Dick Enberg · RewatchVault

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1988 film

Bill Simmons · Kyle Brandt

Aired July 2, 2024

Displaying 1 episode

Rollerball The Rewatchables August 12, 2025

Caan near his apex; invented fictional sports, burning pine trees, and making roller skating look cool: yes

In the discussion (8)

Approx. transcript time · 01:15:20Read transcript

James Caan is placed near his career apex because of his recent run, star status, and the film's commercial performance.
Rollerball wins the apex for invented fictional sports over Dodgeball.
Dick Enberg's film apex is rejected in favor of Heaven Can Wait.
Maud Adams is tentatively placed at her apex here because she was also a major model.
Norman Jewison's apex is debated among In the Heat of the Night, Moonstruck, and his late-1960s run.
Houston's sports-city apex is debated against the Hakeem Olajuwon Rockets and the Dan Pastorini-Earl Campbell era.
John Beck's apex is assigned to his sixty episodes of Dallas, and John Houseman's to The Paper Chase.
The film wins apexes for burning pine trees and for making roller skating look cool.

Rollerball The Rewatchables August 12, 2025

The invented sport, corporate critique, production design, pills, violence, and Enberg's call

In the discussion (6)

Approx. transcript time · 00:56:58Read transcript

The convincing design of Rollerball as a playable sport is the first Aged Best choice.
John Houseman's villain, the bright interiors, enormous televisions, pills, empty cityscape, and tracksuits are praised as durable parts of the imagined future.
The film's corporate-control metaphor and prediction of corporate branding are judged more resonant over time.
Book censorship and erased history are singled out as ideas that have aged well.
The film's anticipation of football violence is identified as another element that aged well.
Dick Enberg's game commentary is praised as an enduring strength.

Displaying all 2 discussions

1988