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| ROLLERBALL
With Chris Klein, Jean Reno, LL Cool J, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos
Directed
by John McTiernan
If you've seen, know & love the original film version
of the short story, then catching this remake will be a superb disappointment.
Rollerball is a high speed, high action arena game on roller skates and
motorcycles - the object to bang a steel ball that gets shot around the circuit
into the goal. A super-extreme Gladiator-Basketball hybrid, if you will. The original
was a look at the future and how huge corporations run the world. They pacify
the sheepish population with this violent game, pushing one up as a superstar.
With this remake, the corruption in game management (causing violence for ratings)
overpowers the first outing's balance of impact and message. But, not having read
the short story, I cannot say to what degree these elements and many others were
present in its first incarnation on paper. The new version also emphasizes the
modern sport angle far more and unlike the great 70s original, is not exactly
set too far in the future and teams are multi-national as opposed to the strict
country oriented battles in the ring. Our leading man has the presence of an eggplant,
not even close to the shadow of original leading man, James Caan. It seems as
if his stiff Keanu Reeves qualities were sought - was Mr. Matrix on tour
with his band Dogstar
or too busy with the new Matrix
movies? LL Cool J does his best to live up to his middle name while the female
inserted team-mate-love-interest is sure hot, but hardly effective in the overall
scheme of things. Luc Besson favourite, Jean Reno is enjoyable as the ruthless
team owner, but becomes a stereotypical caricature. It feels as though somebody
paged through the new version of the script and removed chunks to shorten the
whole affair, which still feels a bit long. Then there are sporadic moments like
an extensive night chase shot with a grainy green night vision look - fine for
a few minutes, but the entire scene? McTiernan has made some great action movies
like the Die Hard series,
but needn't have bothered with this. At least now the first movie got a renewed
interest widescreen, digital DVD release as a result, so do yourself a favour
and get that in stead. The highlight of this muddled flashy joke is the brief
moment that masked mayhem band Slipknot
performs live!
1 / C
- PB
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