Rollerball (2002) Reviews

Cheesy & Tacky - YES; Mindless Entertainment - NO. Aimed at the teen crowd it's actualy quite deep and symbolic which surprised me greatly. I expected the standard video game inspired, CGI fare and got an action packed film with a lot to say about today's society. I liked the over-the-top cheesy costumes and action. A fun film that tricks you're unconscious mind to become more aware of some important social issues. THAT SAID............................................................... It seems to me that Blockbuster can better handle situations where a movie has been remade one or more times and has the exact same title. In Rollerball's case there is a 1975 version and a 2002 version. Unfortunately the only way for you to verify that you are holding the 2002 version DVD is to read the fine print around the hub where it says copyright 2001. The disc is one of those anoying two sided discs so it does not have graphics on one side that clearly show what movie you're holding.
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You'll love to hate Jean Reno as the evil team owner. And though I view skateboard luge and in-line skating as adolescent moron sports, the actual skating really is excellent (and done by real skaters!). That said, this is overall a ho-hum film, with little that stands out. While I prefer the original, the younger generation will likely prefer this bloodier, less thought-provoking version. Not worth buying, but worth a rental.
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OMG! I really wish I would have read the reviews.... or I should say review - singular - before watching this movie! It's awful. I did not finish watching it. I stared at the tv with my mouth open when I heard the "BOI-OI-OING" from the broken fence wire. I couldn't believe I heard a cartoon sound in this movie... then it happened again! What horrible sound effects! I'm rating it 1/2 a star only because it got 1/2 a laugh because of the fence wire. PLEASE don't waste your time!
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Saw the original, didn't like it, so I don't know why I saw the re-make. Oh, where to start? The editor uses jump cuts abusively; it adds no meaning to the scenes or film. A good twenty minutes is shot in night vision -- straight through. The acting is pretty bad, but you can't expect much from a poorly written script so I'm not going to place much blame on the actors (LLCoolJ admited on TV that this movie sucked). Oh, and probably the coup d'etat was the sound editing. Not only coupled with awful jump cuts, but in straightly edited scenes, the sound didn't match the action. There's a scene where a wire breaks and it makes the same "BOI-OI-OING" as a Buggs Bunny cartoon. The only reason to see this movie is because the ending was better than the original. And that's not much of a reason.
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