Real Steel (Film)

If Rock 'em Sock 'em robot toys were made into a film, it would probably look something like Real Steel. Or at least that's what the filmmakers would have you believe.

But behind the bare-knuckle carnage, there's a touching father-son story much like in Sylvester Stallone's 1987 arm-wrestling road trip Over the Top.

Real Steel is set in the near future when the public craves no-holds-barred violence - with remote-controlled robots in the ring instead of humans. Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman) is one of the human boxers whose days of glory are long gone. Now he works the underground robot fight circuit, promoting fights and controlling a bot.

Broke and down on his luck, he agrees to take care of his estranged son, Max (Dakota Goyo), for money. At a junkyard they come across Atom, an old-generation bot written off as trash. Charlie turns Atom into a lean, mean fighting machine, and father and son begin to bond.

Real Steel has a likeable, if not very original, story. Its premise is almost identical to Over the Top. The action will put you in mind of another Stallone film: Rocky.

The movie's real stars are the bots. The fight choreography is fantastic, thanks to Hall of Fame boxer Sugar Ray Leonard's input. You'll find yourself rooting for the bots.