An average movie

Since this movie has a rather solid reputation as a cult-classic, I was quite eager to check it out. In fact, I did see at some point the awful remake they made about 15 years ago and I hoped this original version would be much better. Well, to be honest, even if I still believe that the concept is great, it didn't turn out to be a great movie after all. Basically, even if it wasn't completely dumb as the remake was, it wasn't really smart either, I'm afraid. Futhermore, even if James Caan really had the looks to play this character, his performance was still rather bland. On the other hand, he wasn't helped by the fact that his character was rather poorly written. Indeed, I never understood why was the guy so obsessed about refusing to quit a seemingly violent, dangerous and even rather stupid game. Futhermore, the way Caan played the character during the various games, it felt as if he stood there wondering what the hell was going on and what the hell was he doing here. Of course, he would utter at least twice 'I love this game!' which was just really heavy-handed and not convincing whatsoever. The rest of the movie dealing with this dystopian world also had some potential but it was still rather half-baked. I mean, sure, it wasn't a bad idea to have your main character looking for some answers, except maybe when he is a rather dim-witted professional football, I mean, rollerball player. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch though and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

6/10