Rollerball

Director John McTiernan and writers Larry Ferguson and John Pogue swipe the title of Norman Jewison’s 1975 movie but discard everything else—starting with the premise of a brutal sport pandering to a future society in which real-life violence is outlawed. Here, the setting is present-day and the sport is the domain of a Russian Mafioso (Jean Reno) who plans to use Rollerball to conquer the world. Or something. The usually reliable McTiernan is here slovenly, the action is slapdash and noisy, and the photography is ugly (with one long scene, for no good reason, shot in night-goggle green). McTiernan and company do take one more thing from Jewison’s original: the game still doesn’t make any sense, but now the plot doesn’t either. Chris Klein and LL Cool J play star Rollerballers, to no effect.