Futuresport

Amazon.com

Shades of Rollerball! Director Ernest Dickerson and executive producer Wesley Snipes ponder the sport of the future and come up with... Futuresport, a combination of handball, ice hockey, and skateboard hot-dogging begun as an inner-city alternative to gang warfare and transformed into a glitzy media sensation. Dean Cain stars as the reigning Futuresport hero, a cocky glory hound who counts his cash and "popularity index" ratings with a smug grin until his narcissism costs him the championship game. As a ruthless terrorist group pushes the world to the brink of war, the suddenly altruistic Cain hatches a plan to bring Futuresport back to its roots. With the help of reporter (and former flame) Vanessa Williams and the game's creator (a rastah-inflected Snipes, who gives himself the film's best role), Cain proposes a winner-take-all game to settle the territorial dispute. Beefy former TV "Superman" Cain makes a better reformed hero than a snotty superstar and looks great in the game scenes, but Snipes steals the film with his funky turn as the inner-city guru with more on his mind than the game. Dickerson gives this TV film a handsome look and even injects a little grit into the otherwise bland screenplay, but apart from the zippy game scenes (which Dickerson films with an electrified energy), it's a familiar and rather flat bit of science fiction hokum. Footage containing violence and brief nudity has been added for home video. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews:

Really, Really, Really Bad :(.......2006-07-27

This film has perhaps the stupidest plot that I have ever seen. In a nutshell ... it's 2025, and in only ten years a game called Futuresport (kind of like European Handball on skateboards) has become the most popular sport in the world. Dean Cain's character plays Tre Ramzey, an ex-basketball player who has become Futuresport's biggest star. An organization called the Hawaiian Liberation Organization, backed by the Pan-Pacific Commonwealth, carries out terrorist acts and demands sovereignty for the oppressed state of Hawaii (no joke). In order to end the tensions between the Pan-Pacific Commonwealth and the North American Alliance, and prevent a war, our hero Ramzey proposes to settle the differences over ... a game of Futuresport. Brilliant! If only all the world's conflicts could be settled this way.

Besides the ridiculous plot, this film contains mostly bad acting, pretty weak visual effects, and perhaps worst of all, the cheasiest, most annoying music I have ever heard.

ZERO STARS!

Better than it sounds.......2006-03-10

I was pleasantly surprised with this movie. Considering it's a made for TV movie with the same kind of budget you can expect from that kind of production Futuresport really pulled it off. I'm not saying this movie is high drama or an incredible sci-fi epic, but I will say it deserves a little notation in the annals of the genre. I think it bears repeating: This is a made for TV movie, which means the budget was small and there was likely very little time for polish. In spite of this when you combine a good story, good acting and some of the cleanest special effects I have ever seen for a TV movie I get a pretty satisfied feeling by the time I get to the end credits. This is what the newer Rollerball movie should have been.

The plot, though it looks pretty basic on the outside, does have all the elements of good science fiction writing. It's not Gattaca, but it does keep the movie's pace going without resorting to cheap Hollywood tactics. What I like most about the story is that is shows some development with the main characters as well as gives enough exposure to most of the supporting characters for the script to end up being well balanced. The progression of the plot, with its minor twists and turns, keep an otherwise bland premise interesting. The violence is toned down a lot more than what you might expect so I would probably rate it a PG-13 or PG in that regard.

I won't say the acting is Oscar material by any means, but I will say it's better than most movies of this caliber. Wesley Snipes pretty much stole the show in this department. I enjoyed seeing him playing an essentially non-action role. It gives him a chance to stretch his acting muscles more, and that he did. You can tell he was enjoying his role, as were the rest of the actors. Dean Kane of Lois and Clark fame also plays a good lead in this one. The villains felt a little too much on the stereotypical bad person theme. Granted you get some pretty decent motives established at the beginning of the movie. They just didn't feel like terrorist/freedom fighters.

When I say Futuresport's special effects were the cleanest I have seen in a long time I'm not kidding. The digital touch ups they did for the hover boards are outstanding. To see these things gliding around with ease as if they were skateboards (with no skates mind you) is wonderful. The CGI scenes of various cityscapes and whatnot are also very nice and remind me of the stuff you see on Babylon 5. The tech was neat too, especially the guns and cybernetic cameramen. Very cyperpunk I must say. Unlike most TV or cable sci-fi movies you do see enough technology around outside and indoors to give enough for you to believe you really are seeing the 2020's. To sum it up everything went really well on the technical, effects and scenery side.

