Rollerball (2002)

This film, a remake of the 1975 cult classic, is a mere shadow of it’s original glory.  It’s a story set in the futuristic 2005, and is a satirical look at the at the world of “sports entertainment” and the people involved in the business behind it. It follows a young man as he gets involved in the increasingly popular game and learns the hard way that quitting isn’t necessarily an option.  You can kind of get a hint of what the original idea, conceived in the short story “Roller Ball Murders” by William Harrison is trying to say, but it is deeply buried among the blood, death, and nudity. So here are the apparent rules to Rollerball: you are on rollerblades, you have a heavy metal ball., and you want to put that ball into a hole some twenty feet in the air. There are players on motorcycles and they try to dismember you as you roll around the small arena. It doesn’t just sound lame, it actually, really is. The film was pushed back a number off times over a nine month period in reaction to poor test audience reviews and probably would have been held back permanently if it weren’t for the ever nude Rebecca Romijn-Stamos. God Bless America. (Directed by John McTiernan)