Futuresport (TV Movie 1998) Poster

(1998 TV Movie)

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3/10
Ding Dong Diddley......
FlashCallahan23 March 2013
Warning: Spoilers
Dean Cain plays the greatest player of the titular game, which has overtaken soccer, baseball, and other sports as the sport of the world.

Wesley Snipes invented the game, and its clear he's the richest and most important character, as he executive produced this and is credited as special guest appearance.

There is some plot regarding Hawaii and a bloke with a silly tattoo, trying to overthrow something, so Cain decides the only way to sort this out is by having one big game, and the winner decides what happens to the loser.

Take The Running Man and a lot of Rollerball, the 2002 version, and you have this little movie, nothing amazing here, and no good acting, but it really needs to be seen just for Snipes awful Jamaican accent.

The plot is destroyed by poor narrative, and even though Cain proves he should be more recognised as a star, he cannot save this drivel.

It's clear it's a TV movie, as we are treated to the pauses that would cue a commercial, and the effects are the pits.

I really only saw this to hear Snipes say 'Ding Dong Diddly' , and expected nothing more.
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5/10
Cain and unable
hwg1957-102-2657046 May 2017
Warning: Spoilers
In the not too distant future (2025) the game of Futuresport that originated in deprived streets of the city is now a worldwide phenomenon. Eventually to stave off a war two hotshot teams play on behalf of two political superpowers and the winners take the glory and the prize, which in this case is....Hawaii. Alongside this the Hawaii Liberation Organisation (!) are up to no good. Take a bit of 'Blade Runner' and mix in with a large part of 'Rollerball' and out comes an uninteresting concoction that fails on most levels. Even the game itself is dull. Apparently for a TV film it had a high budget but it doesn't show.

Dean Cain as the most popular player Tre Ramzey is not likable and JR Bourne as the terrorist Sythe with a tattooed face just looks silly. The other players don't have much character. The only thing worthwhile is to hear Wesley Snipes in a hilarious Jamaican accent saying absurd lines of dialogue like "dead man can't earn dada" and what undoubtedly will become a treasured line. "My people don't give a ding dong diddley."
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4/10
A pretty good action-movie
Sisko H.11 May 1999
Futuresport is a movie with famous actors and actresses, e.g Wesley Snipes. The direction is not bad, but the special effects are great for a TV movie. The idea of this movie is not very interesting and intelligent, but the movie has a good atmosphere and is amusing. If you want to watch a movie without any intelligent content, you should watch Futuresport. Marking: *** (******)
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Not great but not too bad, shows depressing vision of future
vchimpanzee7 April 2009
The 2025 Futuresport championship game is being played in New Orleans. Meanwhile, the Hawaii Liberation Organization (Hilo) is causing trouble not just in Hawaii but also outside the arena.

The L.A. Rush is playing the Berlin Griffins. Trey Ramzey is the top player in the sport and he knows it. That cocky attitude is going to cost his team one of these days.

Becker is a rival from Trey's days at Notre Dame, and a member of the Berlin team. Anarchy and Mayhem are teammates of Trey's. Lorelei is Trey's tough-looking short-haired current girlfriend. Alex is Trey's former girlfriend, a reporter who has been taken off the assignment of the Hawaii secession movement to cover the game.

What is Futuresport? Years ago, Ramzey was a star basketball player, but a scandal led to the end of pro basketball. Ramzey started playing a similar game invented by Fixx, a Caribbean-sounding dude with dreadlocks. He started as a street player around 2015 but quickly became a professional as the sport became the nation's favorite. The arena is oval-shaped and high on the sides like a halfpipe, with an elevated area in the middle from which a cannonball-sized ball is shot out of ... well, let's call it a cannon. On each end of the court is a hole, and the player's objective is to put the ball in that hole. There seems to be a goalkeeper with a kind of net who blocks shots, but the shots come so fast he hardly ever succeeds. Each team has five players on the court at once, dressed sort of like people do in hockey, but with hovering skateboards rather than skates. They go around the court in a counterclockwise direction. And the sport is coed.

What else is different in this world? The entire city of New Orleans looks like Times Square, and some of the display ads on the buildings talk.

People have "bedwalls". That's sort of like TV, but in this world, TV, telephones and the Internet seem to be one and the same (a portable version resembles a wristwatch). The game is covered live on Zeitsite. Trey lives in a fabulous apartment run by a computer named Edgar. When he checks his telephone messages, he uses the same screen that appears to be a TV, where he can usually see the caller too. Edgar also screens his calls. He has a personality which is quite appealing, and a sarcastic attitude when one is needed.

