One of the most calamitous flops of the 2000s was ROLLERBALL (2002), which in addition to losing MGM/UA an enormous amount of money destroyed the careers of its director and its leading man.
ROLLERBALL 2002 Trailer
The film was a remake of the similarly titled 1975 Norman Jewison shocker. Adapted from William Harrison’s 1973 story “Roller Ball Murder,” Jewison’s film starred James Caan as the star player of a violent futuristic game called Rollerball. A remake was inevitable, with said remake initially outlined in a screenplay by David Campbell Wilson that’s attained legendary status among the lucky few who’ve read it.
ROLLERBALL (1975) Trailer
Wilson’s script, alas, was heavily retooled in the first of many bad decisions by director John McTiernan. Another was the use of the notorious “Hollywood Fixer” Anthony Pellicano to illegally wiretap the phone of producer Charles Roven, with whom McTiernan reportedly feuded throughout the production. McTiernan’s actions led to a highly sensational trial that concluded with him imprisoned in 2013 (for lying about the wiretapping to an FBI officer) and having his career permanently curtailed.
In ROLLERBALL’s opening thirty minutes three things are immediately evident: 1) that McTiernan, whose previous films included PREDATOR (1987), DIE HARD (1988) and THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER (1990), fully retained his talent for staging exciting action sequences, 2) that the lead actor Chris Kline is wildly miscast, and 3) that with a bodyboard race down Knob Hill in San Francisco, followed by an intense Rollerball game and a car chase, the film is in serious danger of peaking early—which is precisely what occurs.
The miscast actor in question is Chris Kline, playing Jonathan Cross, a street punk in a future America (the far-off year 2005, to be exact) who signs on to play for the nation’s favorite sporting competition, a hockey-football-WWE mashup called Rollerball. Jonathan quickly becomes the game’s top player, only to learn during an Asian campaign that his corrupt Russian overseer Alexis Petrovich (Jean Reno) is staging accidents and seriously injuring players in order to boost ratings.
Jonathan tries to inform the world of Petrovich’s corruption but is captured during an attempted border crossing. His fellow player Marcus (LL Cool J) is killed in the melee, forcing Jonathan to become a puppet of Petrovich. But, of course, Jonathan is only pretending, and has definite plans to subvert the system.
I feel McTiernan was correct in keeping his emphasis on action and sensation. Norman Jewison’s ROLLERBALL was too preachy and self-important for my tastes (Jewison was known to complain that American critics and audiences “missed the point” of what was apparently intended as a serious anti-violence diatribe), so an unpretentious RUNNING MAN (1987)-esque treatment that mixed action and unobtrusive political messaging was welcome. It’s just too bad McTiernan botched the job so spectacularly.
The movie feels incomplete, as if a great deal of footage was left on the cutting room floor (with at least one supporting character, Rebecca Romijn’s Polish-accented Aurora, having too little screen time to fully register). That was indeed the case, with the PG-13 rated film shorn of over thirty minutes of footage from McTiernan’s initial 2-hour plus cut after poor test screenings (the DVD version restored three minutes of discarded violence and nudity, i.e. just enough to qualify it for an R rating).
McTiernan’s staging is as bossy and aggressive as it was in DIE HARD, with handheld camerawork and copious bright lights shined in the camera (not to mention an interminable 7½ minute sequence filmed in ultra-grainy, green-tinted night vision that adds nothing to the film). What’s missing is a compelling, or even coherent, set-up (the rules of Rollerball are never made clear) and a charismatic lead.
Which brings us to the Chris Klein problem. Klein did fine in comedic fare like the AMERICAN PIE films and ELECTION, but fails as an action hero. His laid-back demeanor is completely at odds with the character he plays, and his final rage-fueled rampage isn’t convincing in the slightest, as he comes off as at most mildly annoyed (and doesn’t look like he’d be able to swat a fly, much less beat up several much larger men). Unsurprisingly, in the 20-plus years since this movie’s bow we haven’t seen Mr. Klein in too many more lead roles.
Vital Statistics
ROLLERBALL
MGM/UA
Director: John McTiernan
Producers: Charles Roven, Beau St. Clair, John McTiernan
Screenplay: Larry Ferguson, John Pogue
(Based on a story by William Harrison)
Cinematography: Steve Mason
Editing: Robert K. Lambert, John Wright
Cast: Chris Kline, Jean Reno, LL Cool J, Rebecca Romijn, Naveen Andrews, Oleg Taktarov, David Hemblen, Janet Wright, Andrew Bryniarski, Kata Dobó, Alice Poon Lucia Rijker, Melissa Stubbs, Paul Wu, Yoland Hughes-Heying, Jay Mahin, Simon Girard, Tom Farr, Kevin Rushton