Real Steel (A)

Hugh Jackman has taken on werewolves, mutants, and Count Dracula himself. At the start of Real Steel, however, we see he has met his match. Jackman is Charlie, a once promising boxer who was forced to retire once the sport was taken over by ten-feet-tall metal robots. This is probably for the best—in every one of his professional fights he fought until either he or his opponent was unconscious, and he lost a lot more than he won. Now, though, he is living a depressing life remote controlling the robots in mechanical battles that usually, thanks to Charlie’s impulsiveness, end with his droid a smoking piece of scrap metal. The problem is these machines cost minimum $50k. Charlie is deeply in debt and has been forced to bring his robots to rodeos and MMA fights rather than the more gentlemanly boxing.
Suddenly, though, things in his life take a turn for the better. He gets a call saying his eleven-year-old son Max (Dakota Goyo), who he has never seen, recently lost his mother. Max’s Aunt Deborah (Hope Davis) wants to adopt the boy, and that is fine with Charlie. However Deborah’s wealthy husband Marvin (James Rebhorn) wants to have a final vacation with his spouse before becoming a father. Charlie offers Marv a deal: For $100,000, Charlie will babysit Max for the summer, and will then sign him away forever. Marvin agrees, but Max isn’t too happy about being sold. He bickers back and forth with his dad until finding an abandoned robot in the scrap yard. Charlie agrees to let him take it to a fight despite being certain the machine will be demolished. However, things don’t quite turn out the way he thought…
Real Steel is a formulaic family story, but it is done so well it is one of the most touching and entertaining tales I have seen in a while.
Shawn Levy takes the director’s chair. As he has shown with the Night at the Museum projects and Date Night he brings fantastic visuals, exceptional cinematography, and impressive acting to the table, but completely ignores anything having to do with the script. Fortunately, he is working from an excellent screenplay by sports movie pro John Gatins (Coach Carter, Dreamer) based on a story from Dan Gilroy (Two for the Money; the Fall) and Jeremy Leven (The Notebook; My Sister’s Keeper), who are themselves inspired by some Twilight Zone episodes. The story is perfectly structured and hits every note it should while adding in some surprising depth; even going so far as to have several subplots that will make a sequel a continuation rather than a cash grab.
Levy doesn’t slack off on his part. His work with Cinematographer Mauro Fiore, who gained prominence with Training Day and won an Oscar for Avatar, and the art and visual departments makes Real Steel look great, with thrilling action and yet an inherent believability and relatability. Just as important is Levy’s ability to pull fantastic performances from his cast. Evangeline Lilly has had few roles to date (she is probably best known as a supporting actress in Afterwards, but she does such an exceptional job here it seems impossible she will continue to be ignored. Goyo, another unknown, never fails to avoid the typical traps of child actors—at no point is he remotely annoying—and brings surprising depth to his character. Jackman is famous as Wolverine and Van Helsing—roles he very much deserved and executed perfectly—but this proves once and for all it is time for him to become one of Hollywood’s heavy hitters. He has never been nominated for an Academy Award and he very much should be here. He won’t, but hopefully some producers will notice that it is ridiculous he hasn’t starred in anything since 2009. After all, he was the best thing in X-Men: First Class and he wasn’t even a credited actor.
Real Steel is not without its flaws. While it avoids the trap The Fighter fell into by glorifying reckless behavior (by replacing human fighters with machines), it still features lots of fights that are possibly illegal and lots of gambling that is most definitely illegal. Gambling is not something that should be treated as a get-rich-quick scheme, and illegal gambling rings should never be condoned. However, it is worth noting that Charlie’s gambling gets himself beaten up and once the robot starts winning it enters the big league where the fights are more for television ratings than betting.
There is also a quick scene implying Charlie might sometimes drink, and while it was during a time when he was depressed it is something families should keep in mind. Other than that, though, the movie is action-packed but not disturbingly violent. Disney—the distributor for Real Steel—has been doing a fantastic job of creating films with adventure scenes that are never dull but rarely scary (The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Tron: Legacy), and they continue to do so here. It almost makes up for releasing four Pirates of the Caribbean movies.
One of the biggest faults with this movie is that despite being a big-budget action flick there has been no 3-D version of the picture released. With its exceptional combination of adventure and plot, Real Steel would be the must see event of the season, and it deserves the extra spectacle. There is no excuse for films of this magnitude and genre to ignore the new technology. Then again, it is better than doing it badly.
Real Steel is a remarkably genuine story framed in a thrilling action tale. It is suitable for almost all ages, but that doesn’t mean older crowds will find it any less enjoyable.

