Real Steel

2 Stars (out of 4)

I know this one's a little late, but I just saw it for the first time. I have to say, for a kid flick, it is surprisingly good. This movie reminds me a lot of the 60's and 70's Disney kid flicks like The Cat From Outer Space, Follow Me Boys, Unidentified Flying Oddball and the Herbie series. It has been a long time since such resources have been put into what is essentially a stupid little film. But, frankly, this movie is a lot more fun, and a lot deeper, than it has any right to be.

There has been a lot of movies recently based on old toys and games (Transformers, the horrible Battleship, etc), a very dumb trend; but this one, based on a Richard Matheson short story, (but mostly Rock Em Sock Em Robots) is surprisingly entertaining. It stars Hugh Jackman, a washed up boxer in the future. The movie takes place in the near future where boxing is now done by large robots. Hugh Jackman's character has been scraping the bottom of the barrel in underground fights when he finds out an ex-girlfriend dies. He finds out that he has an 11-year old son who he walked out on. The kid ends up with Jackman and they go on the road trying to make money. What follows is a fairly by-the-numbers movie about the reconciliation between the father and his son. This is where the movie is a cut above the rest. There is a good message underneath the mindless stupidity of the actual movie.

The movie is a lot like the old Disney films in the sense that all the adults are one level above mental retardation and the kids are the smart ones. This one is no different. Hugh is a short-sighted, greedy idiot with the one skill that propels the movie along, he can box. The kid, on the other hand, can speak Japanese (from playing video games, don't you know), program and install voice recognition hardware in robots, to building advanced robots. He makes all the smart decisions, he is wise beyond his years and inspires everyone in the movie. That said, it's fun to watch him in the film. The film is also riddled with about every corny cliche in the entire language of movies. Yet somehow, it all works. The movie is not necessarily deep, but it has heart, and that it what makes it good.