Rollerballs

Rating: Null/10 (25 August 2001)

Spoilers herein.
This is one of the most ill-conceived movies of all time, despite being remade several times: Roy Hill and Newman together after doing Butch Cassidy. It was extreme for its time so far as profanity and violence, though nothing here is remarkable by today's standards.
There are a lot of things screwy here: Sometimes it follows a very strict formula, sometimes departing rather radically as if there were two, incompatible scripts tossed together. (The remakes stick to the formula.)
Newman never finds his character -- at this point, he's still not a real actor. He only becomes great later. Without an actor to anchor things, everyone goes their own way. Comic and dramatic effects fizzle, except a couple scenes at the beginning that goof on Queebekkers. Then, one slow mudslide into confusion, only slightly distracted by the skating.
It's a great example of the power of the writer. No one can overcome a bad script, and writing this sort of thing (social comedy) is too hard for yer average hack.