This film was recommended then put on for me to watch after a conversation about older movies that deal with similar scenarios/have similar elements. I had low expectations and I was not disappointed.
This film tells of a young man named Jonathan Cross (played by Chris Klein) who happens to be a bit of an adrenaline junkie and an athlete of sorts. While waiting for a chance to sign on with the NHL Jonathan takes part in an illegal race. While racing, Jonathan's friend Marcus Ridley (played by LL Cool J) helps him get away from the cops. While helping Jonathan escape Marcus tells Jonathan of an opportunity to play a sport called Rollerball that will pay more money than Jonathan could hope to make playing for the NHL. After Jonathan tries to return to his house and finds the outside crawling with cops he decides to take Marcus up on his offer.
Fast forward some months and Jonathan is living the dream as the star player of his rollerball team which is comprised of various players from across the world. I won't get into the details of how the sport works because it is lengthy and I can't remember everything. Basically the sport has elements of roller derby but players can actually hit each other and use subdual weapons while others take turns throwing a metal ball at a gong to gain points. This sport is widely followed throughout Asia and the owners of the rollerball teams are trying to get more world wide recognition.
One day Jonathan observes one of his teammates getting deliberately ganged up on and then hit in the face with the metal ball. No doubt his teammate's skull is fractured and his jaw broken not to mention the loss of teeth. Jonathan is naturally outraged especially when he finds out that Tobo's helmet chin strap was obviously cut. Jonathan decides to take his concerns to the owner of his team former KGB Alexis Petrovich (played by Jean Reno). Alexis seems duly concerned and reassures Jonathan that he will look into it.
Later Jonathan finds evidence that further confirms the attack on his teammate was deliberately staged for ratings but the evidence suggests a more sinister idea that Petrovich is probably responsible for the attack. Jonathan tells Marcus of his concerns but Marcus puts off Jonathan's concerns to the sport being violent and reassures Jonathan that he has nothing to worry about.
After Marcus witnesses an opposing team sabotaging a motorcycle used by fellow teammate Aurora (played by Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) nearly resulting in Aurora getting blown up, Marcus begins to believe in Jonathan's concerns and tells Jonathan that they will leave if someone else gets killed or nearly killed. After Marcus "has an accident" during a match Marcus and Jonathan try to flee with Petrovich, Petrovich's assistant Sanjay (played by Naveen Andrews) and Petrovich's "bodyguards" in close pursuit. Petrovich captures Jonathan and promises him more money if he'll just finish the season. Jonathan initially refuses Petrovich's demands. After Sanjay talks to Jonathan and explains that bad things could happen to his other teammates and reminding Jonathan that he could get more money from Petrovich, Jonathan agrees to play for Petrovich.
The rest of the movie is basically a showdown between Petrovich and his goons and Jonathan and the rest of the Rollerball players. It was action packed and excitingish. The movie ended in a satisfactory manner.
This film is a remake of a movie that came out in the 70s also titled Rollerball. My friends that I watched this version with assure me that the original Rollerball is much better than this one and worth watching. I'll look into it the first opportunity that I get but for now I can that, as far as this version is concerned, I didn't hate it. I didn't love it enough to own it but it was better than I thought that it would be (that's not saying much considering that I had low expectations coming into this movie).
Jean Reno was the best actor and his character was the most interesting of this film. Besides Chris Klein's character, all of the other characters and their respective actors were so-so at best. The story was silly but I got the impression that it was supposed to be silly. The music in this film was the best part aside from Jean Reno.
Chris Klein's character Jonathan was annoyingly naive at best. I haven't been outside of this country but it has been drilled into me after hearing from people who have visited other countries and reading about other countries that the fact that one is an American doesn't mean a thing outside of USA. In fact it seems to be potentially dangerous to admit that one is an American particularly in certain parts of the world. I guess that Jonathan was meant to be naive but he was kind of ridiculously naive or perhaps ridiculously pretentious. Either way it was a little silly because you would think that after he has traveled throughout the area that he was traveling and making friends with people from around the world, he would be somewhat aware that just because he is an American doesn't mean that he is "safe" per say.
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