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386 reviews in total

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230 out of 403 people found the following review useful:
Great movie, good story. Who doesn't like fighting robots??, 27 September 2011

Author: gremlins-haunt-my-house from Denver, CO, USA

We saw an advanced screening on Sept 22. I thought it was going to be another one of those cheesy, campy, not really believable, warm fuzzy, type of underdog/rags to riches movies. I was actually surprised. It had some great plot twists, it had a real story line. And while yes, there is some language sprinkled throughout, it did make a good family movie for older kids, 10+ (my opinion). The ending wasn't quite what I was expecting, but looking back I think I liked it better for that. Who wants an ending they can see coming the entire movie?

It had some great comedy moments. The relationships between the actors felt genuine and not overdone or forced.

The robot animatronics was good. The robots themselves were fun and imaginative and definitely made me wish we really had this sport. I would so be there!

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258 out of 480 people found the following review useful:
Outstanding, 8 October 2011

Author: George Jozwiak from Austin, Texas

Any movie that gets the audience involved in a positive way and leaving cheering is an excellent movie. It is like Rocky on adrenaline and with a whole lot better acting. Hugh Jackman, Evangeline Lilly and Dakota Goyo all have great performances. Dakota who plays the son really makes the movie, but all the actors performances are great. The guy who thought it boring... well, you lack passion and your soul must be dead. Real Steel is the absolutely hands down best movie I have seen in a long time. You will cheer, cry, laugh and be thoroughly entertained. I had to sit and watched the credits at the end just to catch my breath. Great movie.

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95 out of 157 people found the following review useful:
Soooo Cheesy!, 28 October 2011

Author: martinrobertson300482 from United Kingdom

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

"Real Steel" is the cheesiest movie I've seen in quite some time. After a promising start, flick starts getting over confident in telling its story. A Story we've already seen before in "Rocky" and its many clones.

Set in a future where the only difference seems to be fighting robots. Hugh Jackman plays an out off work boxer and grade A a**hole, who is hopeless at getting new robots fighting. Jackmans life is supposedly turned around when the son he abandoned as a baby turns up and helps in finding an old robot, who ends up being great in the ring.

As I wrote above, the film starts off well. Jackmans playing a character that only cares about money and winning until the kid turns up. Even the kids doing well until he starts teaching the robot how too dance (and yes he even teaches him "the robot," sigh!) and like most over confident child actors, becomes the irritating c*cky kid in the movie.

I don't think I'm spoiling anything by saying that the old robot wins and Jackman ends up caring about more than just himself by the end off the flick, but the way they go about this is seriously corny, and the way in which Jackman started out makes me not want too root for him so much by the end.

Overall the films story maybe isn't as predictable as you'd think, and is saved from a worst rating by this, and its light sprinkiling off funny moments and cool robot designs. Round one though is better than round two. Which seems determined to out-do "Rocky" and all its many imitators, in an attempt to win the award for corniest movie ever.

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54 out of 82 people found the following review useful:
Feel Good, Fun Movie !, 20 January 2012

Author: The Little Master from United States

I wasn't expecting much when I saw this movie - and I'm not really a fan of movies where kid's are the lead - but, I was pleasantly surprised with this one.

Even though this was a "formula / underdog" type of movie, it had me cheering for Atom, Hugh Jackman was great and so were the cast of characters.

The CGI was excellent, I really connected to the characters, and it was just a fun, guilty-pleasure (c'mon, boxing robots - who DOESN'T want that !) type of movie.

Not quite "A Space Odyssey:2000" but then again, it's not supposed to be.

FUN. ENTERTAINING. GREAT ACTION.

Recommended !

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188 out of 354 people found the following review useful:
Could've, Would've, Should've…but Didn't., 17 October 2011

Author: Johnny Hollywood from Sydney, Australia

What a little gem Real Steel could have been. Well before its release, and before any intricate plot details became known, this sounded like an intelligent film in which robots are forced to engage in brutal fights for the entertainment of their human masters. Where the story would've gone from there is left to the imagination, but it appeared to have all the makings of critically acclaimed, self-conscious science fiction. The final product differed heavily from initial expectations, however, and we are left with a hollow, albeit bearable alternative prompting those such as myself to ask: What could have been?

In the very near future (2020, according to director Shawn Levy) the human art of man-to-man combat has become obsolete. One-time fighters have been replaced by robots that do the dirty work while their human controllers reap the rewards. Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman) is one such promoter, recently down on his luck and who lives not for the bright lights, but to make just enough money to survive. At this most inopportune time, he is forced to take care of his estranged son (Dakota Goyo), whose burgeoning friendship with an outdated sparring 'bot named Atom convinces Charlie to give the big time one last shot.

