, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$70,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$9,013,548, 10 February 2002, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$18,990,798, 23 May 2002

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$25,852,764, 31 December 2002

Company Credits

Production Co:

Atlas Entertainment, Helkon Media, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

John McTiernan recycled the players, disguising their faces with elaborate costumes and helmets for each away game. With each new game they improved and worked better as teams.

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Goofs

Mongolians do not speak Cantonese.

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Quotes

Alexis Petrovich: You see Yevgeny over there, so full of himself now. He used to work in the post office. I introduced him to the proper financing, and now he owns the mines. Yeah, making a fortune. Keeps the miners in line. Good business. You might wonder why I'm not in it myself. I don't need to own the mines, Jonathan. Do you know why? Because I own the man who owns the mines. All he has, I have. Same with the supermarkets, the TV station, locomotive plant. I don't need a political position, because I own the...

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Alternate Versions

US theatrical version was edited (splashes of blood, language and a full frontal nudity scene by Rebecca Romijn) for a more commercial PG-13 rating. The DVD/VHS release features the uncut version and is rated R.

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Connections

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

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Soundtracks

God Bless America
Written by Irving Berlin

User Reviews

unimaginably bad

`Rollerball' is a god-awful remake of the 1975 Norman Jewison film about a fictional sport in which murdering the players becomes a primary object of the game. The original film acquired what little credibility it had by setting the story sometime in the distant future. This version is set in the present, but it tries to maintain its believability by locating the league in Southwest Asia, under the parochial assumption, I suppose, that that part of the world is every bit as alien, exotic and dehumanized as any hypothetical future society. It doesn't work. It is simply impossible for us to believe even for a split second that the owners and promoters of this sport would think they could get away with such murderous shenanigans broadcast live to millions of viewers the world over. Might not the United Nations, among other international organizations, have a thing or two to say about all this? Also, will someone please explain to me just WHAT purpose is served by having the promoters of this sport killing off their own players? Doesn't that sort of deplete their own resources for future games? I can't imagine too many people willingly signing on to engage in this sort of gladiatorial tomfoolery.

Even if we agreed to swallow the whole thing merely for the sake of the entertainment value of the film, we would be forced to admit that `Rollerball' is a chintzy, clunky, uninteresting movie in all respects. The sport itself – sort of a cross between motor cross racing, roller derby, hockey and basketball – is completely unexciting, consisting of little more than blurred figures racing madly around a cramped, claustrophobic track. Without even the context of good action sequences, `Rollerball' is forced to fall back on its dialogue and characters, which proves to be disastrous for all concerned. Chris Klein, in the role of hotshot Jonathon Cross - played by James Caan in the original - comes across as a minor league version of Keanu Reeves. LL Cool J is wasted in the part of Jonathon's American sidekick, and poor Jean Reno gets to play one of the most laughable villains we've run across in a movie in a long long long long time.

In fact, this redux turns out to be good for nothing BUT a few hearty laughs. If you are in need of such, check out `Rollerball.' It's a real hoot.