After the game, Alex wants Trey to use his fame and his Hawaiian heritage to influence those threatening war. Honolulu already looks like Beirut of the 1980s. Pacific nations and the U.S. military are supporting the two sides, if it comes to that. Trey's solution: a game of Futuresport where the winner gets the islands! Trey and Becker end up on the same team, which gives us some much-needed comedy relief. Jet, one of the top Hilo figures, plays for the other team.

This isn't a great movie, but it has an interesting vision of the future, which is not always depressing because there are some pleasant moments. There is some violence, which is to be expected, and the weapons are more advanced than what we have today. Also some scenes of couples in bed, bt nothing too explicit.

Dean Cain has some good scenes, mostly where he is a bad boy in front of the camera, and where he is more of a Clark Kent type alone with Alex. But he's not consistent.

Vanessa L. Williams mostly does a good job. She looks good--if you like her with pink hair.

Wesley Snipes is probably the best actor--since he's not Caribbean, to my knowledge, although he is usually sarcastic in his roles.

David Kaye is no Al Michaels, but he has his moments as Ronny Vance, the game announcer for Zeitsite. I hesitate to call him a TV announcer because, well, there seems to be no distinction between the web and broadcasting. The visual effects are interesting--Vance sometimes appears on the court, but he's not really there because players pass right through him. Game statistics and even replays also appear right on the court.

Most of the visual effects, however, do appear to be just that. New Orleans is quite a different place. This was filmed before Katrina, but it would have been just as big a change regardless.

It's an okay movie if you like seeing what the future might be like, and if you like the stars.
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1/10
If you have 2 hours of your life to waste...
yomikey6178 February 2009
If you could morph "Saved By The Bell" or "Guiding Light" into a Science Fiction flick then Future Sport would be the result. But know that Saved by the Bell and Guiding Light are worthy of Oscar Awards when compared to Future Sport. Yes... Future Sport is really that bad.

I'm not much of a Science Fiction fan, but this movie is beyond awful. If you enjoy feeling embarrassed for actors/actresses/directors and/or watching bad movies for the fun of it and/or building up your memory of bad one-liners then this movie could be a fun watch.

I would say this movie could be enjoyable for children, but then there are plenty of "light curse words" injected into the script (mostly words like damn, hell, and the like) and there are some soap opera like adult situations. Better yet... If your children watch this movie and actually enjoy it, then you have clearly failed as a parent.
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2/10
Terrible made for TV rollerball rip off.
torrascotia2 March 2022
It's takes a special kind of production company to make a movie ripping off Rollerball with Wesley Snipes boring. It's obvious what this movie is about and none of the main cast are unknowns. So how did they manage to make this so dull and unengaging?

This was made by the guy who made the hood classic Juice so you would think it would at least be an average action movie.

FYI this has just appeared on Amazon Prime where it has an over rated 3.5 out of 5.

Don't waste your time.....
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2/10
Bland Rollerball copy
Leofwine_draca20 July 2016
Warning: Spoilers
I guess the producers of this one hoped that everybody had forgotten about ROLLERBALL - after all, twenty-three years is a long time. Yep, what we have here is a cheap and tacky rip-off, with none of that film's originality or intelligence. Instead FUTURESPORT is a typically bland television movie, filled with boring characters emoting, bad action scenes, and a reliance on gadgets and special effects instead of the more important things, like telling a original or interesting story. I really do hate films like this, and it's a real effort to sit through them when I do have the misfortune of catching them on television (I wouldn't dream of renting or buying this, and you shouldn't either).

Dean Cain does his usual nice-but-dumb hero role and is as vapid as the rest of the movie. Vanessa Williams is the supposed love interest but her role is a pointless one - what's the point of her character? What does she do except get kidnapped by bad guys? One can only wonder what Wesley Snipes was doing caught up in this rubbish as well (coming a year after the excellent U.S. MARSHALLS too), and for some reason he also acted as an executive producer! The rest of the cast all look pretty like catalogue models but none of them can make their characters more than unconvincing clichés.