For a movie that has the skeleton to accommodate exploring the concept of human qualities in machines, a la Blade Runner or Artificial Intelligence, as well as (warning: pretentiousness ahead) the theme of 'ethics and morals of humanity', it actually does everything it can to avoid those topics entirely. My hopes for such a film were all but dashed with the casting of a child- a sure sign that the story would be strictly focused on Max and Charlie's relationship, and in that respect the plot seems unnecessarily restricted. This results in an inherently out-of-place scene in which Atom, all alone before a big fight, gazes into a mirror as if to question his existence. Its inclusion into the final cut is sure to whiz above the heads of its pre-teen target audience, while more mature viewers might interpret it as a cheap attempt to inject some heart far too late into the story.

Indeed, its family-friendly status is the biggest letdown of Real Steel. At the forefront is the misguided characterisation of Charlie's son, who is portrayed as, in my opinion, a spoiled brat who's so cocksure of himself all the time that a little part of you wants to see him fail. The child as an authority figure may appeal to those of Max's age, but it detracts from the contrasting, gritty realism of Jackman's character, and shuts down any hope of character-based realism in the process. Other attempts to please the male tween market include obvious allusions to toy lines and video games, as well as a mind-boggling assault of product placement, which becomes more than a little irritating during the second half.

The script is not disastrous. The writers dabble in clichés occasionally, but not quite to the point where it numbs the mind. On a more negative note, the screenplay does allow for an assortment of cringe-worthy moments (which some might call 'heart-warming', depending on personal perspective) that include dancing robots and the introduction of more than one excessively cartoonish side character, again limiting the level of engagement one can make with this movie.

The action set pieces in the film were visually pleasing, exploiting a decent amount of camera angles to give the viewer an intriguing look into the mechanics of robot rumbling. The CGI is impressive, and the clunky (as opposed to slick) movements of the robots actually work well, reflecting what a realistic fight between two heavy machines would look like. Jackman does his best as always, but he alone can't salvage a once-promising prospect that instead settles for being the very definition of blockbuster mediocrity.

*There's nothing I love more than a bit of feedback, good or bad. So drop me a line on jnatsis@iprimus.com.au and let me know what you thought of my review.*

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52 out of 84 people found the following review useful:
If SOPA was introduced to avoid movies like these from being copied, I'm totally in favor!, 27 January 2012

Author: Luis Dias from Portugal

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I only found out this movie was a Spielberg production when i saw it on screen. I immediately knew i'd be faced with a lot of cheap kodak moments and teary-eyed kids wrapped in a formula of family-fun Steven has been repeating since ET.

I wasn't wrong. But i had no idea how bad it was going to be. At least Goonies 2, i mean... Super 8, managed to actually be entertaining. This movie has no surprises, it's just predictable turn, after predictable turn.

The acting is terrible across the board, but i can't blame the actors for not putting an effort into such a depressing tale. Goyo is a promising talent, unfortunately the lines he was given are so out-of-character and cheesy for a kid his age, no amount of talent could be convincing. He likes Robot boxing and he's so into video games he's even fluent with Japanese, but he's no nerd, he's all grown-up and can haggle like a moroccan couscous salesman on a couscous black Friday, and to top it all off he looks like the coolest kid ever, even though his mom has just died days ago. And, like that's not horribly incongruent enough, he spends half of the movie showing off his dancing skills like a Bieber wannabe. That's one seriously schyzophrenic kid!

But the bad acting and atrocious storytelling doesn't end there. Some of the people in Real Steel are more cartoonish than the robots: Ricky, Tak Mashido, Farra, look like villains out of a Disney Channel Show. Most of the footage of James Rebhorn and Hope Davis should've stayed on the cutting room floor. They are lost on screen, clearly with no chemistry as a couple and not enough lines on the script to work with. Every time they're interacting on screen you can actually crack a laugh at how they flay their arms at each other clueless, like two crash-test-dummies in slow motion. But the way they keep awkwardly eyeballing Hugh Jackman during every lousy dialog like they're asking to be put out of their misery just makes you terribly sad again.

The final scene with everyone crying in rapture at Hugh Jackman performing video-fitness, had me ripping hair out of my head! I'm in awe of all the positive reviews this movie is getting. Either this movie premiered on IMDb's opposite day, or i had no idea this site had such a huge userbase of 9 year olds.

