Rollerball (2002)

Be aware that reviews of the original and the lousy remake are mixed together here
Amazon has mixed up the reviews for [[ASIN:0792838300 the original Rollerball]] (with James Caan from 1975) and [[ASIN:B00003CXTD the remake]] (with Chris Klein from 2002). The customer reviews for the original are generally fairly good (user rating average at IMDb is 6.4/10, above average), for the remake the opposite (2.7/10, abysmal). Just keep that in mind if you're trying to decide what to buy based on these reviews.

Dire
This is an utterly awful and quite pointless remake of the cult classic from the 1970's and does not cut it on any level whatsoever.Rollerball is a game ,and is especially popular -according to the movie-in Central Asia where it is used ,in the tradition of the Roman Games ,to divert the population from the poverty ,hopelessness and corruption with which they are surrounded.In order to ensure ratings stay high and to satisfy a jaded public the franchise owners must consatntly up the violence quotient in the sport not stopping short of injury and even death.One man,an American named Jonathan strikes back at the owners and the system
The movie raises some interesting ideas but then simply fails to follow them through .Thus we get matters like the need for violence in popular entertainment ,the power of an increasingly dominant media ,the manipulation of popular opinion by the media and economic despair in the Former Soviet Union nations .these are raised and prompltly dropped in favour of another crude ,violent and badly staged action sequence .the most interesting aspect wss the way names associated with the WWE appeared in the picture as if to reinforce the role of "sports entertainment"in our culture -take a bow Paul Heyman ,Shane Mcmahaon .

The games are badly staged ,the acting is poor and the editing given to a moronic 12 year old with a pair of scissors .The rock score is bland and tiresome

give it a miss I implore you

Dire
This is an utterly awful and quite pointless remake of the cult classic from the 1970's and does not cut it on any level whatsoever.Rollerball is a game ,and is especially popular -according to the movie-in Central Asia where it is used ,in the tradition of the Roman Games ,to divert the population from the poverty ,hopelessness and corruption with which they are surrounded.In order to ensure ratings stay high and to satisfy a jaded public the franchise owners must consatntly up the violence quotient in the sport not stopping short of injury and even death.One man,an American named Jonathan strikes back at the owners and the system
The movie raises some interesting ideas but then simply fails to follow them through .Thus we get matters like the need for violence in popular entertainment ,the power of an increasingly dominant media ,the manipulation of popular opinion by the media and economic despair in the Former Soviet Union nations .these are raised and prompltly dropped in favour of another crude ,violent and badly staged action sequence .the most interesting aspect wss the way names associated with the WWE appeared in the picture as if to reinforce the role of "sports entertainment"in our culture -take a bow Paul Heyman ,Shane Mcmahaon .

The games are badly staged ,the acting is poor and the editing given to a moronic 12 year old with a pair of scissors .The rock score is bland and tiresome

give it a miss I implore you