56
Metascore
11 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 90IGNIGNOne of the most forward looking science fiction tales of the 70's.
- 80CineVueJohn BleasdaleCineVueJohn BleasdaleWith a fantastic stunt team, a gamely macho star and some wonderful editing, Rollerball is so convincing, urban legend had it there were fatalities during the shoot.
- 75Slant MagazineSlant MagazineDirector Norman Jewison’s Rollerball remains a poignant and unusually prescient vision of our world as defined by Walmart and Exxon-Mobil.
- 75TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineThe performances of Caan and Richardson are excellent, and the rollerball sequences are fast-paced and interesting.
- The skate-rink action, which culminates in an apocalyptic death match, remains rabble-rousingly brutal.
- 60Time OutTime OutUltimately, Rollerball gets by on its sheer monolithic quality - an abundance of quantity. Despite indifferent direction and dire humour, it is well mounted and photographed.
- 50NewsweekNewsweekRollerball isn't a movie; it's a protest demonstration - producer-director Norman Jewison's feeble complaint about both the increasing brutality in professional sports and the increasing sterility of modern life. Trendy concerns, sure enough, but the movie's only contribution could well be the introduction of its brutal, eponymous game to an already sport-surfeited society. [07 July 1975, p.56]
- 50Los Angeles TimesMichael WilmingtonLos Angeles TimesMichael WilmingtonIt's got the smoothest, glossiest finish imaginable, but something inside it doesn't jell. [15 July 1988, p.26]
- It's not funny at all and, not being funny, it becomes, instead, frivolous.