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Real Steel (2011)

Director: Shawn Levy

Time Out rating

Average user rating

8 reviews

Synopsis

Hugh Jackman plays a promoter in the harsh world of robot boxing. Yes, Robot boxing!

Movie review

From Time Out London

Right now, across the globe, a legion of film critics is furiously trying to figure out the best way to fuse the words ‘robot’ and ‘Rocky’: will it be ‘Rockybot’? ‘Robocky’? ‘Steelvester Steelone’? Yes, the underdog boxing story gets a cybernetic twist with ‘Real Steel’, a loud, silly, shamefully enjoyable rust-to-riches tale of the futuristic Worldwide Robot Boxing league, where 20-foot metal behemoths slug it out to the delight of baying, human crowds. When we first meet rough diamond Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman), he’s down on his luck. His latest prize robot has just been flattened by a rampaging bull, there are loan sharks after his head and what’s worse, he’s been tasked with taking care of the son he never wanted: tousle-headed ten-year-old Max (Dakota Goyo). Of course, it’s not long before this mismatched pair find a discarded, outmoded Gen 2 robot in a trash pile, clean him up, train him and take him back out on the road...

As the likes of ‘Night at the Museum’ proved, originality is not one of director Shawn Levy’s big strengths: if you’ve seen ‘Rocky’, ‘Lassie’, ‘Kramer vs Kramer’ and ‘Transformers’, you’ve seen ‘Real Steel’. But there’s nothing wrong with an old story if it’s well told, and ‘Real Steel’ is both smart and slick, spicing up its familiar storyline with likeable characters, thunderous action sequences and a nice line in breezy, country-fried shitkicker humour. Jackman is pure roughneck charm in the lead, and his young foil, Goyo, walks the fine line between slappably cocky and lovably irreverent with absolute confidence. The result is a film which, like its pugilistic protagonists, is big, noisy, unsubtle and a little rusty around the edges. But it’s also satisfyingly sturdy and no-nonsense, a multiplex monster smartly constructed from tried-and-trusted parts.

Author: Tom Huddleston

Time Out London Issue 2147: 13 – 19 October 2011

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User reviews of this film

Jay Lo said...

Posted on Mar 14 2012 20:02 Loved the review! My son loved this movie as much as I did! I didn’t think it was going to have great potential but I was wrong. I watched Real Steel using the Blockbuster @ Home service where I have access to thousands of movies, games and TV shows. I just have to order some pizza and hit play it’s that simple. When I have to wait for my next DVD by mail, I can stream to my iPad or TV. I just take my game or DVD to the local store for a quick turn around as many times as I want. This is a great way for me to get all my entertainment needs for $10 per month and was easy to add to my DISH employee service.

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Fan of boxing said...

Posted on Oct 31 2011 10:15 Love Love Love this film! Hugh Jackman! Boxing! Robots! Competition! Fantastic combos! Yes the boys acting is rough around the edges but he still pulled his character off! The story line is simple but it works because the film is about the Real Steel= Robots!

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ARCHGATE said...

Posted on Oct 25 2011 09:41 AKA: Spam Can Wars
walked after 1 hour. the kid got on my nerves - so I left. Had a big mac and a stinky dump - but preferable to watching this nonsense.

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gromitanwallace said...

Posted on Oct 22 2011 09:25 go see it yourselves, some of the miserable people nit picking what is good well made entertainment make me wonder if they thought this was the latest shakespeare, get a life!!

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scrumpyjack said...

Posted on Oct 15 2011 16:48 ARE YOU WATCHING MICHAEL BAY? SO close to 4* but (like BRIDESMAIDS, yes, I know the comparison's odd but bear with me) TOO long (both) and too crude in brief scenes (Boy here, really likable but why the rant, woman - wiig - in t'other, really likable but C***! NOOOOO) Minor snips would ensure VERY GOOD, but no, just good. And sometimes good is good enough. 7/10....STUNNING, faultless CGI BTW.

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Rotten said...

Posted on Oct 13 2011 03:13 I came here from rottenromatoes, and your positive review here somehow converts to "rotten" on the site - you should get that fixed!

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palmer said...

Posted on Oct 12 2011 23:32 this film stinks awful acting and not believable the kid and father thing they have not seen each other for years ye!t they hit it off no animosity and no withdrawn actions from the kid. cliched boring and kid swears alot

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Ego said...

Posted on Oct 12 2011 09:26 Just so you know, for some reason your review shows up as 'rotten' on rottentomatoes.com.

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