The future (supposedly 2525) looks very much like today, except with the added attraction of computerised households and lots of digital displays up in the cities. The sport of the title is very close to the one in ROLLERBALL, except this time the players levitate on flying skateboards (yes, its as dumb as it sounds) and don't have to kill each other. The special effects of people flying are very poorly done and totally unconvincing. Action takes place outside of the rink in a couple of shoot-outs in mundane places like a warehouse and a shopping mall, where the poor editing and cheesy action (balls are used to knock out the baddies) ruin any excitement you may have expected.

Despite being R-rated, the film doesn't offer up much in the way of exploitation staples either. Nudity and language is kept to a minimum (good thing too, because when the latter is used it just sounds dumb), and the most violence is a scene of someone having his leg broken - but don't expect any blood or anything. Just what you would expect from a television movie really - watered-down entertainment for the masses. The film seems preoccupied by having silly literal jokes, like a cameraman who really is a camera-man: he has a camera sticking out of one of his eyes. There's also a computerised bug which is yeah, a bug. It quickly becomes tiring. And whoever decided on the Clinton reference obviously didn't realise how badly it would date his production. FUTURESPORT is a blandly boring television movie and a poorly-made one at that - skip it, and see ROLLERBALL instead. That's a full-blooded and intriguing futuristic sport movie and is about a million times better than this trash.
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1/10
Piece of rubbish - but good for a laugh
sambiggs410 August 2005
From looking at the DVD cover I could tell that this movie was going to be a bit rubbish, but nothing could prepare me for how bad it actually was! The acting was hopeless and the script was laughable. The special effects were a bit dodgy but thanks to this film, i'm no longer afraid of spiders. I did get some inspiration for doing my makeup from the bad guys of this film though - thanks dudes!

However,with the combination of Dean Cain's awful (and extremely cheesy)acting and Snipes' hilarious accent (I think it was supposed to be Caribbean)this movie provided me with one-and-a-half hours of laughter. I strongly recommend this film if you want a good laugh and have nothing better to do with your life.
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1/10
Waste of Time
AngelHonesty23 December 2019
There are no words to describe how bad this movie is.
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6/10
A fun made for TV action movie.
RoboRabbit8916 February 2018
I remember seeing this on TV back in the 90's when it was new and later seen it again on TV in 2004.

Dean Cain is one of my favorite TV movie actors, huge fan of "Lois and Clark" and he plays in some decent action movies, so I'm usually excited to see his latest projects.

"Future-sport" is a well made TV movie that is made to be escapist fun. I found this movie on VHS in 2015 and on DVD the same year from a video store, the concept is quite fresh similar to "Roller-ball" and I enjoy the way the game is played out and executed, my mom as well.

I also like the political themes, that by Dean's character playing the game, it replaces warfare instead of countries going to war.

Vanessa L. Williams is pretty good in this as a reporter and as Dean's love interest. I still haven't seen her in very much these days.

Wesley Snipes plays Fixx, an acquaintance to Dean's character who at on point was real friends with him, but Dean's character let fame get to his head and Fixx doesn't want him to forget, and at times brings him back to reality. Wesley is quite good as well, and serves as executive producer for this which is cool too.

Overall a decent TV movie that I find fun and quite underrated, and should be given more credit than it deserves.

