Too much of everything

Charming and brutal

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

First of all the original film needs to be rated much higher on this site. Anything below an 8 never mind a 7 is criminal. 6.6 ?Anyway back to this utter **** up remake. McTiernan you ought to be thoroughly ashamed to even call this film 'Rollerball'. Was the editor being fxxxed up the arse sideways while he pressed the buttons?? $70,000,000 budget on what - plastic surgery for the acting line-up and foie gras sandwiches?What in hell's name was the film about? It was disjointed and impossible to follow. Dialogue - forget it. The characters barely developed during the whole film and you couldn't care if they got bludgeoned to death during the game anyway.Save your money or down a few pints instead !!

At first Roller Ball seemed like a super-violent grudge and sports movie, and nothing more. Just violence, a little sex and no redeeming value. At times I thought it was designed to invoke rage for rage's sake, with the dreaded other. Well, I watched it to the end and I think it is worth watching. If you like heavy metal music, like tough sports and don't mind some violence you'll like the movieRoller Ball is a parable for much of modern life, from the war in Iraq and Afghanistan to professional sports. From police brutality to labor exploitation. Yes there is something more, it isn't pretty, its wonderful. It seems designed to reach an audience with a message that probably wouldn't be open to it otherwise. The audience that might most gravitate to the message, isn't the one that will watch the movie to the end because it is harsh. In its own way it might even be considered uplifting.

There was me thinking John McTiernan knew what he was up to.This film is a mess.The story is familiar and clichéd but, even so, the telling of it is muddled.Rollerball itself, potentially exciting, is hopelessly confusing and pointless.The script is slightly less useful than waste paper.Rebecca Romijn-Stamos looks good.Chris Klein, looking very like Keanu Reeves, proves to be a good deal less expressive. The lad has shown himself to be tolerable in an ensemble piece, but he can't carry an action movie on his own due to a complete absence of charisma.Poor.

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.