Candy and a Movie: New Look + Movie #41 Real Steal

Real Steal (2011)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0433035/

Things shouldn't look super different but I have made some changes. Changes for the best(I hope)! First off, the background color is lighter which should means you should be able to read posts in their mobile form on tablets and phones. Then I added a search bar, list of the 10 most read posts and a place to enter your email address if you would rather read posts that way. Reading on the blog is still the whole package experience for me but maybe you aren't a fan. I want to accommodate everyone you know.

On to the movie and there are a couple things that I regretfully have to tell you about my viewing experience. First off is that I fell asleep halfway through it. Not like 3:30 AM pass out sleep but more like 2:00 pm no reason to be asleep sleep. That make sense? A movie about robot boxing should not put you to sleep in the middle of the day. This wasn't the first day that I dozed off in the middle of a movie but it was the first time that I didn't go back and watch what I missed because I just didn't want to. I skipped like 20 minutes max so I still saw most of it, including the end. Another problem is the notes that I usually take for each movie so that I remember what to write about somehow also got deleted. It seems like I just wasn't supposed to to watch Real Steel but unfortunately I just don't listen to fate sometimes. Here is what I do remember (and what Wikipedia reminded me too).

In the year 2020 there will be robot boxing. I thought that was stupid at first and who would want to watch that but then I remembered how much I liked Battlebots when I was a kid (I'll come back to this). The robots are fought by humans using some kind of a controller. Hugh Jackman plays the main character, a former boxer named Charlie. The first scene is him fighting at some little county fair so it seems that he has seen better days. His robot fights a bull, loses, and he now owns 20,000 to this redneck guy. The redneck is played by this dude http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0243806/ who I remember played the role as the bad guy a lot, then got tipped to be a breakout actor because he had skills and now has come full circle playing bad guys again.

The character Charlie is just not a good human. First, he doesn't pay for his lost bets. That will always come back to get you. Secondly, he finds out that his ex-girlfriend died and he has to go to a hearing about what will happen to his son. He shows up saying he doesn't want the kid but then learns about how is ex-sister in law wants the kids and sees it as a way to make money. They are rich so he asks for $100,000. Selling your son, nice. The sisters husband accepts the deal but only on the condition that the kid spends a few months with Charlie so that he can still go on his vacation. Worst family ever? You know that Charlie is going to turn his life around, fall or the kid and want to keep him. The only thing left to see is if he can. And robots smashing themselves apart.

Charlie and the kid (Max) head to the chick from Lost's (Bailey) gym to get a new robot to fight. They get an old one, enter a fight and it gets torn apart. You can add cockiness to the list of Charlies bad qualities. He signed up for a fight he wasn't ready to win and is now broke plus he has no robots . The two of them break into a junkyard to find parts so the can make a new one. Max almost falls off a cliff there but Max catches him (bonding moment). At the junkyard max finds this old robot named Atom. He has a shadow function meaning he can mirror the moves of his human controller. With no where else to turn, Charlie fights Atom at a small event and wins. I fall asleep.

I woke up and apparently Atom had been doing good because they had just won a pro fight and Max mouthed off challenged the champ to a fight. Oh ya, the champ robot is owned by this rich Russian babe. Movie could've used way more of her. I'm guessing, because this is kind of a sports movie, that there was a montage of Atom winning a bunch of early fights in short time with some pump up song playing over the footage to get us to the championship. I'm like 80% sure that probably happened.

THE FINAL BATTLE

So everything that you think might happen does. The redneck shows up and wants his money back and gets it. Charlie turns his life around and doesn't accept the rest of his sisters money. He wants Max and the sister allows them to be together for the final fight. I remember thinking that I wanted them to lose just because it would be better for everyone. Both father and son were too cocky and needed to get beaten down for their own good. It's a total Rocky I fight, they take a beating and lose by a decision but went the distance with the champ.

THE END

Favorite Scene : I missed Max and the robot dancing. Thankfully. The first robot fighting the bull is the coolest thing that I can remember.

Best Lines : Nope

Rating : 5.4 Apples with razor blades in them. Remember when I said that I liked Battlebots when I was 7ish? That's who I think would like this movie. People who want to see things smashed or maybe you just really like the Jackman? I'm trying not to be snobby, but I just really wasn't into this script. Anything not having to do with robots wasn't that good to me and I need more than metal on metal for a high rating. They made Jackman such a bad character that it was hard to like him in the end. The kid had some mouth on him too but I don't mind him trying to get some attention when everyone else is trying to sell him. I might've also missed the best 20 minutes of cinema history while zzzzzing so there's also that.

Alternate Ending : Jackman gets in a fight with the Asian dude. Atom shadows him and fights someone in the crowd killing them. Goes to trial and gets convicted of murder. Max is forced to pour water on him and the little white circle inside of him turns red meaning he can't be fixed. Harsh.

What I would do if I was the main character : Accept responsibility and be caring father. Sike, sell the kid and buy a better one.

What happens in the sequel : When I saw the trailer for this, I really did want to see it. Here's my pitch for Real Steel 2, The Realest Steel. Hugh Jackman and the Lost chick have build up a robot fighting empire. Things are going so well that they buy two of those million dollar rides to space like Lance Bass had. They go up but something goes wrong and they crash down to earth. They walk along a beach and get picked up by a couple of robots on horses and thrown into jail. Eventually they get charged with being humans and are forced to fight in the arena to the death. It's like planet of the apes with robots. The whole movie, robots were forced to rip each other apart. Machines get backed up, they don't forget. Once judgment day happens, get ready to fight.