Real Steel
If there’s one thing Big Hollywood knows, it’s that people love movies where robots kick the oil out of each other. Transformers films are raking it in, so it would stand to reason that other robot fight movies would follow. Directed by Shawn Levy, Real Steel presents a near-future world where robots have replaced humans in the boxing ring. Hugh Jackman plays Charlie Kenton, a down-on-his-luck movie stereotype who promotes robot fights badly. He owes a lot of money, his robot is broken, and he has a son, Max (Dakota Goyo), he barely knows. Max winds up in his custody after his ex-wife dies. So Real Steel wants to be a father-son bonding movie along with the whole robots beating each other up thing. Since Jackman’s character drives a big truck and is trying to get acquainted with his son, I was reminded of the father-son bonding/arm wrestling movie Over the Top. Over the Top is not a movie I wanted to be reminded of.