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rollerball-2002
via MGM

Not all remakes are created equal, but one in particular makes a strong case for being the worst ever

And there's not even a shred of hyperbole to be found.

Remakes are an accepted fact of life, and it’s something we’ve all gotten used to as the never-ending deluge continues. Plenty of them have been worthy of living up to – or in some cases bettering – their illustrious predecessors, but what ranks as the worst of the worst; the very bottom of a barrel that should have never been scraped to begin with? It’s an open-ended question without a doubt, but 2002’s Rollerball should never be left out of the conversation.

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The director of Die Hard and Predator mounting a $75 million reinterpretation of the 1975 cult classic sounded like a decent enough idea on paper, but John McTiernan had long since gone off the boil as one of the action genre’s top talents. Handing Chris Klein a blockbuster leading man role seemed doomed from the start, though, but at least he delivered on that front.

rollerball-2002
via MGM

Rollerball absolutely cratered at the box office by barely even recouping half of its production costs, while a three percent critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes to go along with a 14 percent user rating make it patently clear that it’s never going to be embraced as a tongue-in-cheek camp favorite.

In fact, Redditors have been tasked to name the single worst remake in the recorded history of cinema, and what’s emerged as the most popular reply by a country mile? Yep, it’s Rollerball. A fetishistic nu metal escapade made by a middle-aged man and shot with no conviction whatsoever always seemed doomed to fail, and if it isn’t the worst do-over there’s ever been, then it’s definitely damn close.


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Scott Campbell
News, reviews, interviews. To paraphrase Keanu Reeves; Words. Lots of words.
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