Across the Universe: Let the games begin

Are you still craving big-time sports action now that the Super Bowl has come and gone? Are you antsy for baseball to get started? Are the NHL and the NBA not enough to satisfy your jock itch?

Fear not, friends, because even here at geeky old Parallel Universe, we can provide relief. How about a little sci-fi to go with your sports? While you await the start of spring training (and in case the NHL goes on strike again), here are some of our favorite sci-fi sports movies to help you through. Each and every one is a home run. Or a field goal. Or something.

"The Gladiators" (1969): A lot of the movies on this list have similar themes, and it may have all started with this obscure work from iconoclastic director Peter Watkins. In order to avoid global war, the world's powers stage international "peace games" consisting of violent battles fought by teams of teenagers, broadcast around the world to great popularity. Sound vaguely familiar?

"Rollerball" (1975): A movie that has become more relevant with each passing year, "Rollerball" creates a future where the world is ruled by one gigantic corporation -- which keeps the populace distracted with the increasingly violent game Rollerball. James Caan is the game's biggest star, whose individual achievements threaten the stability of the corporate state. Don't even get within a football field's length of the 2002 remake.

"Death Race 2000" (1975): In a dystopian future America, the fascist theocracy government keeps the people entertained by the title sporting event, a transcontinental race in which the goal is to mow down as many pedestrians as possible for points. David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone star in this violent Roger Corman-produced satire that has justifiably become a cult classic. Avoid the 2008 remake (and its two sequels!)

 "Robot Jox" (1990): Stuart Gordon ("Re-Animator") directs this weird, rickety tale of a post-nuclear world in which giant human-piloted robots battle each other as a means of defusing conflict between the two remaining world powers. Some of the more violent scenes were cut for release but restored for DVD, and the movie's influence has been felt on works ranging from a Nine Inch Nails song to Guillermo del Toro's upcoming "Pacific Rim."

"Battle Royale" (2000): A future Japanese government takes 40 high school students and sets them loose on an island, where they must kill one another until only one is left standing. Brutally violent, "Battle" didn't see a proper Stateside release for years, until the popularity of a certain very similar film starring Jennifer Lawrence finally prompted someone to release it.

"Speed Racer" (2008): Is this really sci-fi? The Wachowskis' candy-colored fantasia is set in some sort of strange alternate world for sure (just like pretty much all films based on Japanese anime), which adds a whole new dimension to the fairly exciting auto racing high jinks. At least it's a post-apocalyptic dystopia for a nice change of pace.

"Real Steel" (2011): A few decades from now, human beings have been replaced in the boxing ring by robots. Down-on-his-luck trainer Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman) needs one last chance to win -- but first has to construct a new robot, with the help of his formerly estranged young son. Earnest and often sentimental, "Real Steel" (based on a Richard Matheson story that was also the basis of a classic "Twilight Zone" episode) is still lively and satisfying.

"The Hunger Games" (2012): Here's that little Jennifer Lawrence movie we spoke about earlier, which you may have heard about. We're back to the future, where the totalitarian government of the 12 districts formerly known as the U.S. keeps its grip on the people by staging annual to-the-death combat events starring teens. In the world of science fiction sports (just like real sports), the more the games change, the more they stay the same.