Rollerball
MGM Home Entertainment | Release Date: February 8, 2002 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
14
METASCORE
Overwhelming dislike based on 28 Critic Reviews
Positive:
1
Mixed:
3
Negative:
24
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
70
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
A turbo-charged remake that should alienate no fans of the adrenalized 1975 original. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
The game itself is meaningless, and the movie, much the same way, likes it like that. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyStaff (Not Credited)
Rollerball was trash even back in 1975, but in some small way it was ahead of its time. The new version just makes you feel like you've been watching a lame late-night rerun while stuck in a thunderdome. Read full review
40
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Once LL Cool J, easily the film's most magnetic presence, is out of the game, the whole thing falls apart in a hazy, confusing mess. Read full review
38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
What's up with director John McTiernan? The man has got to get a career of his own -- sponging off the pale leavings of Norman Jewison just won't do. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Some movies should never have been made, and high on that list is the addled new remake of Rollerball. Read full review
38
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Gets stupider as it moves along. By the end, you just don't care whether that cold-hearted snake Petrovich (that would be Reno) gets his comeuppance. Just bring on the Battle Bots, please! Read full review
38
Boston GlobeJay Carr
Meretricious without being entertaining, it's an easy game -- and an easier film -- to sit out.
30
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
It's too bad this Rollerball veered off-track so swiftly, derailed by bad writing and possibly also by some of that extensive post-production reworking. Read full review
25
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
There's something junior varsity about the whole sensibility that makes the new version seem more dated than the old one. Read full review
25
New York PostJonathan Foreman
This oddly scrambled new version eventually falls apart so badly you feel embarrassed for the people who made it. Read full review
25
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
Coupled with the flavorless dialogue of the inane script and a leading man who registers all the glow of a black hole, there's nothing to anchor this mindless mess of a film. Read full review
25
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The most depressing thing about this movie is not that it's such a complete waste of time, but that there are people in Hollywood who think this kind of thing is what American movie-goers are interested in seeing. Read full review
25
USA TodayMike Clark
The word on Rollerball is "troubled," though troubled is what you call a high school junior with 50 snakes under his bed. Catastrophe is more like it. Read full review
20
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
The current version, however, like its predecessor, fails as entertainment. Mr. McTiernan's remake may be lighter on its feet -- the sober-minded original was as graceful as a tap-dancing rhino -- but it is just as boring and as obvious. Read full review
20
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Only those attracted to "Waterworld" or "Last Action Hero" level big-budget disasters need bother with this one. Read full review
12
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
An incoherent mess, a jumble of footage in search of plot, meaning, rhythm and sense. Read full review
10
Film ThreatChris Gore
Will surely end up as one of this year’s worst films. Read full review
10
Washington PostStephen Hunter
It has no moments of athletic grace amid the chaos, no apparent sense of strategy. It's basically just mayhem set to rock music. Read full review
10
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Say this for the soundtrack, it drowns out the lousy dialogue. Read full review
0
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
Plentiful helpings of dreadful acting, confusing action cinematography, choppy editing and embarrassing dialogue, with the added bonus of a plot almost as dumb as that of the original film. Read full review
0
VarietyRobert Koehler
Sheer chaos on wheels, a hysterically edited jumble that defies belief at nearly every juncture. Read full review
0
L.A. WeeklyPaul Malcolm
Rollerball pushes the Hollywood action movie to stratospheric new levels of incoherence; pounding at the senses, it's mashed story, character, time and space into a chunky hash. Read full review
0
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
A movie of such rank stupidity and appalling taste. Read full review
0
Village VoiceMark Holcomb
McTiernan's Rollerball is a movie masochist's delight. Read full review
0
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Remarkably empty, remarkably noisy, remarkably pleasureless. It's unwatchable. Read full review
0
New Times (L.A.)Gregory Weinkauf
As in the comparatively quaint original film, there are whiffs of greed, carnage, social upheaval and the triumph of the numskull, but it's all rendered noxious nonsense by zooming hot rods, vague T&A, irritating jump-cuts and a bunch of dipshit Power Ranger wannabes slamming in hell's moshpit. Read full review
0
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Bad and baffling from the get-go, probably the only good thing to come out of this Rollerball is the boon it gives the porn industry in terms of another ready-made title to spoof. Read full review
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