Real Steel

Big Hollywood knows that people love movies in which robots kick the oil out of each other. The 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 in which robots have replaced humans in the boxing ring. Hugh Jackman plays Charlie Kenton, a down-on-his-luck movie stereotype who promotes robot fights—poorly. He owes a lot of people money; his robot is broken; and he has a son, Max, whom he barely knows. That son (Dakota Goyo) winds up in his custody after his ex-wife dies. So Real Steel wants to be a father-son bonding movie, as well as a robots-beating-each-other-up movie. 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.