Headbanger's BALL

Sex, Violence

and

Rock 'n Roll by D.A. Muse

The centerpiece of the new MGM film Rollerball was a wall to wall percussive blasts of sound. The score/soundtrack played like an episode of MTV's Headbanger's Ball. The drive and aggression of the music was perfect to accompany this hyper-paced action film. Director John McTiernan (Die Hard) put together a slick piece of wonderfully absurd eye-candy. Great sets, hot action, beautiful people, and some fine and fast cars. It's full of flash, polish, and loaded with enough "in-your-face action" for today's "game-heads" and "MTV fast paced addicts". It's all tied together nicely with some hard-core rock. Rob Zombie's song "Never Gonna Stop (The Red, Red Kroovy)" is featured prominently in the movie. In a cameo appearance playing themselves was one of hard-core music's best acts Slipknot. The boys are collectively, DJ Sid Wilson, drummer Joey Jordison, bassist Paul Gray, percussionist Chris Fehn, guitarist James Root, sampler Craig Jones, percussionist Shawn Crahan, guitarist Mick Thomson and lead singer Corey Taylor (also known as 012345678, respectively). They came on and tore it up performing their song "I am Hated" from their last CD Iowa.

Hollywood builds it's films today with limitations of what they think the given audience can handle. Unfortunately they usually tend to underestimate the intelligence of any given group. Rollerball is one of those films. MGM brought it down to the viewer's level. It may lack greatly in substance but makes up for it in flare. If you accept the film strictly for what it is and nothing more it's a fun little ride. It will also offer you some nice visuals along the way. Rollerball is nicely filmed and edited. It's an overall feast of the senses for those who can dig fast action. For eye-candy of the human variety this film wasn't lacking there either. LL Cool J played (Marcus Ridley) the smooth street-wise brother with a million-dollar smile. Chris Klein (Jonathan Cross) the all-American boy next door heartthrob with a taste for adrenaline. The siren played by Rebecca Romijn-Stamos (Aurora) alluring and mysterious. They give you something pretty to look at besides the action.