Review - Rollerball (2002)

[akaihyo]

OK, so I have a weakness for schlock SF. We watched Rollerball last night, this is the 2002 remake based (very loosely) on the 1975 original (and the short story by William Harrison, who also wrote the screenplay for the 1975 version). The remake is not even really SF, it is set in the "Stans" (Kazakastan and the others that emerged after the fall of the Soviet Union in Central Asia) in the current period with rollerball broadcast worldwide. The first half, which is mostly about the sport and the media hype linked into it were cool. But then our main character suddenly (and, from my impression of him, very uncharacteristically) obtains a social conscious and the movie rapidly goes downhill. Of course, the social consciousness is infectious and the rest of the team joins in on the action movie heroism at the end. Lame. My Grade: C-/C