Real Steel

In an indeterminate future when robot boxing is a big-money sport, a sleazeball promoter (Hugh Jackman) finds himself saddled with the son he deserted at birth (Dakota Goyo). Richard Matheson’s classic science fiction short story (nicely dramatized on the original Twilight Zone series) is bastardized into a rehash of the old Wallace Beery weeper The Champ, which already had moss on it when it was updated for Jon Voight back in 1979. The atrocious script by John Gatins, Dan Gilroy and Jeremy Leven dilutes Matheson with equal parts Rocky, Warrior and Rock ’em Sock ’em Robots. The result is utterly ridiculous, and Shawn Levy’s direction matches the writing. Levy’s idea of creating excitement is to have the actors scream; there’s more screaming in this movie than in a 10-hour marathon of A Hard Day’s Night.