Ip Man 2: Legend of a Grandmaster (F)

There are some things we (Westerners) should tolerate about other cultures. What is polite to talk about. Political views. Marital and family customs. However, it is insulting to not object to a film as hypocritical and antagonistic as Legend of a Grandmaster: It not only knows it is bigoted, it has the audacity to then tack on a (fake) message about why bigotry is wrong.
A limited release in the United States, the second installment in the Ip Man saga was a big-budget and very successful Chinese blockbuster. The
choice in protagonist was an interesting decision, seeing as the real life Ip Man (a champion of martial arts and Asian culture who trained movie legend Bruce Lee) moved to Hong Kong due to his unpopularity and distrust of
communism. The movie centers around a fictional battle between Ip Man (Donnie Yen from Legend of the Fist) and British boxer Twister (a fictional character named after a Lethal Combat character who is played by the same actor, Darren Shahlavi) as well his rivalry with martial arts training tycoon (Sammo Hung) and father-son relationship with a hot-tempered pupil (Huang Xiaoming as real life street fighter Wong Leung).
Wilson Yip (Flash Point) has a nice camera style, and the picture has excellent action sequences, though they tend to deteriorate in quality and originality as the film progresses. The cinematography is well done (there are nice bright colors), with the exception of a ridiculous quantity of glaringly obvious orange-and-teal color scheme moments. The story (by Edmond Wong, who also did the original Ip Man movie) is terrible however, and Yip should be ashamed of the bigotry he displays.
There is a difference between celebrating nationalism (something less impressive in Hong Kong, where the
government has a huge influence in filmmaking) and deliberately slandering an entire race. The film divides its good guy-bad guy line solely based on skin color, with every British character a cheating, evil, abusive, and corrupt barbarian. There is no doubt the film is targeting all westerners—the vilification applies to the whole race, and there is no depth or motivation to the white people’s villainy. Yip even goes so far as to have the Union Jack prominently displayed to stress the point that the film is not just attacking an allegedly corrupt police force but an entire nation. Then, the movie goes the extra step and shows Ip Man (the character, I am not judging the actual person) giving a speech that he only wants the East and West to “respect” each other when the past 90 minutes have been as disrespectful as it gets.
Few people have dared to speak out against such racism for fear of seeming bigoted themselves. I perceive this as hypocritical—should Chinese films not be held to the same moral standard American ones are? I think they should, especially when they go out of their way to pick a fight. A 92% on Rotten Tomatoes! This is patronizing—everyone pretends that just because China made a film we are impressed. We should really treat people as equals and treat other cultures with the respect and interest we treat our own, not ignore their statements as mere rambling of a “different” race that is implicitly too stupid or irrational to know what polite or reasonable behavior is.
Further problems with the film are an inexplicably harsh rating, an acceptance of risking one’s life in a life-threatening and barbaric glory match instead of helping one’s family (Ip Man has two children and knows there is a good chance he will die in these combats), the fact that violence should be a way to defend one’s nations honor, and celebration of smoking as a form of coolness. I want to point out there is a law in Hong Kong banning public smoking, so I can say with certainty that Chinese (specifically Hong Kong) culture does not see this behavior differently.
Legend of a Grandmaster manages to not only be racist, but hypocritical as well. We would be the same if we tolerate this
obscenity.

Contagion (A) (and an explanation of where I have been)

Before I start my review, I will say that this site has been acting up and not only made some of what I have written (including my 3-D Report for August) unpostable but also caused my computer to freeze every time I tried to insert a link or even paste in a web address. I am thinking of maybe switching to another site, but for now here is a review for one of the few good recent movies.

Cold detachment and lack of a central story both enhances in inhibits its success. The story lacks a true plot or an emotional resonance with audiences, but it provides a very well-crafted and impactful look at how fragile society is and how quickly it could fall apart.

Contagion plays like Valentine’s Day from hell. Various people linked to each other deal with an outbreak of a deadly and very contagious virus. Pivotal roles involve Laurence Fishburne as head of a center for controlling epidemics, Kate Winslet as his newbie assistant, Marion Cotillard as a health advisor kidnapped in China by a village hoping to ensure the best medicine, and Jenifer Ehle as a scientist who thinks she may be able to develop a vaccine. The acting is all good, though Jude Law does not bring the extra touch he usually does to his role as an anti-societal blogger (possibly because the character is just the slightest bit underdeveloped). The best is Matt Damon as a man who loses both his wife and child son to the disease and must raise a teenage daughter (Ana Jacoby-Heron in what is hopefully a breakout role) in an increasingly chaotic world.

Writer Scott Z. Burns (The Bourne Ultimatum, The Informant!) is more concerned with the big picture than he is with individual characters or plots, and Director and Cinematography Steven Soderbergh (The Informant!, Traffic, Erin Brockovich) amplifies this with a very cold detached style and subdued color scheme. Every scene is cut away from as it gets intense, and the camera retains both a literal and figurative distance throughout. This will certainly anger some—Critic Peter Debruge of Variety stated “Without fully rounded characters, it's hard to care who lives or dies in what amounts to an extended procedural on how disease prevention organizations might respond to such a scenario.” However, there is certainly a lot gained by the film’s unique style.

By looking at the broad implications of it—by using that distance so as to truly get a scale of the chaos—the film gives a detailed look at how fragile the world is and how swiftly it could plunge into chaos. There are very few moments that sound unbelievable, and the viewer has the chilling feeling this could very easily happen. 2012 and the Transformers movies show us a world literally falling apart, but we are more amused by the absurdity than genuinely impacted. Contagion contains no explosions, no natural disasters, and no grand escape plans; but it is far more effective at making us, the audience, truly ponder that maybe we should rethink life—maybe it isn’t quite as secure as it seems.

Contagion is not for everyone. It is unconventional, not just in its originality but in its refusal to risk hurting its tone with human emotion. However, it is an artistically-foolproof and very powerful look at how quickly the world as we know it could end.