Real Steel Blu-ray/DVD Combo Review
SoHood.com Reviewed by: Josh Bowman
Movie Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Extras Rating: 5 out of 5
Overview: Set in the near future, where robot boxing is a top sport, a struggling promoter feels he’s found a champion in a discarded robot. During his hopeful rise to the top, he discovers he has an 11-year-old son who wants to know his father.
Review: Hugh Jackman stars as Charlie Kenton, a former boxer who is an owner-operator of a ramshackle robot. From the early on, the viewer gets the feeling that Charlie is struggling to make ends meet. Charlie places a bet on his robot with promoter Ricky (Kevin Durand) for $20,000 dollars as well as his truck versus a real life bull in which he then loses and leaves without paying.
But Charlie had a good reason for leaving because he had received a phone call in regards to his ex-girlfriend who died and left her teenage son named Max (Dakota Goyo). So Charlie goes to court to attend the hearing where Max’s wealthy aunt Debra (Hope Davis) and uncle Marvin (James Rebhorn) want full custody, Charlie gives them Max in exchange for $100,000, half in advance, on the condition that Charlie takes care of Max for three months while the couple are away on a second honeymoon.
(L-R) Max (Dakota Goyo), Atom (Robot), and Charlie (Hugh Jackson)
In the begin, Charlie and Max, don’t necessary hit it off. At one point, Max’s life is threaten at a junkyard after falling over a ledge, but he’s then saved from an arm of a buried robot. With the help of Charlie’s longtime girlfriend Bailey Tallet (Evangeline Lilly), she helps fix up Max’s robot Atom.
Soon after that, Charlie and Max hit the road going small town to small town venues winning fights with the robot Atom. Max is a spunky kid who like to give the audience in attendances some entertainment by entering the fights with his robot Atom by dancing. Charlie encourages it and wants his son to be different from other robot handlers.
The people who handle the most famous robot in the fight world is named Zeus. His people take notice of Max’s robot and try to buy him out. Max refuses the offer and challenges Zeus to fight for the title.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the film, it took a bit to develop in the beginning but once it got going after half an hour, it really picked up. I liked the visuals on blu-ray, the robots looked amazing whenever they engaged in combat on screen, I marveled how the graphics came to life.
The Good: Nicely assemble cast. Excellent screenplay. It’s an entertaining film that’s suitable for an entire family to watch.
The Bad: The kid that plays Max is a bit much, he can be overbearing and annoy at times throughout the film. ;)
Memorable Quotes:
Bailey Tallet: 1200 miles for a kiss.
Charlie Kenton: Worth it. So worth it.
The specific aspects of the Audio and visuals for the Real Steel Blu-ray Disc:
The picture quality on this is Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC. Video resolution: 1080p, Aspect ratio: 2.35:1, Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1 and the Audio on this Blu-ray is DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. (The images and sounds were flawless.)
Real Steel CLIP: Sacrifices (Bonus)
Real Steel Bonus Features:
Countdown to the Fight—The Charlie Kenton Story
Sugar Ray Leonard: Cornerman’s Champ
Deleted and Extended Scenes with introductions by Shawn Levy
Extended “Meet Ambush”
Deleted “Butterfly” Storyline
About the Film
- Stars: Hugh Jackman, Evangeline Lilly
- Language: English
- Number of discs:2
- Studio: Touchstone / Disney
- Blu-ray Release Date: January 24, 2012
- Run Time: 88 minutes
- Buy Online
