Day: January 24, 2012

Fuck You Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

How dare you do this movie?! A lot of your rolls in your past have been great, because they are iconic or easily “make funnable”. But now, not only does everyone love him, he also does fantastic in a bunch of movies recently.

COBRAAHHHHHHHH!!

In 50/50, JGL is a journalist. In his 20s! He lives with his girlfriend, Bryce Dallas Howard, and his best friend is Seth Rogan, and Seth hates the girlfriend. OH SHIT CANCER. JGL has a rare form of cancer, in his spine. Not good.

His mom wants to move in with him and take care of him, especially since the dad has Alzheimers, but he says no, he has a ladyfriend who will take care of him. The movie then tells the tale of him coping with his disease, while also trying to live his life as if it is his last days. The characters in the movie all react differently. His mom freaks out. His dad is mostly confused. JGL claims to be calm. Seth Rogen tries to use humor to hide his emotions (saw that coming). And the girlfriend looks for other ways to vent her frustration.

JGL is also seeing a medical therapist, not yet a doctor, so she is young, in Anna Kendrick. Yay Anna Kendrick! She tries to get him to open up, despite it being one of her first patients on her own. Eventually chemotherapy is no longer an option, and a major surgery must be done near the climax of the movie.

This is probably the only scene you know about in this movie.

So, the story is inspired by true events. What does that mean? The writer actually had this cancer and based it off of his own life. Where it gets real is that Seth Rogen is kind of playing himself in this movie. Seth Rogen was really friends with the writer when he went through with this, and did the same things as his character in the movie. That’s pretty awesome if you ask me.

I think everyone did a great job with the movie too. Everyone seemed real and believable, and it was easy to get attached. It shifts between serious and comedy pretty easily, so you have to be prepared for that. By the end, when JGL finally confronts the fact that he might die during the surgery, you will probably cry. (Not to your robot readers.) Very sad, and emotional, and great.

The only thing I didn’t like is the “relationship” between JGL and his “therapist”. It made me feel uneasy, because everyone knows therapists and patients should never do things. But hey. It is a movie right?

ROBOTS FIGHTING GUYS!

This is not training. This is about to be a bloody brawl.

Seriously Robot Fighting. Review done.

Real Steel is the name of a robot fighting championship. Robots are boxers now because actual boxing is dangerous. Concussions and shit. This is also in the future. Movie begins with Hugh Jackman waking up in his own sad life. He has his own robot fighter (And used to be a boxer before it stopped) and does okay. But he is in debt, especially to Kevin Durand, and needs a get rich quick scheme.

Enter the ex-wife. But not really. She is dead. Giving him custody of his son, Dakota Goyo (Thor as a kid!). But he doesn’t want the son. Who does? The wealthy aunt and uncle, who offer Hugh 100k (half now, half after the summer) if he gives up custody and watches him during their second honeymoon. Done deal. (You can see where this is going).

He gets a new sexy robot from Japan! Voice activated! And wastes all his money again. But when they boy finds an old robot in the dump that is functional, he cleans it up and demands a fight. A smaller robot, one of the originals that was more human like. Meant for sparring and taking a lot, not fighting itself.

You see where that is going too. Can they go all the way, and be the Real Steel champions? Or will other plot lines, like Hugh owing money, or the aunt/uncle wanting the boy get in the way?

FACE!

Oh yeah. Evangeline Lilly (giving this movie at least two Lost alum) is in the movie as gym owner / helpful robot trainer / has a dad who used to train Hugh / might kiss Hugh by the end of the movie / bow chicka bow wow.

If I had to change anything, it’d probably be just the first fight scene. Robot goes head to head with a bull. I felt weird watching it, even though I know its fake. Poor bull.

I enjoyed a lot of the fights. I think they could have spent more time explaining how these controls work. They go from remote control, to voice controls, to imitation, and everything in between. Just how this stuff works would have been nice.

The ending was great, and I would watch the sequel. Overall, I’d have to say Real Steel was a very solid movie.