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Rollerball
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Synopsis of the DVD Movie: Synopsis
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.
DVD Movie Rating for: Rollerball
3 out of 5
Movie Plot of: Rollerball
Johnathan Cross, a lover of extreme sports, is recruited by Alexi Petrovich to star in his sportive invention, Rollerball. Johnathan accepts and learns the ropes of Rollerball: The players are on Rollerblades, trying to bring a heavy metal ball into a high goal. Also, there are motorcyclists around to bring momentum to the players. Oh yes, and there are no rules in the game. During his skyrocketing career, Johnathan has to experience what Alexi has found out: Blood brings more viewing pleasure to the audience. So, Alexi starts to bribe members of the different teams to cause more trouble than necessary on the field, and the viewers love it. Only a little later, Johnathan's life is already in extreme danger as well as those of his friends and teammates. In a final game, Johnathan and his team have to fight for mere survival against their real opponent - their boss Alexi Petrovich.
DVD Production Details of: Rollerball
Director: John McTiernan
Format: Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby
Studio: M G M, Inc
DVD Features:
Commentary by Chris Klein, LL Cool J, and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos
Theatrical trailer(s)
R-rated version includes some material different from the theatrical version
"Future Sport: The Stunts of Rollerball" featurette
Interactive Rollerball yearbook
Music video: Rob Zombie's "Never Gonna Stop"
Full-screen and widescreen anamorphic formats
Cast of the movie: Rollerball
- Chris Klein .... Jonathan Cross
- Jean Reno .... Alexis Petrovich
- LL Cool J .... Marcus Ridley
- Rebecca Romijn-Stamos .... Aurora
- 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: U Chow - #16
Photo Gallery of the movie: Rollerball
Click on one of the thumbnails to see the full size, high resolution photographs
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Reviews of the movie: Rollerball
This is one of the most interesting problems I've seen recently. Why is this film so bad?
I don't think it is the story: we gladly tolerate such vapid stuff all the time. The acting and writing is bad, but normally so. I think where this fell apart is in the editing. Pretty sure there. There's enough motion in the shooting, after all this is the `Die Hard' guy, the guy that invented the action film. I'll bet we see a book about how the editing on this was screwed.
(The `film within,' a steady convention, is here the characters as actors in a new performance art.)
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
