Rollover (1981)

Such a frustrating disappointment

Best movie ever!

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

WOW! This is a case of a film that needs to be resurrected among publics right now because it's final message resonates truer than anything with the whole current financial world going to the drains. The script was saying some hard truths back in 1981, no one listened and in 2008, almost three decades later something happened almost exactly the same way Hume Cronyn's character described it was going to happen: riots, stagnation, panic. Well, not much like the one of 1929 but a little closer to that. The context in which "Rollover" was presented was completely different however, Cold War was in it full course and Socialism was still surviving and fighting against the powers of Capitalism. The economical crisis that will happen in this film comes from an Arab oil organization (allied with some American bankers) who has a gigantic masterplan that is going to bring chaos in the world economy.But until we get there, we follow the story of a former actress (Jane Fonda) who married the Chairman and primary stockholder of a chemical company, recently murdered, that not only investigates his strange murder but also tries to deal with his business by joining forces with a financier (Kris Kristofferson) who recently was appointed as new president of a large bank that seems to going under a lot of trouble. While their relationship goes from the economic level to more intimate levels, a huge operation is being made with their investments that could cause a financial collapse."Rollover" looks at too many directions but doesn't see enough, it doesn't have a complete view on anything as a film. It goes as a financial thriller, a political thriller with some cheesy romance and as a drama. Problem is that there's far too many things to make anyone uninterested of seeing this when it could be something remarkably brilliant if the writers or director Alan J. Pakula decided for just one route to follow through. While the affair between Fonda and Kristofferson has its good moments when it's not becoming distractive, the thrilling parts of this are so few and the economics jargon are so many that the ultimate thing for this is a film hard to follow.But it gets worse before it gets better as some say. The greatest surprise is reserved for its final minutes with the inevitable crisis going ahead. I don't know if back in '81 something like this could happen but now, we know, it can happen and it did! It's realistic and shocking how this film managed (in a way, not completely though) to see how our world would become with all this lousy speculations. 30 years later and the impact of its crash is hitting us just now. Well made, nicely presented and well acted, with some weak moments here and there but very good to watch. Extremely relevant! 7/10

Funny how art ultimately imitates life. This movie is like a Nostradomus vision of our current economic situation. Only difference is that the villains aren't Arabs, we just have to look in to the mirror to see who did it to us. Time to buy gold? Time to stock up on emergency provisions? Ebay's founder, PIERRE OMIDYAR, moved to Hawaii but has contingency plans in case of pandemic or economic collapse. See: The Honolulu Advertiser, article on front page of March, 22, 2009. It is a real hoot to see how a billionaire views the world!So don't forget to stock up on food and water, and if you can't afford a security detail of ex-secret service agents, find yourself a good firearm to protect you and your loved ones.

Possibly attempting to do for the world of finance what she'd done to nuclear power in "The China Syndrome"(1979), this Jane Fonda melodrama is a poor investment for any serious movie fan.The story is very hard to follow and poorly constructed with shallow characters. The story is not terribly easy to grasp for the average person in my opinion and not presented to the audience clearly enough-nor well enough to garner much interest and/or curiosity. Fonda appears bored, while still trying to appear smart and glamorous, in her role. Kris Kristofferson is simply a case of very bad casting. Despite some efforts to make him physically appear like a big-time banker, he comes off flat and stiff in his role. Whether talking down a bank president or talking Fonda into bed, all his lines are delivered in a blank monotone style that conveys nothing. We also are never given much background or motivation for the events and doings of the people wandering about this epic of high finance. Fonda and Kristofferson's first meeting isn't much of an icebreaker, yet the two are bedding down together by their second or third encounter.The film is directed by Alan J. Pakula and it looks much like other works for him. Secret meetings in parking lots and suspect late night boardroom conferences may appear to be the things that make up a good thriller, but here they are simply padding between the great nothingness that amounts to two-hours of dull slow paced cliche filled dialog from weak characters that you never grow to care much about. The movie's heavy-handed and overly-dramatic musical score makes many scenes nearly laughable.There's little to recommended beyond those morbidly curious to see a bad movie, which is why I obtained a copy of it. On that level, it does pay a modest dividend.

Maltin's summary of the film is idiotic. Clearly a case of 'saw the film, didn't understand it, decided to bash it.' That's his loss. Anyone who's ever read 'Das Kapital,' Marx's massive 3-volume (he died before completing the last volume, but it still got up to be around 1,000 pages) masterpiece would immediately recognize in 'Rollover' Marx's assertion that the capitalist system is doomed to self-destruct. That by its very nature it will bring about that thing which it despises most--the world socialist revolution. Marx said that we will see capitalism's boom-then-bust cycle grow increasingly more impossible to control, until it hits a 'low' so deep, so wide-reaching, that workers everywhere will unite and say, 'HEY! This isn't right.' The Great Depression is an example of one such 'deep low' in capitalism's cycle. 'Rollover' is a vision of the next such deep pit. Of how it comes about, in any case. Don't read the next bit if you don't want a spoiler, but the last scenes in the film are of the world proletariat rallying in public places, defying state authority...gearing up to rebel, in other words. That's about as Marxist as you can get! And you don't have to be a dork like me and read 'Das Kapital' to understand it. Maltin...didn't put the thought-effort into this one. And that's a shame, because I think it's a film that's very germane to American life. We think we have it good, and we'll always have it good, because this is the US of A. We have the FDIC now, we'll be all right. That's nonsense!! Maltin called 'Rollover' "financial science fiction." However imprecise that clumsy label might seem, there's a grain of truth to it. For what is sci fi but 'the thing that might someday be?'