Product Description
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Remake of the 1975 future sports classic. When hockey player and
skateboarder Jonathan Cross (Chris Klein) is recruited to play
the emergent cable TV sport of Rollerball, he quickly becomes the
game's biggest star. But after a fellow player is injured,
Jonathan discovers some disturbing evidence which suggests the
game is being manipulated by outside forces in order to make it
increasingly violent and dangerous. Realising that his boss
Petrovich (Jean Réno) is the man behind these changes, Jonathan
starts making plans to get out of the game - but with so much
money involved, it's unlikely his masters will let him off the
hook easily.
From .co.uk
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This Rollerball, a 2002 remake of the excellent 1975 original (
/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005KISO/${0} ), is one of the most notorious
failed would-be blockbusters of recent years. Chris Klein
struggles as Jonathon Cross, star of the violent game of the
title, a mixture of speedway, hockey and rollerskating for the
WWF generation. Perfunctory support comes from Rebecca (X Men)
Romijn-Stamos, while Jean Reno is the promoter prepared to
sacrifice player's lives for TV ratings. The remake could not be
more different from the original in tone, as formal elegance is
replaced by a cacophonic heavy metal soundtrack and MTV-style
editing that makes the games impossible to follow. Set in the
present, this Rollerball ironically fulfils the original's
suggestion that the near future would be a big business,
media-dominated world of blood and circuses. The film's best
asset is relocating the story in a crumbling and corrupt Russia,
a world sufficiently alien to have a genuinely science fictional
resonance; the elaborate production design and wild profusion of
costumes suggest post-communism, post-modern, global melting pot
freefalling out of control, paying homage to Ridley Scott's
seminal Blade Runner (significantly, perhaps, LL Cool J's
character is called Ridley). Not quite as disastrous as expected,
one still wonders how John (Die Hard) McTiernan made an action
thriller this mediocre.
On the DVD: Rollerball's commentary by Chris Klein, LL Cool J and
Rebecca Romijn-Stamos is jokey, amiable and reveals plenty of
filmmaking trivia without offering anything substantial. The
"Rollerball Yearbook" presents text profiles of the four teams
and 11 key players linked to "highlights", i.e., montages taken
from the film of the participants. This also has sections on six
areas of the "Roller Dome" and three sections on "Game Gear",
which as to a photo gallery of costumes, s and bikes.
Also included is the theatrical trailer and trailers for three
other SF movies. The anamorphic 2.35:1 transfer is excellent, and
the Dolby Digital 5.1 sound is suitably dynamic and raucous.
There are subtitles in six languages as well as English and
English for Hard of Hearing, while the disc also contains French
and Spanish dubs of the main feature. --Gary S Dalkin
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From the Back Cover
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Roller ball is a fast-paced, slick action-thriller that goes
full throttle with excitement from its death- defying opening
until its explosive end.
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