I'm not going to say Futuresport will win everyone over like it did me. It is after all it's a (everybody say it with me this time) made for television movie. If you can enjoy middle of the road, yet VERY well done, TV production values you should have no problems with this one. I wouldn't call it cyberpunk enough for the diehard fans of the genre, but don't let that stop you from enjoying the lighter side of it either. For the rest of you out there I say check it out, sit back, and enjoy what a good TV movie is supposed to be like.

Seconds parts dilemma!.......2006-02-20

Once upon a time a film whose title was Rollerball; directed by Norman Jewison and superbly starred by James Caan.

Two generations after in 1998 came Future sport, a picture which remains in the middle of the road respect its final intentions. Witch such fragile script and stylized characters where the emotional coordinates are blended with some here and there violent moments, the film does not achieve even a median stature.

The presence of Wesley snipes was the only reason to watch it, but pitifully he was absolutely wasted in a secondary role.

Too much noise and few walnuts.

lovemovies.......2005-08-03

I liked this movie, it has Dean Cain which is a major plus. It has lots of action and the game was very interesting. The plot could have been a little better. Loved Wesley Snipes' character. He was great as the leader of the down zone. I would recommend it to any one who loved sports, conflicts and a good fight for what is right.

Not much of a future for this "Sport"..........2003-11-23

You know, I just love readin' the blurbs on the backs of video boxes, and then watching the video to see how well the presentation lives up to the praise. Unfortunately, 'Future Sport' didn't live up to its words of kindness very well; I especially got a kick out of the statement about it being "highly original". Since when has a sports-related flick that combines just about all the cliches and hackneyed moments youï've ever encountered in sports-related flicks wrapped around a so-called "futuristic" team sport (like duh, right?) that's a bald-faced rip-off of the Rollerball game (the original, not that awful re-make) and featuring characters that came right outta the 'Mad Max' trilogy considered original? And while we're at it, why not set it in a dystopic society, which we've only seen before in, what, a zillion sci-fi mo-pics since the classic silent film 'Metropolis' first hit the big screen? Even the most derivative Rocky sequel has less rehashed material than this load of pap! Throw in acting performances that would've made 'Baywatch' and 'Walker, Texas Ranger' look Emmy-worthy in comparison, badly edited sports-action scenes, really weak trash talking, and some of the most horribly-choreographed hand-to-hand fighting scenes ever imprinted on celluloid, and you have a show that's almost completely unwatchable, yet strangely compelling at the same time.

Starring Dean Cain as FutureSport star Jonathan E-- no wait, that was the starring character of the original Rollerball as played by James Caan. Okay, retake in 3, 2, 1: Starring Dean Cain as... umm... dang, I forgot his character's name. Which is an interesting coincidence, considering most of the rest of this mo-pic is rather forgettable as well. All right, take three in 3, 2, 1: Starring Dean Cain in one of his more notable (heh) post-Lois and Clark projects, FutureSport is proof positive the Superman curse is still alive and kickin'. And what's with co-star Vanessa Williams adding the middle initial "L" to her marquee? Sheesh, talk about pretentious-- especially when you take into account the fact her acting wouldn't have passed muster on VIP. But the guy whose presence I can't explain for the life of me is Wesley Snipes. How the hey did they manage to corral him into executive-producing and starring in this train wreck? Was it a way for him to get out of a less-than favorable contract? Did he lose a bet? Maybe the director had compromising photos of him with some cattle? In any case, his performance as the Rastafarian inventor of FutureSport was pretty hokey. I especially enjoyed his silly attempt at a Jamaican accent, as well as his being billed as a "special guest star". Yeah, he's "special", all right-- in the short-bus-riding sense if he's agreeing to do movies like this!

'Late

Update- September 24, 2004: It has come to my attention that the reason Vanessa Williams added the "L" to her name was not due to pretentiousness, but because of Screen Actors Guild rules regarding different actors sharing the same name. I apologize for this erroneous and somewhat obnoxious presumption.

The movie still blows, by the way...

'Late