Jonathan: Chris Klein	Alexi: Jean Reno
Ridley: LL Cool J	Aurora: Rebecca Romijn-Stamos
Director: John McTiernan

30 Second Bottom Line: Spectator contact sports become increasingly popular in the TV ratings as the violence increases. Where will it end or will it?

Story Line: Jonathan (Chris Klein) is hot-dogging his way through the streets of San Francisco on a skateboard toboggan type instrument causing all type of havoc to property and criminal ordinances. He aspires to be the next Wayne Gretsky in the NHL so we'll try not to wonder why he is exhibiting such immature behavior. Just after numerous near death escapes and about to be arrested by the police, Ridley (LL Cool J) comes to the rescue and tells him what big money he is making by playing rollerball in Central Asia.

With the police now staking out Jonathan's apartment, he decides to fly off to Asia and be a teammate with Ridley.

Rollerball is a strange game in which a large steel ball about 6-9 inches in diameter must be thrown up high on a target with enough force to ring the bell connected to it. The ball is on the floor and moved around by teams with hockey type sticks who are either on roller-skates or motorcycles on a somewhat small figure eight track.

The club owner and business man Alexi (Jean Reno) who wants to land a huge cable deal in Asia sees the way to make his money now is to have ever increasing gambling by the local miners which will occur only if they get higher ratings. After seeing that ratings instantly go up exponentially right after a fight or major injury, Alexi, decides to stage these events so that high ratings become a certainty and not a question mark.

Ridley, Jonathan and the new love in his life, teammate Aurora (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos), try to outfox Alexi at his own game concurrent with an escape into Russia.

Tell Me More About It: This is one of those films with a PG-13 rating that in using my common sense says this is a R. It's mean spirited in an atmosphere in which sportsmanship is missing in almost everyway. I did not find it funny nor did it add anything for a sports announcer to be smoking a joint while calling a game. When a reporter wanted to juice up her interview with Ridley, she translated that his "mother was a crack whore" when he said she was a pediatrician ---Ha, Ha, Ha.

The action on the track was somewhat of a letdown but the chase by the bad guys to catch Jonathan and Ridley was reasonably exciting even though it was implausible and illogical. A movie does not have to have any redeeming value to be made (eg. Kung Pow: Enter the Fist), but if it wants to gather any type of audience, which I'd be surprised if this does, it needs something other than well known actors who've done other edgy films that came together so much better than this one.

Rated PG-13 for violence, extreme sports action, sensuality, language and some drug references

George@reelmoviecritic.com

Chris Klein: We Were Soldiers	Jean Reno: The Crimson Rivers
LL Cool J: Kingdom Come	Rebecca Romijn-Stamos: X-Men
John McTiernan: The Thomas Crown Affair