REAL STEEL
3 out of 5 stars

it’s like the robot version of rocky! aaaaand like rocky, you can’t help but root for the people’s champ AKA atom!!! :)

i wonder how much the producers of this robot boxing shitshow paid hugh jackman to star in this....err, shitshow. :P anyway...hugh jackman is charlie kenton, whose not only a former boxer but now promoter and deadbeat dad. the movie starts with charlie booking a boxing gig with a texan buddy of his named ricky (it’s martin keamy from lost!), and loses really big when his robot gets horned by a ginormous black bull. as ricky says...if you mess with the bull, you’re gonna get the horns! so, his robot is trashed and he loses $10K to ricky but not before a couple of dudes inform him that his ex-GF has passed away and his son max is waiting for him at court because the aunt wants to formally adopt him... charlie appears before court, but not before brokering a deal with the rich uncle. he’ll sign over his rights as charlie’s father for $100K, so he can buy a new boxing robot named noisy boy to fight with in the ring. there’s another condition: max has to live with him all summer. he does, and he tags along with charlie to all the robot boxing matches. noisy boy basically gets turned into scrap metal, and charlie is shit out of luck...yet again. not until, max discovers a junkyard robot that they train into a boxing champion... ;)

like i said, it’s like robot rocky and there’s a lot of feelgood moments i.e. when max and atom bond by dancing and different workouts, when max and charlie also bond, and of course, the BIG fight at the very end! sometimes robots > ppl. in this case, DEFINITELY b/c the acting is meh but atom kicks total ass. point proven? :P