SYNOPSIS:
In 2025, FUTURESPORT is the organized sport of the planet. But others are getting organized and their game is war. Now superstar athlete Tre Ramzey has more than the weight of his over-inflated ego to carry. He's in this game on behalf of the world.
MOVIE REVIEW:
Can you recall which movies you watched in the year 1998?
Academy Award winners Saving Private Ryan and Shakespeare in Love perhaps or Michael Bay’s Armageddon? Chances are you wouldn’t have caught this direct-to-video title called Future Sport.
This dated release stars Dean Cain (Lois & Clark), Vanessa Williams (Ugly Betty) and Wesley Snipes (need no further introduction I guess) in a story set in the year 2025. Cain plays Tremaine Ramzey, a hotshot player turns hero who manages to save the world by challenging the terrorists to a game of Futuresport to end the discord. Williams plays a reporter and apparently, Ramzey’s love interest while Snipes who produced and starred in this telemovie plays Fixx, the creator of Futuresport with a Predator-like hairstyle. Besides Cain, Williams and Snipes, Futuresport also spot a few familiar faces including HK actress Valerie Chow whose character hails from Singapore and Francoise Yip (Rumble in the Bronx).
Consider the political climate after the heinous attacks of 911, you might snigger at the ludicrous attempt by the screenwriters here. On the other hand, if the U.S. government had the hindsight to watch this movie, well they could have challenged the terrorists to a game of Futuresport and voilà there won’t be so much sufferings aftermath.
As to what is Futuresport, it’s actually a revolutionary and more energized version of ice hockey (pardon me as I’m not much of a sports fan so this is the best description I can come up with) where players hopped onto hoverboards (Michael J. Fox popularized it in Back to the Future II) and score by throwing electrified metallic ball of sorts.
Somehow the story or should I say the action sets get better as the plot progresses. With a limited budget on hand aided by some cheesy effects, the match sequences turn relatively violent towards the end though not too gratuitous. The one actor that literally saves the day is none other than Cain himself despite the unbelievable amount of bad writing he has to spout. This guy totally rules as the protagonist with his easy onscreen charisma. Snipes though credited as special appearance did managed to be likeable.
Future Sport is no Academy Award production nor even matches a Michael Bay’s action flick yet you can simply write it off as guilty pleasure even it’s more than a decade old. We seen worse stuff, trust me.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
This Code 3 DVD contains only the trailer.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
The Dolby Digital 2.0 does not mellow over time and it proves to be pretty bombastic during the action sequences. Again, the visual transfer is acceptable though it does look grainy at certain junctures. For a 1998 release, the audio and visual transfer suffices.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD
RATING:
Review by Linus Tee
Posted on 1 September 2009
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