The cinematic equivalent of a drinking 10 energy drinks while simultaneously watching professional wrestling and listening to nu-metal. McTieran's directing is his zaniest here; he loads the film with jump cuts, Dutch angles, camera flips, and near indecipherable edits. One 5 minute action sequence is shot entirely in night vision and features a couple of the best sound effects of all time. Really the only part I thought was actually terrible was Chris Klein who is 30% leading man and 70% drywall.

I'm seeing 2001: A Space Odyssey later tonight in theaters. I don't know how it's going to live up to this.

this must be what hell feels like

Part of Dastardly Difficult December: film nr.11

So I read somewhere that for a review to count in this little project of December insanity it has to be at least three paragraphs long.

Ok. Hmm. So they remade Rollerball.

Heh. Ahem. Hehheh. Hehehahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
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No.

Just....no.

"This is bullshit" -Aurora,

-John McTiernan Ranked: boxd.it/ao4QO

Sucky.

This was pretty bad and seemed to miss much of the point of the original film. Instead of subtle social commentary and engaging dialogue this movie went with rock music interludes and boring action. The rollerball scenes themselves are so heavily edited it's hard to even get a real sense of the action and the script is shit.

I see why it's rated so low.

this is a damn JOHN MCTIERNAN movie with paul heyman, ll cool j, a slipknot performance, cameos from p!nk and shane mcmahon, and an entire scene filmed in night vision for no particular reason at all.... oh yeah, it's also all about colonialism and the dangers of capitalism and literally ends with workers revolting against their bourgeoisie masters. what more could you ever want from a movie?

There's like 10 minutes of action scenes in the middle of the movie that are shot in night vision and there are 2 possible explanations for this: Either the footage was fucked and they ran out of money, or McTiernan is off his nut. The fact that there's 2 instances of a "springy clown" sound effek at random points during these scenes pushes it firmly towards option B, though. Absolutely deserving of its status as a disaster.

This remake is about a fake sport that's one part roller-derby, one part lacrosse, one part trick-motorcycle race, one part full-contact royal-rumble smack-down. A solid theme pulled off better (from what I've read) in the 1975 flick of the same name, but Chris Klein and LL Cool J make this one look more like a bromance / romance flick. Aside from the shit acting there's several al-right stunts, a few descent roller-ball sequences, a bad night-vision chase scene and enough action to earn this one a couple of stars in my opinion, but don't expect any kind of deep conspiracy flick like this one feebly attempts at times.

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Sloppier than I've ever seen McTiernan, yet even as he dives fully into the grimy mechanics of the sport Jewison's original handled perfunctorily, it gets at the broader social implications better. Where the corporate overlords of the old version inexplicably keep Rollerball free of heroes to promote collective docility, McT 's execs understand that heroes and star athletes sell the merchandise that makes them money. Axial cuts over shoulders to onlooking overseers say more about the asphyxiating control exerted over these social control props than the ritzy backroom meetings Caan had to attend to when all the momentum got let out of the film. Still chaotic in a way I don't expect from this director, who could make even the endless jungle of PREDATOR seem clearly oriented in his shot patterns, but not deserving of the scorn heaped upon it.

Ouin...c'est moins pire que je me rappelais (j'avais moins d'attentes cette fois-là faut dire) mais c'est pas vargeux pareil.

D'abord les scènes d'action sont vraiment plates (surprenant quand même, de la part de McTiernan), surtout les innombrables scènes de course de char, dont une infâmeuse tournée entièrement en vision de nuit (je vois que 100% des commentaires ici la mentionne).  La scène finale aussi est sâprément anticlimatique avec ses millions de ralentis pis son raboutage épileptique.  Incroyable qu'un tel soulèvement populaire soit aussi moins efficace que le silence tragique utilisé dans le film original.

Overall l'esthétique Power Rangers meets Nu-Metal est vraiment agressant à endurer pendant aussi longtemps.

Y'avait un random québécois parmi cette orgie de méchants russes, ça m'a fait rire.

mctiernan you nut, thank you for making this glorious work of avant garde, garish, 
anti capitalistic mastery. whole climax is cosmic brain level good, also has a random shane mcmahon cameo, paul heyman basically playing himself and the best opening sequence in all movies (slight hyperbole but not that far off)

It's not just bad because it feels like an insult to the original, which was far from a perfect movie. It's bad because it's a bad movie full stop. It just is.

It's everything hatable about in your face, over the top tosh. I don't care if that's the point or if it's making a statement or if the director deliberately did that. I really don't care. It's trash cinema. Not trash like cheap scuzzy horror movies or low budget garbage, just trash.

An awful movie with a few well filmed bits of violence. And replays. And night vision. And bad acting. It's a film that shouts at you.

It's crunk.

Complete garbage. It takes everything that was good about the original, that was inventive or creative or sharply analytical and ruins it. It clearly has no idea what made the original film strong or even what makes a satisfactory, comprehensible movie. It makes no sense, takes a crap on all the solid social and political commentary of its predecessor and offers nothing absolutely new. I could go on and on about how awful this is but it’s not worth my time. Just trust me.

... hm

For a film that focuses so much on action, Rollerball is remarkably boring.

Rollerball is a completely incoherent mess. It doesn't help that the performances are flat and lifeless, but the general plotting of the film is confusing, jumbled and impossible to decipher.

Rollerball also sees John McTiernan's direction take a steep nosedive, with one extended sequence horrifically shot entirely in night vision standing out as a truly atrocious artistic choice.

Nothing about Rollerball impresses in any way. It doesn't have entertaining action, characters worth caring about or a plot worth following. It's bleak, bland and lifeless, and it feels completely hollow.

If ever there was a film worth going to prison for, Rollerball certainly wasn't it.

This remake is so garbage! its hard to believe this was the director of Die Hard!

When will the Chris Klein renaissance begin?

This remake is about a fake sport that's one part roller-derby, one part lacrosse, one part trick-motorcycle race, one part full-contact royal-rumble smack-down. A solid theme pulled off better (from what I've read) in the 1975 flick of the same name, but Chris Klein and LL Cool J make this one look more like a bromance / romance flick. Aside from the shit acting there's several al-right stunts, a few descent roller-ball sequences, a bad night-vision chase scene and enough action to earn this one a couple of stars in my opinion, but don't expect any kind of deep conspiracy flick like this one feebly attempts at times.

2002 Ranked
2000’s Ranked
Science Fiction Films Ranked
Science Fiction Films in the 2000’s Ranked
Sports & Competitions Ranked
Races Ranked
Chase Scenes Ranked
Flight / Airplane films Ranked
Films about Productions Ranked

Ok someone needs to investigate because I’m pretty sure Joker stole the ending of this movie.

This movie is like Death Race’s (2008) gay Stalinist brother. They created a fake sport for this movie that is so convoluted it makes incels playing League of Legends seem like toddlers playing Go Fish. But all is forgiven when they play P.O.D.’s “Boom”. 

How the fuck did they get Jean Reno for this. 

Best scene: Slipknot’s cameo when they play a concert in a concrete gymnasium for a bunch of impoverished Mongolians.

A film that really wants to be about something beyond just future blood sports which only makes the future blood sports seem even sillier.

Off-road airplanes are the best kinds of airplanes???

It’s actually kind of impressive how bad this is.

Unexplainable game, unexplainable story, unexplainable acting, a night vision scene for no reason, and blood replaced with sweat...half star for amazing car choices.