Real Steel Movie Blurb by Shale October 7, 2011 The regular reviewers with The Miami Herald were busy this week giving three stars to The Ides of March, the more serious movie opening this weekend. So they palmed off the review of this movie to AP writer, David Germain, who trashed it as one would expect a serious, humorless movie critic to do. But 57% of the aggregate reviewers on Rottentomatoes liked this movie as did 79% of audiences, including me Sure it has problems of being predictable and feel-good, but sometimes that is what I pay my money for. (It's a Disney flick and I think it could have gotten away with PG instead of 13). If I want to watch political intrigues and screw ups, the evening news is there for free. This is basically about redemption of an absent father who connects with the son he neglected and finds common ground. It is also about a boy and his robot - who beat the odds. Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman) is a former boxer - replaced by the more exciting show of giant robot boxing. So he got into that but he is one of those impulsive kinda guys who makes quick, wrong decisions. He is losing fights, losing robots and skipping out on one lowlife creditor after another. When one of his former girlfriends dies, leaving their orphaned 11-year-old son Max (Dakota Goyo) he goes to sign papers for the boy's aunt Debra (Hope Davis) to take custody. Ends up Charlie is stuck with the kid for half a year while the aunt and her rich husband tour Europe. And, being totally irresponsible as a father, he tries to leave Max with his other girlfriend Bailey (Evangeline Lilly) who is a robot mechanic and is trying to keep her late father's boxing gym solvent. But Max the precocious kid forces Charlie to take him along on the sometimes back alley robot fights. About here is where it becomes a Disney Kid movie, because Max has a lot on the ball. Having never met his father they share the same interest in robot boxing. When Charlie's prize robot gets disassembled in the ring, he and the kid end up in a salvage yard looking for spare parts. That's where Max discovers an old sparing bot buried in the mud. Charlie is not interested so Max digs it out on his own. Well, from here you can see that Max has faith in this discarded bot, does a little reprogramming on it and eventually gets his dad to teach it how to box. The underdog robot, with Max's faith and Charlie's knowledge of boxing eventually starts winning bouts and becomes noticed. And along the way Charlie discovers his paternal instincts (you knew he would). I liked the movie. The special effects with the robots were convincing, helping you suspend disbelief (better than Transformers). It was a good couple of hours of escapism from all the mindless politicians that are screwing up the real world.
He's not exactly the most convincing single, down-and-out dad. Rather like someone who spends 6 hours in the gym each day and the rest of it on a tanning bed.