I give it a 6.4/10. If you like science fiction b-movies, definitely see it.
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2/10
Cheesy rip-off almost unwatchable
gpaltrow200116 March 2007
Warning: Spoilers
A Rollerball rip-off, which isn't saying much. Bad acting, directing, writing, and low-budget effects. Instead of a 1 I gave this a 2, for Dean Cain's good attitude throughout this stinking ship. His charm definitely helps. The movie suffers from cheese overload, and becomes unintentionally funny. Chelsea Clinton is President! During a climactic game, Wesley Snipes wears a bicycle helmet over a Predator wig, lol. With the fate of millions riding on a game, there are about 12 fans watching. That's obviously all the budget allowed. There is a scene of fans of the team that just lost cheering! There is a brief shot of many, many fans that seemed to be taken from a major-league baseball stadium and inserted for false effect. The plot is predictable and outlandish. We've seen it in different forms way too many times. There are apparently no police or army quelling things; instead the players are armed and taking matters into their own clumsy hands! I really like Dean Cain, Wesley Snipes and Vanessa Williams, but not in this garbage.
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10/10
Jazzy, slick movie
LadyWolf-331 May 1999
This movie had all the key plot points, and was predictable, but the action was great and the scenes were well choreographed. Vanessa Williams brought a touch of class to it, and Dean Cain proved his potential as a leading man in the action genre. But of course, Wesley Snipes made the movie, as he usually does. Solid performances all around. A fun movie I'll definitely watch again.
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7/10
Not Bad for a Made-For-TV Movie
ivan_maldonado-125 April 2006
Futuresport was a made-for-TV movie that was shown on the ABC television network back in October 1998. The movie may not be Rollerball, but I liked how the production company added extra footage to give the movie an R rating. The only drawback is that the movie fades out at intervals, but that's because it was on TV. Anyway, the movie is action-packed and is somewhat political. The political aspect is for fans only, but so are the special effects and the entire storyline. The best way to get rid of that made-for-TV look is to watch it on DVD in widescreen format. However, the widescreen look is matted, but the DVD comes in both widescreen and fullscreen formats. Just check it out!
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1/10
Terrible
greg-nelson71116 March 2007
Warning: Spoilers
I have to admit that I have seen some truly awful movies in my life, but this one takes the cake. This movie took most of the respect I had for Snipes and killed it. There is nothing positive I can say. This is one of those movies that is so bad it is unintentionally funny. Between the acting, writing, directing, and special effects, there is not one positive. For instance, one exchange between Fixx and Sythe after Coach Douglas is killed by the mechanical spider goes as follows: "Fixx: Hell yeah, I hired you to make sure no one gets hurt. Sythe: Yeah. Fixx: Douglas is dead. Sythe: So?" That doesn't even make sense. As for the special effects, final game contains some of the fakest scenes I have ever seen. For instance, the leg break is clearly an empty pant leg with padding inside. Then there is the interception that Tre makes at the end of the game when he flies high above the court and his cheeks flap in the wind. Then, the worst of all is the back-flip/front-flip/barrel roll that Tre pulls off to tie the game. I cannot say enough bad things about this film.
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Great Ideas - Reasonable Movie
Bass221 October 2000
This is a movie that starts off terrible and brings itself up to being an enjoyable movie at a steady pace. Built around some very good ideas the concepts surrounding the actual sport are well thought out and contain a degree of credibility. Anyone who knows of the game 'Hyperblade' will probably see the similarities

Don't watch this movie hoping for large numbers of sport sequences because the truth is there are only a few but they are really good. The plot is average and cliches are thrown in but it all comes together without too many loose ends and there is a degree of satisfaction to the ending.

Dean Cain ends up doing a good job in the lead role but it is the character played by Wesly Snipes that you really end up loving.

If you like the scifi/sport genre give it a go, otherwise wait for it to appear on TV - don't hire a video you probably won't enjoy.
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1/10
Sub-par movie.
CitizenK-32 January 1999
Judging by the ratings of the film, there is serious doubt "Futuresport" will return as a television series. I had a difficult time believing the acting, especially during the first hour, and the (so-called) plot. Perhaps I'm being too harsh, but "Futuresport" does not deserve a rating over 5. Poor choice by Dean Cain in accepting the role of Tre Ramsey.

CitizenK-3
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1/10
dreadful to the extreme
stacey-dimples-198223 August 2006
Although i am a big fan of Wesley snipes' work i have to say that i was VERY disappointed with this film. The acting was absolutely dreadful and to be honest with you i honestly didn't expect to find out that he had produced the movie too-come on - i thought he had better taste than that!!!!! As for the accent, i nearly fell of my chair laughing! What was the point of that? Was it supposed to have some form of influence on the characters? with the Jamaican accent and the sucking the teeth? personally i would say this film was dire to the extreme and as for the story itself....... pathetic!!! I found it excruciatingly painful to watch and the ego of Dean Cain not only matched his characters ego but actually overrode it.

Don't waste your time unless you have a strange sense of humour and can actually laugh at this films utter 'pathetic-ness'.
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10/10
Great film both as SciFi and sports-film
cdeanfan25 November 1998
I liked the setting of an old sports theme placed in future with

global war on horizon. The sports theme harkens back to M. Rooney and a film called fireball -very old but is basically about playing to be the star of the game vs learning to be a team player. Dean Cain was superb in the role. Using the game to solve a territorial dispute was also interesting. The game itself was believable given advances in technology. Wesley Snipes and Vanessa Williams were also good but the film was Dean's and he pulled it off very well.
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If you were in the future, what would you call your sport?
gcd170726 April 2004
Warning: Spoilers
Pop quiz: if you had invented a groundbreaking new sport in your present, what would you call it?

