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Year One
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Rollerball
EMAILPRINTMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer Distributing Corporation

Overwhelming dislike
Based on 28 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 22 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Sci-fi
Written by:
Larry Ferguson
John Pogue
William Harrison (short story Roller Ball Murders and 1975 screenplay)
Directed by: John McTiernan
Release Date:
Theatrical: February 8, 2002
DVD: June 18, 2002
Running Time: 115 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for violence, extreme sports action, sensuality, language and some drug references
Starring Chris Klein, Jean Reno, LL Cool J, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Naveen Andrews, Pink, and Mike Dopud
Set in 2005, this update of the classic 1975 film directed by Norman Jewison, focuses on the deadly sport that combines roller derby and basketball and packs arenas around the world.
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Last Action Hero
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan
A turbo-charged remake that should alienate no fans of the adrenalized 1975 original.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jami Bernard
The game itself is meaningless, and the movie, much the same way, likes it like that.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Staff (Not Credited)
Rollerball was trash even back in 1975, but in some small way it was ahead of its time. The new version just makes you feel like you've been watching a lame late-night rerun while stuck in a thunderdome.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
Once LL Cool J, easily the film's most magnetic presence, is out of the game, the whole thing falls apart in a hazy, confusing mess.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Jay Carr
Meretricious without being entertaining, it's an easy game -- and an easier film -- to sit out.
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
What's up with director John McTiernan? The man has got to get a career of his own -- sponging off the pale leavings of Norman Jewison just won't do.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
Some movies should never have been made, and high on that list is the addled new remake of Rollerball.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Gets stupider as it moves along. By the end, you just don't care whether that cold-hearted snake Petrovich (that would be Reno) gets his comeuppance. Just bring on the Battle Bots, please!
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
It's too bad this Rollerball veered off-track so swiftly, derailed by bad writing and possibly also by some of that extensive post-production reworking.
Read Full Review >New York Post Jonathan Foreman
This oddly scrambled new version eventually falls apart so badly you feel embarrassed for the people who made it.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
There's something junior varsity about the whole sensibility that makes the new version seem more dated than the old one.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
Coupled with the flavorless dialogue of the inane script and a leading man who registers all the glow of a black hole, there's nothing to anchor this mindless mess of a film.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
The most depressing thing about this movie is not that it's such a complete waste of time, but that there are people in Hollywood who think this kind of thing is what American movie-goers are interested in seeing.
Read Full Review >USA Today Mike Clark
The word on Rollerball is "troubled," though troubled is what you call a high school junior with 50 snakes under his bed. Catastrophe is more like it.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
Only those attracted to "Waterworld" or "Last Action Hero" level big-budget disasters need bother with this one.
Read Full Review >The New York Times A.O. Scott
The current version, however, like its predecessor, fails as entertainment. Mr. McTiernan's remake may be lighter on its feet -- the sober-minded original was as graceful as a tap-dancing rhino -- but it is just as boring and as obvious.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
An incoherent mess, a jumble of footage in search of plot, meaning, rhythm and sense.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Stephen Hunter
It has no moments of athletic grace amid the chaos, no apparent sense of strategy. It's basically just mayhem set to rock music.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Say this for the soundtrack, it drowns out the lousy dialogue.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
Bad and baffling from the get-go, probably the only good thing to come out of this Rollerball is the boon it gives the porn industry in terms of another ready-made title to spoof.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
Remarkably empty, remarkably noisy, remarkably pleasureless. It's unwatchable.
Read Full Review >New Times (L.A.) Gregory Weinkauf
As in the comparatively quaint original film, there are whiffs of greed, carnage, social upheaval and the triumph of the numskull, but it's all rendered noxious nonsense by zooming hot rods, vague T&A, irritating jump-cuts and a bunch of dipshit Power Ranger wannabes slamming in hell's moshpit.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
A movie of such rank stupidity and appalling taste.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Paul Malcolm
Rollerball pushes the Hollywood action movie to stratospheric new levels of incoherence; pounding at the senses, it's mashed story, character, time and space into a chunky hash.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Mark Holcomb
McTiernan's Rollerball is a movie masochist's delight.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Connie Ogle
Plentiful helpings of dreadful acting, confusing action cinematography, choppy editing and embarrassing dialogue, with the added bonus of a plot almost as dumb as that of the original film.
Read Full Review >Variety Robert Koehler
Sheer chaos on wheels, a hysterically edited jumble that defies belief at nearly every juncture.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 2.5 (out of 10) based on 22 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Terry R gave it a0:
I've seen better movies in theaters for the blind.
Steve H gave it a1:
A real disappointment - I didn't expect a copy of the original but I didn't expect something to be this bad. I thought it might get better after a bad start - but it manages to go down hill all the way to the end. It is beyond belief that it could be rated a ten by anyone.
Bobby gave it a0:
The Most Violent PG13 Film ever to hit the states. The intense violence, sex, nudity, drugs and blood is insane. This film is one of the few films that somehow got away with the biggest rating mistake of the last 100 years. You see breasts, watch people break bones and get beaten and shattered to there death, you see man on man fights in which the blood just keeps on coming until the lucky one dies. I have never seen anything so intense and disgusting. A shame.
Gerrick C gave it a0:
God only knows you can't get any dumber than this.
Steve E. gave it a10:
Amazing Film, lots of action. If you compare it to the original it is better.
Jon gave it a 10:
Everyone always compare things to their predecessors. First off, this isn't a direct remake, it's a rendition. If they were going to just copy it 100%, they would just put the old one on dvd. Second of all, it's an action movie, of course things are fast, it's ACTION. The thing is packed of actions scenes beginning to end. If you can't catch the plot, I don't know how you can even read this. If you're expecting some immaculate movie with some moving theme, well, then go watch the patriot or some crap. This is an action movie. Full of action. For people who like action. If you don't like action, it wasn't meant for you to see it. So stfu. =)
Mateusz P. gave it a 0:
Lying on my deathbed, watching this movie might be one of the few things i'll regret having done. it's so moronic you will actually FEEL all your joy, happiness and meaning of life evaporate out of every pore on your body.
