Real Steel

This family-friendly, inspirational action drama is set in 2020, when high-tech entertainment consists of 8-foot-tall, 2,000-pound robots brutally boxing via their owners' remote controls. Scheming Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman) is a former boxer-turned-promoter who pieces together low-end bots from scrap metal for underground fights, working out of a gym owned by former girlfriend Bailey (Evangeline Lilly). Suddenly saddled with an 11-year-old son, Max (Dakota Goyo)—whose mother recently died—Charlie just wants to get rid of him. But then one night, Max discovers Atom, a battered, sparring bot discarded in a junkyard. Ferociously adept at bot-boxing electronics, smart-mouthed Max befriends Atom, who has a special shadow-mode adjustment that allows it to pantomime human movement. Predictably, Charlie eventually bonds with both, joining Max to train Atom for awesome contests with competitors like Ambush, Midas, Noisy Boy, two-headed Twin Cities, and constantly evolving Zeus (Sugar Ray Leonard served as fight consultant). Shawn Levy's film wears its influences on its sleeve—from Rocky to Transformers—but Jackman and Goyo shine in this crowd-pleaser. Recommended. (S. Granger)