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Subscribe to weekly newsletter » times & tickets in theaters Fandango Search movie more current releases » showtimes and buy Real Steel tickets. one-minute movie reviews BY ROGER EBERT / October 5, 2011 about us "Real Steel" imagines a still playing near future when human cast & credits About the site » boxers have been replaced Dolphin Tale by robots. Well, why not? Amigo Site FAQs » Matches between small Charlie Kenton Bellflower fighting robot machines are Max Dakota Goyo The Big Year Contact us » popular enough to be on Bailey Blackthorn Brighton Rock television, but in "Real Finn Email the Movie Steel," these robots are The Change-Up Ricky Kevin Durand Chasing Madoff Answer Man » towering, computer- Deborah Hope Davis Circumstance controlled machines with Marvin James Rebhorn Conan the Barbarian nimble footwork and Contagion on sale now instinctive balance. (In the DreamWorks presents a film The Debt real world, 'bots can be directed by . Written by Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame rendered helpless on their The Devil's Double , based in part on the backs, like turtles.) It also Don't Be Afraid of the Dark must be said that in color short story “Steel” by Richard Drive and design, the robots of Matheson. Running time: 127 50/50 "Real Steel" are glamorous minutes. Rated PG-13 (for some Final Destination 5 and futuristic-retro enough violence, intense action and brief Fireflies in the Garden to pose for the cover of language). 5 Days of War Thrilling Wonder Stories. Footloose Printer-friendly » Fright Night Buy now » The Future The movie's story, however, E-mail this to a friend » George Harrison: Living in the Material World is not from the future but A Good Old-Fashioned Orgy from the past, cobbling The Guard together 's rags-to- Happy Happy riches trajectory and The Hedgehog countless movies in which estranged fathers and sons find The Help themselves forced together and end up forging a deep bond. Hugh Higher Ground Jackman stars as Charlie Kenton, a former boxer who is now hanging The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) Zero stars onto the fringes of the fight game as the owner-operator of a The Ides of March Buy now » ramshackle robot he tours with. It's no match for the competition, and The Interrupters when the desperate Charlie replaces it with another battered veteran, Killer Elite it can't even outfight a real bull. Life, Above All littlerock Even during these early fight scenes, however, it's clear than the Love Crime Machine Gun Preacher movements of the robots are superbly choreographed. My complaint Margin Call about the battling Transformers of the movies series is that they Mighty Macs resemble incomprehensible piles of auto parts thrown at each other. The Mill and the Cross Fast cutting is used to disguise the lack of spatial continuity. "Real Moneyball Buy now » Steel," however, slows down the fight action enough so that we can Mozart's Sister actually perceive it, and the boxing makes sense. Munger Road My Afternoons With Marguerite OK, OK, it doesn't completely make sense, because when one of Mysteries of Lisbon these behemoths slugs the other with a right cross to the jaw, we're Norman wondering (1) shouldn't one of those punches cause as much One Day damage as a car wreck, and (2) why do robots have jaws? For that One Lucky Elephant matter, why are they humanoid at all? "Real Steel" doesn't pause for Our Idiot Brother logical explanations. In this world, robots do the work that human Paranormal Activity 3 Phunny Business: A Black Comedy boxers used to do. (Sugar Ray Leonard was a consultant on the fight Point Blank Buy now » scenes.) The director is Shawn Levy, who didn't endear himself to me Puncture with the "" movies, but gets on base with this Rapt one. Real Steel Restless If the movie were all robot fights it might be as unbearable as — well, Resurrect Dead: Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles a Transformers title. Drama enters in the person of Charlie's son, Rise of the Planet of the Apes Max Kenton (Dakota Goyo), a smart, resilient pre-teen who, like all Road to Nowhere kids, seems to have been genetically programmed to understand The Robber computers, video games and all allied fields. Charlie is a very bad Senna Seven Days in Utopia Buy now » absent father, and as played by Hugh Jackman, he is actually mean toward his boy. Charlie's sister (Hope Davis) and her husband Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness (James Rebhorn) plan to adopt the boy, but in a complicated The Skin I Live In Sleep Furiously arrangement, Charlie first has to take care of Max for a summer. Special Treatment Straw Dogs This Max is some kid. He loves robots. During a scouting expedition Take Shelter in a 'bot junk yard, he comes upon an ancient training robot named Texas Killing Fields Atom literally covered in mud and convinces his dad this relic still has The Thing fighting potential. Amazingly, it hasn't entirely rusted away, and father 30 Minutes or Less and son rehab it and teach it some new tricks. One of its abilities is a Trespass Buy now » "mirror mode," which allows it to mimic the motions of its controller. Tucker and Dale vs. Evil Since Charlie is a has-been boxer, Max has faith that Atom can win Viva Riva! as his dad's avatar. Warrior The Way All of course leads up to a big match with a fearsome juggernaut Weekend named Zeus. To my amazement, this fight scene is as entertaining The Whistleblower World on a Wire and involving as most human fights, and the off-screen story (involving Zeus' odious owners) adds interest. It's hard to hate a more current releases » robot, but not its owners. Buy now» Curiously, however, it's easy to love Atom. With his blue eyes glowing on dvd behind a face of steel mesh and his skinny, muscular body facing off against giants, he's a likable underdog. was one of new on dvd the producers of this film, and knowing of the research he put into making E. T. lovable, I wonder if screen-testing was used to help more new on dvd » design Atom. You wouldn't say he looked cute, but there is something about him that's much more appealing that his shiny high-tech rivals. coming on dvd "Real Steel" is a real movie. It has characters, it matters who they Buy now» are, it makes sense of its action, it has a compelling plot. This is the more coming on dvd » sort of movie, I suspect, young viewers went to the "Transformers" movies looking for. Readers have told me they loved and identified great movies on dvd with their Transformers toys as children. Atom must come close to representing their fantasies. Sometimes you go into a movie with low expectations and are pleasantly surprised. more great movies on dvd »

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