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 #29 | 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:

extreme sports | promoter | ball | revenge | blood | 

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Taglines:

Go Ballistic

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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

Before the first game, the top of Marcus' Corvette is up. After the game he jumps into the car with its top down.

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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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Connections

References The Running Man (1987)

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Soundtracks

The Bad Men

User Reviews

John McTiernan's amateur hour.

Original 'Rollerball' was a movie about dystopia future, where huge corporations ruled the world and there was no wars. But the blood lust of people had to be compensated, so there was this game called Rollerball, which was full of action, thrills and kills. But then one of the players was in the verge of becoming too big. He, Jonathe E. was a threat to the rule.

We can forget all about that with this remake of that 70's classic. There is no political metaphor, no philosophical questions about humanity, in fact there is no sense at all, if you don't count nonsense, about the movie. John McTiernan, director of such classics as 'The Predator' and 'Die Hard' has managed to make a movie, that is in one word, poor.

With some idiotic excuse the main protagonist Jonathan (at least the name is same), gets in the hazardous game of Rollerball with his pal Marcus (LL Cool J). Soon he notices, that there is something fishy about the game.

There isn't anything worthwhile to mention about the film. Tiernan directs like a man, who hasn't directed a single piece of film in his life. The plot is idiotic and the main baddies are pretty much camp material. The action is poorly choreographed and the editing tries so badly to be music video like, that it's flat out funny.

Can't really figure any reason for anyone to see this film.

Rating: 1 out of 10

Camp rating: 4 out of 10