Full Movie Reviews
Rating of
3/4
"Rollerball" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 10/20/2012
The star player of a gladiatorial future sport is ordered to retire by the corporate executives who see his popularity as a threat to their totalitarian grip on society, but when he resists they begin to change the rules of the game to ensure his failure. Rollerball is another example of 70s dystopian sci-fi that mingles brutal action sequences that represent the games and more measured, cerebral scenes that examine the nature of a society in the thrall of fascism. Obviously very much based on the Roman concept of "bread and circuses", the character of Jonathan E. begins to question his role despite all the comforts he has come to enjoy at the behest of the faceless corporations who now wish him to disappear. Caan makes a solid anti-hero who only stops to think about the political …
Rating of
3.5/4
The game is all that matters.
gideon43 - wrote on 05/28/2010
Coming across as a great big paradox, Rollerball is a highly entertaining Sci Fi Flick.
Supposedly anti violence and with fairly high aspirations of philosophical argument and social relevance, Rollerball simply works better as a classic future sport movie.
Guys on motorbikes and roller-skates beating the crap out of each other, what more could you ask for in a film.
James Caan as the understated all American sports hero is excellent in possibly his finest role and is given commendable support from John Beck, Maud Adams and John Houseman.
Rollerball delivers a vision of a dystopian society that is as decadent and unsettling as ever portrayed on screen, but it is in its fast paced adrenaline pumping action scenes where it ultimately succeeds.