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 egoto carry. He’s in this game on behalf of the world. Dean Cain and Vanessa L. Williams star and Wesley Snipes makes a special guest appearance in this highly original, turbo-charged sci-fi thrill ride.

Shades of Rollerball! Director Ernest Dickerson and executive producer Wesley Snipes ponder the sport of the future and come up with… Futuresport, a combination of handball, ice hockey, and skateboard hot-dogging begun as an inner-city alternative to gang warfare and transformed into a glitzy media sensation. Dean Cain stars as the reigning Futuresport hero, a cocky glory hound who counts his cash and “popularity index” ratings with a smug grin until his narcissism costs him the championship game. As a ruthless terrorist group pushes the world to the brink of war, the suddenly altruistic Cain hatches a plan to bring Futuresport back to its roots. With the help of reporter (and former flame) Vanessa Williams and the game’s creator (a rastah-inflected Snipes, who gives himself the film’s best role), Cain proposes a winner-take-all game to settle the territorial dispute. Beefy former TV “Superman” Cain makes a better reformed hero than a snotty superstar and looks great in the game scenes, but Snipes steals the film with his funky turn as the inner-city guru with more on his mind than the game. Dickerson gives this TV film a handsome look and even injects a little grit into the otherwise bland screenplay, but apart from the zippy game scenes (which Dickerson films with an electrified energy), it’s a familiar and rather flat bit of science fiction hokum. Footage containing violence and brief nudity has been added for home video. –Sean Axmaker