Futuresport provides that answer with, of course, the game of futuresport. Futuresport, the game of our future in case you still didn't figure that part out from the title, is a mixture of handball and rollerblading which started on the streets and now, in 2025, has been co-opted by corporate America. While there are still street futuresporters, the pros are clean cut, effeminate, money grabbing glory seekers (and who better to play that role than prettyboy Dean Cain).

As it turns out, Hawaii is trying to secede from the union and the only way to prevent this without the use of military force is a winner take all game of futuresport between the clean shaven pros and the down and dirty Hawaiian liberation street ballers. The finale is a climactic battle royale between the pros and the ex-cons with a surprising role reversal by the founder of Futuresport, played by Wesley Snipes. From that point you can guess who wins.

While this sounds like a premise with immense negative potential for bad filmmaking, in the end Futuresport is simply mediocre, not mindnumbingly awful. There is decent production quality, the acting is passable, and the storyline predictable, but logical. Other than the title and premise, a bad, but not especially memorable film is the result.
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8/10
Movie is above average compared to movies today and definitely rewatchable...
julianmarku29 January 2022
This movie has so much good working for it. The cinematographer was very good. The movie feels futuristic without feeling cheap expect maybe in a few scenes where the CGI is definitely showing it's budget.

But almost every cast member in this movie does its job so well. The movie combines that futuristic taste with ridiculous scifi tropes.

No one in this movie takes it so seriously as to break the immersion, everyone is having fun. And every actor is a young and beautiful and athletic. This definitely feels like the golden age of movies when they were just entertainment and they did not take themselves seriously.

But this could only take the movie to a 7. The reason I gave it an 8 was because this movies made jokes that I did not believe were ever talked about back then: japanese slurs like "baka"(writers must have been anime fans because that is when anime exploded for the first time), patriarchy, macho jokes, artificial intelligence, mobile phones with camers, smartwatches, minorities and the protecting the streets. Basically a lot of tropes but what I learned was that things move cyclically in the culture or society.

Also doesn't hurt that the 3 main character in this movie became rebels in Hollywood and I respect that this movie even has the carbon copy of Cumberbatch just shorter and thinner.

All in all I can say: this movie could not be made today and anything that can't be remade better deserves another point.
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It was a great film
Ringo-113 November 1998
I can't say enough good stuff about this movie. It was the best TV movie I have ever seen and I hope it comes back as a series.
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8/10
Excellent, more than just a genre film!
Gabby-219 July 1999
I thoroughly enjoyed this film. there was enough action to keep the "action" fan going and enough story for the story fan. Characterization was excellent, better than most films of this type. Best comparison, James Caan's ROLLERBALL. High quality and good story.
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Similar to Rollerball '75 - Well worth a look see
bfindley29 October 2000
7 Years after Rollerball (2025 AD) - The Sport "Future Sport"

( a combination of Extreme Rolelr Skating and Shot Put) has taken over the world. The Los Angeles teams meets Berlin in the finals in New Orleans and are in fact favored. The game however is a Berlin Upset due to one L A player more intrested in individual records than team work. Yet in the meantime , a Pacific Island terrorist group (with it's own F S team) is planning to withdraw the Pacific Islands from North American soverignty, and actually draw up their own Declaration of Independence, not recognizing the results of the 2024 A D North American Elections. Fixx, the inventor of the game (Wesley Snipes) inititally invented the game after basketball completely and suddenly collapsed (As a way for street gangs to solve their turf battles in a more socially acceptable manner) yet dons the uniform to help the North American Continental Mainland Future Sport Team versus Honolulu. If Honoluulu Wins, Hawaii and the Pacific islands win their own soverignty. No questions asked. Check it out.
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9/10
great film
tricia-165 November 1999
This film shows that Dean Cain can play other roles apart from Clark Kent. I thought he was excellent and that this film is amasing. I love the action combined with the romance and the fact that Tre (who starts the film as being arrogant) learns how to become a team player. Dean Cain must have had an enjoyable time making this film as he appears totally relaxed and at ease in the role. Wesley Snipes and Vanessa Williams were good co-stars.
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Fun
bjnash29 June 1999
I thought it was a fun movie to watch. Kind of mindless entertainment. Anybody who likes this should see the great Sci fi movie Rollerball. This movie pales in comparison, but judged on it's own Futuresport is a fun 90 minutes of entertainment.
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