Rollerball (2002)

Rollerball is a 2002 remake of the 1975 film of the same name. The film stars LL Cool J, Chris Klein and Jean Reno.

Plot
In the future year of 2005, a new and deadly sport called Rollerball is introduced to the world. Players include Jonathan Cross (Chris Klein), Alexi Petrovich (Jean Reno), Marcus Ridley (LL Cool J) and Aurora "the Black Widow" (Rebecca Romijn).

Why It Sucks

 * 1) Choppy editing.
 * 2) Poor special effects
 * 3) Inaccurate future look of 2005. It looks more like present day.
 * 4) Poor writing.
 * 5) There was a major dispute with the MPAA over whether the film should be released in PG-13 format or R-rated format. MGM released the R-rated format.
 * 6) The film went through numerous rewrites as far back as 2000 and as a result of the film's failure at the box office, Rollerball killed John McTiernan's career as a director (who is notable for directing the 1987 film Predator and the 1988 film Die Hard).

The Only Redeeming Quality

 * 1) Fun cameos from WWE's Shane McMahon (of the McMahon Family) and Paul Heyman (former ECW owner and future manager of Brock Lesnar).

Reception
Rollerball was panned by critics and audiences alike. The film currently holds a 3% "rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes with an average of 2.5 out of 10 and a critic consensus that reads "Removing the social critique of the original, this updated version of Rollerball is violent, confusing, and choppy. Klein makes for a bland hero." Roger Ebert referred to the film as "an incoherent mess, a jumble of footage in search of plot, meaning, rhythm and sense".

Box Office
Rollerball opened up at #3 on its opening weekend with a domestic gross of $9,013,548. It would later make a total domestic gross of $18,990,798. In foreign sales, it made a total of $6,861,966. Overall, it made $25,852,764 against its $70 million budget. The film was a box office disaster.

Awards and nominations
The film had one Razzie Award nomination for Rebecca Romijn as Worst Actress, but lost to Madonna in Die Another Day and Swept Away. There were no other Razzie nominations for this film nor were there any wins.