Monday, October 10, 2011

REAL STEEL

“REAL STEEL” (Hugh Jackman & Dakota Goyo)

AKA “Rock ‘em, Sock em Robots – The Movie”.
Set a mere nine years in the future, “Real Steel” takes place in 2020 & Charlie Kenton (Jackman) is a washed up ex-boxer that had a mediocre-at-best career & has delved into the ‘robot boxing’ biz that has taken America by storm (albeit mostly in remote backwoods places like run-down county fairs & dilapidated zoos)
Charlie is a hopeless ‘get rich quick’ schemer who always over-estimates the capabilities of his robots & always gets them destroyed – Thanks also in part to his lackadaisical operating skills. In the first robo-fight we see, Charlie’s latest acquisition is pitted against a live rodeo bull. The robot has the match well in hand until Charlie gets distracted by a hot little number in the stands that keeps winking at him. Charlie loses the bout & his life savings by thinking with his pecker rather than his brain.
Charlie then receives word that his ex-wife has died & he needs to show up in court to sign over his rights to the son they had to the boy’s Aunt Debbie (Hope Davis)
Charlie sees dollar signs in Debbie’s elderly spouse & makes a deal with the man behind Debbie’s back to take the 11 year old kid for three months so the old guy can take his wife to Italy. Upon their return, Max (Charlie’s son, played by the unfortunately named Dakota Goyo) will be turned over to Aunt Debbie & Charlie will receive a second cash paymeny of $50,000.
After purchasing & destroying another ‘legendary’ robo-boxer, Charlie takes Max on a trip to rob a robotic junkyard looking for usable parts to rebuild his fighter. After all, what better way is there to bond with your 11 year old than to show him you’re not only a hopeless loser, but a thief as well?
Showing off his parenting skills, Charlie nearly gets Max killed in the junkyard but they do happen upon an intact robot literally stuck in the mud. Charlie, ever the wise judge of robo-boxing talent sees a hunk of junk, but Max sees potential in Atom, the ‘sparring bot’ that he digs out of the mud (& steals – like father, like son)
Evangeline Lilly plays Bailey, Charlie’s on again/off again girlfriend & even though I initially thought she wasn’t good looking enough to attract a Hugh Jackman – She works because she is pretty enough to put up with a completely incompetent loser like ‘Charlie’.
Although ‘Real Steel’ turns into a sweet and mushy father & son bonding tale, it still has moments where you don’t want to start popping all the zits that form while you’re viewing this celluloid version of a Hershey’s Kiss.
The predictable finale was fun to watch – as a fan of Muhammad Ali, I had to admit that I enjoyed the way Atom 'rope-a-dopes' World Champion Boxing Robot Zeus in the Rocky-esque bout that Max helps to set up by being an annoying little braggart brat.
The thing with ‘Real Steel’ is that it comes up with a formula to entice all manners of movie-going masses into wanting to check it out – Chicks will enjoy the estranged father learning what it’s like to feel an emotion as his unknown offspring turns out to be a better ‘robot-trainer’ than the old man. Dudes will get off on the rock’em sock’em robot battles... Chicks will get to fawn over dreamy Hugh Jackman whenever he takes his shirt off, while dudes will get off on the rock’em sock’em robots. & chicks will giggle & go ‘aww’ when Max teaches Atom how to dance like an 11 year old white kid with absolutely no rhythm whatsoever & dudes will get off when Atom enters the ring & pulverizes his opponents.
For me, it was actually the relationship between Charlie & Atom that made this better than I expected; for Charlie gets to redeem his unfulfilled boxing career by showing his son’s fighter-bot how to box like a human.
So it has something to appeal to all ages, sexes & I. Q.’s – which means the public will love it, while I just found it to be mildly enjoyable...

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