In theaters

ROLLERBALL, directed by John McTiernan, written by Larry Ferguson and John Pogue, based on the short story and screenplay by William Harrison, 98 minutes, rated PG-13.

John McTiernan’s much-delayed thriller “Rollerball” is one of those movies you never quite forget – which is why, I suppose, we have psychotherapy, mood-enhancing prescription drugs and neighborhood bars to help us cope.

Based on the 1975 original starring James Caan and Maud Adams, this new version, from a script by Larry Ferguson and John Pogue, is determined to overlook everything that made its inspiration so prescient.

Instead of exploring why pop culture is fascinated with extreme sports, it’s only content to exploit the violence and the blood within the sport. Instead of focusing on how these sports are shaped and fueled by major corporations, it overlooks their influence in favor of featuring a string of headbanging, heavy-metal riffs.

The film stars Chris Klein as Jonathan, a fresh-faced kid from San Francisco who leaves his meaningless life in the states to become a meaningless sports star in Kazakhstan, a post-communist bloc country that’s absolutely certain its ticket to free trade rests with the game of Rollerball.

I want you to think about that for a minute. It’s a revelation that will either make you laugh or cry.

For those who haven’t seen the film’s trailer or television ads, the game of Rollerball is a wild cross between motocross, lacrosse, roller derby, polo and the World Wrestling Federation. It’s so cutthroat, it could give the XFL – or figure skating, for that matter – a run for its ruble.

Running the show in Kazakhstan is the evil Petrovich (Jean Reno), a mustache-twirling, nouveau-capitalist with a perpetual sneer who’s determined to turn Rollerball into a smash success. His ultimate goal is to snag a U.S. cable television deal, but in order to pull that off, Petrovich feels he must do what any soulless individual working in television management would do – he undermines his players in the name of ratings.

In this case, that means making the game as violent as possible, a shrewd business move that lifts the show’s ratings to meteoric heights. Petrovich’s problem? Oddly enough, none of his players is willing to sacrifice their lives so Petrovich can get rich.

With LL Cool J as an accountant-turned-Rollerball superstar and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos as a Russian minx whose performance suggests she worked for scale and a case of Stoli, “Rollerball” takes its place beside “Battlefield Earth” as one of the worst movies Hollywood has shucked out in the past five years.

As “Roller Boogie” is my witness, they don’t make them any worse than this.

Grade: F

On video and DVD

HEARTS IN ATLANTIS, directed by Scott Hicks, written by William Goldman, based on the book by Stephen King, 101 minutes, rated PG-13.

Scott Hicks’ “Hearts in Atlantis” is a nostalgic, pop-culture dream, a coming-of-age film whose memories of the past are wrapped in such humid, honey-dipped hues, the harsher realities of the world, for the most part, are kept carefully at bay.

Based on “Low Men in Yellow Coats” and “Heavenly Shades of Night Are Falling,” two stories from Stephen King’s best-selling book, “Hearts in Atlantis,” the film, set during the summer of 1960, is about small-town America and the end of childhood innocence.

It seems tailor-made for difficult times, a warm-and-fuzzy confection of pseudo-deep introspections, life-affirming moments and twinkling mysticism that only occasionally brings down the room with such downers as unhappiness, tragedy and despair.

That’s a big departure from King’s deeper, more introspective and interesting book, which spans 40 years and examines how Vietnam affected its characters’ lives. But Hicks, working from a screenplay by William Goldman, nevertheless sustains interest, overcoming the film’s forced supernatural elements and its undeveloped feel with likable characters and a handful of strong performances from an excellent cast.

Told in flashback, the film follows Bobby Garfield (Anton Yelchin), an 11-year-old boy whose life gets a lift when the mysterious sage, Ted Brautigan (Anthony Hopkins), takes the apartment above Bobby’s home.

For Bobby, the relationship is a blessing. With his father dead and his difficult, self-absorbed mother (Hope Davis) too busy hating the world to be emotionally available to her son, Bobby needs the older man’s friendship and guidance, which he receives in the film’s best, truest scenes.

But when the movie hits its midpoint and Ted starts to drift into a weird hypnotic daze, his eyes glossing over as he mumbles something about a group of “low men” out to get him for his psychic powers, the film skips a beat as Goldman’s script sinks into a supernatural fog.

“Hearts in Atlantis” is being compared to other King adaptations, particularly “Stand By Me,” “The Shawshank Redemption” and “The Green Mile,” but it doesn’t have their scope or emotional range. Still, it does score when Hicks captures what King does so well, such as the magic of Bobby’s relationship with his first love, Carol Gerber (Mika Boorem), and the vivid snapshots of childhood’s bittersweet end.

Grade: B

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, Tuesdays on “NEWS CENTER at 5” and Thursdays on “NEWS CENTER at 5:30” on WLBZ-2 and WCSH-6. He can be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.

The Video/DVD Corner

Renting a video or a DVD? NEWS film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases in video stores.

Hearts in Atlantis ? B

Life Without Dick ? D

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin ? D

Ghost World ? A

Lost & Delirious ? C-

Atlantis: The Lost Empire ? C

The Curse of the Jade Scorpion ? B-

Lisa Picard is “Famous” ? B

Kiss of the Dragon ? B-

Rock Star ? B

American Pie 2 ? C+

Bubble Boy ? F

Glitter ? D

Sound and Fury ? A

Jeepers Creepers ? D

The Fast and the Furious ? B

The Glass House ? C

Greenfingers ? B-

What’s the Worse that Could

Happen ? D

The Center of the World ? C

Evolution ? D-

Two Can Play That Game ? C+

Moulin Rouge ? A-

The Princess Diaries ? C+

Scary Movie 2 ? D

Hedwig and the Angry Inch ? A

Jurassic Park III ? B-

Rush Hour 2 ? D

The Score ? B

American Outlaws ? F

Ghost of Mars ? C-

Pearl Harbor ? D

Summer Catch ? C-

Bread and Roses ? A-

Divided We Fall ? A

Made ? B

Pootie Tang ? D+

Osmosis Jones ? C-

Dr. Suess’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas ? D+

Planet of the Apes ? C-

America’s Sweethearts ? D+

crazy/beautiful ? B

Tomb Raider ? D+

Doctor Zhivago (DVD debut) ? A-

The Golden Bowl ? C+

Legally Blonde ? B+

Shrek ? A-