Movie Review: Real Steel (2011)
Come on in and meet the awful father this movie wants you to love
Photo: DreamWorks Pictures / Touchstone Pictures
Real Steel is cliche-riddled drivel centered on Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman), a deadbeat dad that sells his son for $100,000 after his mother dies. No, it's not a dark comedy. You're not meant to laugh at the idea Touchstone Pictures and Night at the Museum director Shawn Levy thought they could pass this off as some kind of feel good, father-son story. You're actually supposed to like this guy and cheer for him to see the error in his ways and boy does Levy try his best to convince you to do just that as he pours on the schmaltz in an attempt to overshadow the fact Charlie is a terrible person with little to no redeeming qualities.
The cast includes Hugh Jackman, Dakota Goyo, Kevin Durand, Anthony Mackie, Evangeline Lilly and Karl Yune. For more information on this film including pictures, trailers and a detailed synopsis choose from the following menu.
Review
"Real Steel" is a DreamWorks Pictures / Touchstone Pictures release, directed by Shawn Levy and is rated PG-13 for some violence, intense action and brief language. The running time is 2 hours 6 minutes.
It's at this moment this genius learns his 11-year-old son Max (Dakota Goyo) is now without a mother and the family Charlie left behind is now coming around just to get on his nerves. Fortunately for Charlie, his sister (Hope Davis) and her wealthy husband (James Rebhorn) want to adopt Max, but before they do that there is that all important trip to Tuscany they had planned. Hey, Charlie has a solution, he'll gladly babysit the kid for the summer and then deliver him in a few months without putting up a fuss… for the fee of $100,000. Cha-ching! Time to buy me a big ol' killer robot! And he does…
Minutes later Charlie is on the horn buying one-time robot-boxing great Noisy Boy for $45,000 while dragging his son along for the ride. Minutes after that Noisy Boy is destroyed due to Charlie's arrogance and stupidity and this father-son duo are breaking into a scrap yard in the pouring rain to find new parts. It's this moment screenwriter John Gatins gets all fancy and sends Max falling down a massive cliff where he's saved by the extended hand of an entire robot buried beneath the dirt.
"Can I keep him dad? Can I?"
"Sure, just drag him up this muddy, rain-soaked cliff you just slid down for the last five minutes and he's yours. I'm going to go wait in the truck!"
"Awww dad!"
And that's how Max got his very own robot, a robot that wouldn't necessarily bring he and his father together, but sure as hell was going to make them a bunch of money! Woo hoo! Score one for families!
From there on out it's just one situation after another where Charlie takes advantage of his young son. Max tends his new robot — a generation 2 sparring bot named Atom — and it begins showing promise as a bot that may actually be able to win some fights and in turn win them some money. Yup, this father-son story is about a dad that sees an opportunity and a son that clearly wants a father figure so bad he's willing to settle on whatever comes along.
Add to that some cool robot effects, a massive amount of product placement ranging from Dr. Pepper to HP to New York's Bing Arena (invest in Bing now, it's going to be big in 2020), a Danny Elfman score reminiscent of the work he put in on The Kingdom and a couple of Eminem tracks and you've got yourself a Rocky for the modern age. A commercial film that tries to be all things to all people without insulting any of them, provided you don't look at a film logically and are more than willing to allow obvious scenarios to play on your emotions as if you were one of the film's soulless robots. A small price to pay for entertainment right?
The worst part about all of this is that there is actually a solid basis for a story here. Why screenwriters feel they have to pepper films like this with overly sentimental cliches is beyond me. However, I have to give kudos to Jackman, he played his part as if he was in the greatest film off all time and Dakota Goyo as his young son Max isn't too bad either, even if he seemed like a grown up version of Jake Lloyd who played Young Anakin in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.
Where my questions come in is to ask why did Charlie have to not only be one of the worst fathers ever, but an overall bad person? Sure, I'm willing to allow he may have fallen on some hard times and has built up a defense mechanism, but show me some sign there may actually be a decent human being inside this caveman. Take for example the introduction to Charlie's long-time friend and one-time lover Bailey ("Lost" star Evangeline Lilly), it's enough to put your teeth on edge as Charlie strips his shirt off and, in not so many words, suggests a roll in the hay. Couple that with a creepy crawl into the sack late in the film and I'm looking at a guy that should be driving around in a van with blacked out windows as opposed to a semi truck pretending he's Sly Stallone in Over the Top.