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47 out of 82 people found the following review useful:
Stop Reviewing Movies If You Don't Know What You Are Talking About!, 8 January 2012

Author: Manos - from Greece

Let me start by saying that something is happening to IMDb's credibility. If you see the reviews on the "Immortals" you'll think the distribution companies are trying to deceive people. Same here.

I gave this movie a 6 after much thought cause a) The robots looked real and b) I'm a nice guy.

I'm not saying it is that bad. You won't get bored and it is not as stupid as it could have been if you know what I mean. It's that there is NOTHING ORIGINAL about this movie. Every scene till the ending, we, as viewers, have chewed and swallowed over and over again. I would have mentioned a few examples but i don't want to spoil the movie for some. Read all the other negative reviews if you like.

Plus, what's the deal with the kid people saying he acts good etc? He's not so bad but I am really surprised that so many people mention how good he is in their reviews and almost no one is saying that he does not sound like an 11 year old talking. He reminded me of Justin Bieber to give you an idea who they probably had in mind when they wrote the script.

I am also surprised that although many refer to movies they copied in this one, no one mentions an 80's anime called "Plawres Sanshiro" which to me is obviously where they took the idea from. Maybe this anime was not released in the west.

So, if you are stoned and have nothing else to do, you can watch it but keep in mind that it is in my opinion one of these movies that will very soon be forever lost and forgotten in the sea of uninspired movies that Hollywood pays it's lackeys to serve to us.

p.s. There is no way the last fight's outcome was fair!

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157 out of 302 people found the following review useful:
Great Movie. Perfect Match of emotions, Robo-fight(very Importantly not over done) and some comic scenes., 9 October 2011

Author: avinashbhan from India

I had been waiting to see this movie for a long time, saw it today and it was worth all the wait.

The move has a perfect blend of emotions, Robo-fight(very Importantly not over done) and some comic scenes, what else do you want?

For me the robot fighting was great. Have been following Huge Jackman's movies off late and all have them have been good including this one. But apart from all of that the movie has an embedded message that there are things that sometimes you can not handle or overlook when you have other priorities but you can always make things right, it may be hard but it can be done.

The kid Dakota Goyo did a good job as well.

So I would say go out there and see the movie, worth every penny that you will spend for the ticket.

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128 out of 245 people found the following review useful:
Atrocious, 21 October 2011

Author: Tim Berendsen from Boston MA

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

This movie starts out well enough, hugh jackmann at his best: quietly driving a truck along a dusty road. his character, Charlie, is the cliché boxing, two-timing douche-bag roadrunner type, in this case set in a futuristic time (although the only futuristic pieces in the movie are robots and cellphones, and a truck that for some reason has windows where the driver's feet are), where robots do the boxing for you. Charlie is trying to win fights with the robots he buys or puts together from scraps, but does not demonstrate any skill, interest or dedication. He gets distracted and has no heart for the machines he uses. When he gets the news that his ex-girlfriend dies, he shows no emotional reaction, except for trying to swindle her rich sister for the custody of their only son, which he agrees to take on for a summer in order to receive a paycheck. The rest we can predict from here, and does not deviate from our most boring projections.

What could have been nice about this movie? almost everything. The script could have been smarter, funnier, sharper. The characters feel unnatural, especially the lead Charlie. He doesn't seem to know is he's a good guy or just a loser going along with the success of others. In a good movie, the protagonist classically undergoes a life-changing transformation, in this case the bonding of father and son, which changes the father's attitude towards life in general. However, the change has to be believable. In this case, it lacks severely.

When willing to forgive the corny story, the action also leaves a lot to complain. Where is the cool slow-motion tearing apart of metal? where is the cool martial arts / mma type fighting? the makers could have gone completely NUTS on this, but instead it's not very exciting.

BAD, BAD, BAD. Want action and entertainment? not here..

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8 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
I am against Corny/Cheesy Actors, 13 July 2012

Author: Josh Arnup from United Arab Emirates

I had low expectations and I am sure many people did so too, however I did rather quite enjoy the movie for various factors in which I will List: Every scene had purpose - No pointless scenes which have no impact on the audience. The Ending - Original and Motivating, showed it had a moral to the story (If you watched the movie, you would know)

HOWEVER, unfortunately the kid put me off immensely. I appreciate his confidence in acting but his screaming and his cheesy lines were just off putting. I also noticed that his technological understanding was ridiculously high, which is rather unrealistic...And that is an understatement.

That being said, I can sense a 'Real Steel 2' and would hope it turns out as good as this first one. Sequels are very hard to perfect especially for this movie, but I digress.

This movie is worth watching and if you plan on watching it, be sure to prepare your tissues.

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