Rollerball on DVD

Rollerball is the kind of movie that has a good idea at the core, but does too many things wrong to be enjoyable.

The concept of a violent sport that's made more violent for the sake of TV ratings is as open-ended as it is believable. Remember the XFL?

Unfortunately, the film almost seems like a collection of bits from different movies thrown together to make a single one.

Jonathan Cross (Chris Klein) is the hottest new thing in Rollerball, a hard-hitting, popular overseas sport that is in need of a ratings boost (which is a nice homage to most of the sports on TV these days). The team owners and TV execs decide to give people what they want to see: excessive violence. But Cross and his teammates are on to them. They want out before they become next on the hit list.

So they try -- unsuccessfully -- to escape, and are forced back in the game with their lives on the line.

Most of the movie is a badly-edited mess, but there is one sequence (shown entirely in night-vision) that's pretty cool, even if it doesn't really fit in this particular film. The end is exactly as you would imagine, only quite a bit less satisfying.

The film's first flaw is casting Chris Klein in the lead. Not only does he possess only slightly more acting talent than Keanu Reeves, he isn't believable as an action hero. At least Mr. Reeves can shine in roles that don't require acting (think Speed). The talented members of the cast (including LL Cool J, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos and Jean Reno) are not given enough to do, and so don't even come close to saving such a flawed picture.

Director John McTiernan, who seems to have turned himself around after a promising start to his career, does a decent job that's mauled by bad editing. It's almost as if we're meant to not see what's going on.

Even if you have a high tolerance for bad action movies, this one just has far too many problems. If you absolutely have to see a Rollerball, try the Norman Jewison/James Caan original.

Despite its basic no-show at the box office, MGM has given the movie what they consider to be a special edition: good picture, decent sound, and a few extras.

The picture quality, which is shown in either 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen or 1.33:1 full frame (on opposite sides of the disc), is pretty good. It's a little grainy in places and soft in others, but is otherwise good enough. The sequence shown in night-vision is of poor quality, but I suspect that was intentional, and it actually worked.

The sound is not as good as it should be. As always, presented in 5.1 Dolby Digital, an action movie like this cries out for lots of surround use. Unfortunately, anything out of the rear speakers was for the most part non-existent. At least that which comes from the front is done fairly well. However, we did notice that sometimes the music and sound effects got in the way of the dialogue. We don't imagine this is the fault of the DVD, however, but rather is the way the film was made.

The few extras include an audio commentary by "The Horsemen" (Chris Klein, LL Cool J and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos), a featurette on the stunts of Rollerball, an interactive Rollerball yearbook (not as neat as it sounds), and a Rob Zombie music video.

Rollerball, from MGM Home Video
97 min. anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1), 16x9 TV compatible/Pan&Scan, Dolby Digital 5.1
Starring Chris Klein, Jean Reno, LL Cool J, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos
Produced by John McTiernan, Charles Roven, Beau St. Clair
Written by Larry Ferguson and John Pogue, Directed by John McTiernan

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