Rollerball

Year: 2002

Grade: D-

Country: USA

Director: McTiernan

Review

given the source material and the fact that john mctiernan directed it, one would have had high hopes for this remake of the 1975 classic. unfortunately this movie goes wrong at just about every possible turn. they completely re-worked the screenplay, they hired a bunch of pretty faces and made it into an action film. the soundtrack was wretched, the acting was piss poor. now i know that rebecca romijn-stamos and chris klein can act since i’ve seen femme fatale and the election in which each did a fine job, but this script didn’t leave much room for good acting. i know that john mctiernan can direct well when given the proper material since i’ve seen hunt for red october, predator, and die hard. but nothing could have helped this film – it had studio production written all over it. almost all of the social commentary about mega corporations, the control of information, apathy of the masses, the exploitation of violence, etc. are gone. some of it is touched upon, but it’s not nearly the film that the original is. they try to throw in a love story which felt like a hang nail i couldn’t pull off. they exploit the violence themselves which is just lame. there were some shots that were well done thanks to mctiernan, but the film didn’t succeed even as an action flick. a movie that shouldn’t have been made. it didn’t make very much money, made everyone involved look bad, and tarnished the reputation of one of the better 1970s films. the ending to the original is likely a top 50 ending of all-time…the playing of bach on the organ, the freeze frame of james caan…good stuff.