Steel

It only takes listening to Steel's opening theme, a wakka-cha-wakka guitar track straight out of the 70s, to inspire the idea that Kenneth Johnson--one-time writer and director for The Bionic Woman and The Incredible Hulk--made the film 20 years ago, then dusted it off and digitally inserted Shaquille O'Neal as his protagonist. The funny thing about Steel is that it's so unfashionable, it's actually refreshing. O'Neal plays an army weapons expert who creates a high-tech suit of armor to help him stop equally high-tech criminals. Thus is born Steel, a hero with a positively archaic modus operandi. He isn't a vengeance-driven tormented soul, or a shady anti-hero with a dark side; he just wants to make the world a better place. Steel is nobody's idea of stellar film-making, with actors who can't act and a director who doesn't care about acting (he used to work with Lou Ferrigno, for heaven's sake), yet Johnson instills his formulaic action film with a disarming sincerity. He has made a film about role models, including an African-American man and a disabled woman, and he seems to feel good about that without being preachy. Today's kids might find Steel pretty old-fashioned, but I hope there's still a place for old-fashioned heroes who say "Yes, ma'am" and mean it. A strong optional purchase. (S. Renshaw)