Real Steel Good

I am the guy who has watched every movie. I have watched and remembered more movies and facts about movies than you have ever fathomed. I am the IMDB Intersect. And I especially love watching bad movies. Movies made with the best of intentions that come out terrible for one reason or another. Movies that were intentionally bad and the people making it caught on and it shows in the production. Bad movies are great. But occasionally a movie that you think will be just terrible turns out to be a great film. You did not expect a great movie out of a bad premise but it happens anyway. A film that surprises you like that is rare. Those movies are Real Steel Good.

Real Steel came out in 2011 and debuted with a commercial during the Super Bowl. Robots fight each other. it looks like a studio optioned the game "Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots" and then made a movie out of it starring Wolverine and Kate from Lost. And then Wolvy delivers the line that sold the movie to me and countless others. Towards the end of the trailer he utters the line, "Let's make some money!!!!!!" It is no "we're gonna need a bigger boat" or "I'm sick of these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane" but it sold me on a terrible movie.

And then the movie becomes great. The film is essentially that underdog sports story except with fighting robots. Long training montages. Unbeatable adversary. Working your way into title contention. And a deadbeat father connecting with his bastard over the course of a road movie (after Wolvy essentially sells the kid to pay for another fighting robot). And a love story. Then the underdog doesn't win but puts in such a good fight that he gets a satisfying moral victory. It gets the "Rocky Balboa" ending and sends the audience home on a high.

The bad movie elements were all given away in the trailer and then the movie surprises. Real Steel connects with the audience and makes you cheer for a Robot fighting so that Daddy and Little Bastard can have a relationship after the title fight. I have not seen a movie that has been Real Steel Good since.