The fact Levy or anyone involved in this project expects me to believe this overgrown man-child ever learns anything by the film's end is insulting. Yes, I'm fully aware this film is largely intended for kids and the kids in my audience loved it, but at the end of the film they were walking out of the theater kicking and punching the air, not discussing the story aspects. I'm willing to admit kids don't care about the narrative, but I do, and in those terms this movie is a giant system failure.
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i didn't see the movie but when Hugh Jackman came in the french talk show "le grand journal" to promote the movie,they barely talked about REAL STEEL and it's not a good indication
i feel it's a movie for kids
After Lost began, I thought the gorgeous and talented Evangeline Lilly had a promising career ahead of her and would become a bigger star but she has done so little in the last seven years. I hope she’ll have a career renaissance with Real Steel and The Hobbit films and do more mainstream movies from now on. Good for her to keep landing such high profile roles. She deserves it. It’s an exceptional performance by her in Real Steel, just wonderful.
So it really is as bad as the trailers make it out to be…after reading Eberts review i thought that maybe there was something in this movie.
Looking around, I am definitely in the minority opinion on this one so you may want to read a couple other reviews if you are interested in seeing it.
I'm totally with you on this one Brad. Total dud.
I respect your reviews and all, but I think you're coming down pretty hard on a film that isn't meant to be thought about as much as you have… Just my opinion, as the views in this review are yours, but I dunno, it looks like a decent popcorn flick and I'll likely give it a shot at the $5 theatre.
This review was hilarious to read…an arsehole as a main character in a kids flick has a certain charm.
LOL Brad is 100% right, i went to a screening of this movie. to be honest it could have been a great movie.
Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots The Movie? I'll pass.
After this review….I thought visitors should also read the boxoffice.com review plus they also should read hollywood.com.
Becuase they like the emotional father and son relationship story. besides they said it is better than TRANSFORMERS.
Yes, and what a massive acheievement that is.
Boxing has never been about beating someone until they have brain damage or bite someone's ear off.
You don't like the sport? Fine, but let's not go overboard.
Are you sure? Because I seem to recall a lot of that happening, or is a knockout more like a suggested nap?
Saw it last week, thought Brad's review was harsh on the film. Jackman's character is certainly a self-absorbed dick (there's one moment that Brad alluded that made me guffaw) but I thought it was entertaining, not quite worthy of such a putdown and certainly better than Levy's previous bore-fests. The characters kept me interested, the action is well handled and even though the narrative is cliched and rote, I never expected a Shawn Levy film to be anything but when it comes to story.
The product placement is relentless in the last half-hour. Anyone notice the Xbox 720 advert?
I agree. I saw the movie and I loved it. Though this review has a few valid points, I definitely think it's too harsh on a movie that in reality, was a lot better than a good portion of the total crapflics of 2011. I think Brad's energy would have been better spent insulting something else.
Also, I'm not sure Brad considered the whole "change-of-heart" theme in the movie. Jackman's character starts out as a total asshole, and undergoes a transformation like almost any underdog action-movie hero. Admittedly, the timing of it was a bit off-kilter.
Saw the movie for free last night and to be honest I somehow feel like I was ripped off…the movie itself has shitty dialogue, predictable plot, a mix between the Rocky films, and Over the Top. Much raher would have sneeked in to watch The Lion King instead of this crap….
This sounds even worse than it looks
Saw the movie and I don't agree with your "grade" of the movie at all. I was actually expecting a lot less out of the movie from the previews that have seen. Yes, there were some corny cliches, and a lot of "Rocky" parallels in the movie, etc etc, but overall, it was a lot of fun. Critics like you kill me. Most of us "normal people" go to a movie to be entertained, and I was. Get the chip off of your Shoulder and lighten up Brad. You said it yourself, "the kids in your audience loved it". Well this 44 year old kid loved it also. I am guessing you take yourself way to seriously…
I actually really enjoyed Real Steel. Yes, it was corny at points, but I couldn't help but get wrapped up in the characters and the struggles they went through, and the robot boxing was awesome, too, courtesy of Sugar Ray Leonard's terrific choreography. Also, Atom is awesome, and Hugh Jackman and the kid, Dakota Goyo (a very embarassing name) were both great.
And your name is vlad? Hmmm Oh and I loved this film and I'm 30. Lighten up folks.
Wow, and over here I thought I was the only one who thought this film was a shadow of 'Over The Top', haha. Great review Brad.