REAL STEEL

 

My official UK DVD of Real Steel (© Shawn Levy/21 Laps Entertainment/Montford Murphy Productions/Dreamworks Pictures/Dreamworks Studios/Touchstone Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

On 29 September 2023, I watched the American sci fi movie Real Steel, which was based upon a 1956 short story entitled 'Steel', written by American sci fi/fantasy author and screenwriter Richard Matheson. Other writings by him that have been turned into major movies include the novels I Am Legend and What Dreams May Come plus several others, as well as the short story 'Duel' (featuring that infamously maniacal, psychotic but never seen on screen lorry driver). So I was hoping for a thrilling watch, and I wasn't disappointed.

Directed by Shawn Levy, including Steven Spielberg (from Dreamworks) and Robert Zemeckis (from Disney) as executive producers, and released in 2011 by Dreamworks Studios and Touchstone Pictures, Real Steel is set in what was then the near future (2020) when boxing matches no longer feature human pugilists but giant robots instead, programmed and remotely-controlled by their human owners.

Hugh Jackman plays former boxer (of the human kind) Charlie Kenton who is now a driven bot owner, but is down on his luck after his latest bot is totally thrashed and trashed in a rigged fight with a colossal steer. In addition, he finds himself attending a custody hearing for his 11-year-old son Max (Dakota Goyo) whom he has never met, after Max's mother, a former girlfriend of Charlie, dies unexpectedly.

Her sister Debra (Hope Davis) wants legal custody of Max, and Charlie does a shady deal with Debra's husband Marvin (James Rebhorn) behind her back to receive a sizeable payment if he allows them to adopt Max, but if he also looks after Max for 3 months while Debra and Marvin go on an extended summer holiday.

The money that Charlie duly receives enables him to buy a very superior bot, but once again his luck fails him and the bot is soon destroyed in a boxing match. However, Max, who has become increasingly interested in bot boxing from being with Charlie, uncovers at a junkyard an abandoned, dilapidated sparring bot of an early, long since surpassed grade, whose chest-plate name is Atom, and after restoring it he persuades Charlie to help him train Atom to box.

There is also a romantic subplot, featuring Charlie and Bailey Tallet (Evangeline Lilly), the feisty, all-grown-up daughter of Charlie's former boxing coach, and who now owns her late father's boxing gym. Bailey acts to a degree as a surrogate mother to Max while he is living with Charlie, and she also assists them, albeit sometimes reluctantly on account of Charlie's gung-ho approach, in the development of Atom.

The rest of the film follows the familiar themes of estranged father and son bonding via a common interest, and an underdog competitor beating all of the odds to reach the pinnacle – in this instance, Atom is pitted against the world's undefeated bot boxer, the mighty Zeus, in the resplendent Real Steel stadium. But can underdog Atom pull off the surprise win of all wins against this god-like entity that has been created by multi-millionaire genius robot inventor/designer Tak Mashido (Karl Yune) and programmed by him with the pugilistic knowledge of every modern-day boxing bot in existence?

Or might Zeus be taken aback by a much less powerful, far more primitive boxing bot, yet one that had been created back in the distant days when such bots were much more human both in form and in their style of boxing? Moreover, Atom has even been trained to box by a human boxer (Charlie), and therefore is far more unpredictable in tactics than modern boxing bots. Think Rocky with robots, plus a transfusion of Transformers, and you'll have a fair idea of what to expect, more or less…

As might be expected from such a film and storyline, Real Steel is packed with superb bot-engendering effects, for which the robots were created in real physical form (and controlled by puppeteers) as well as via CGI (featuring motion-capture using professional boxers supervised by boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard). Indeed, this movie received an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects (but lost to Hugo).

Having said that, Real Steel took a while to fully engage my interest, because beneath the bot facade it is really a sporting movie, and I am no sports fan. Even so, by about the halfway mark of its 2-hour run time I'd settled in, and became ever more drawn into the increasingly gripping storyline as it sped on towards its climactic David vs Goliath robo-gladiatorial confrontation between Atom and Zeus, augmented throughout by the excellent, empathic performances of Jackman and Goyo.

In short, Real Steel proved to be an unexpectedly entertaining movie for me, and is certainly well worth watching by everyone, but especially by sports fans, and video gamers too.

Additionally, a TV series is reportedly under development for Disney+, and a sequel movie starring Jackman again, as well as Ryan Reynolds conceivably, is also being considered – the latter in particular would be a delight, I'm sure, in view of the firm bond of comedy chemistry between these two actors as seen in the wonderful Deadpool movies (click here and here for my Deadpool reviews).

Meanwhile, if you'd like to view some belligerent boxing of the steel-sculpted variety, be sure to click here to watch an official Real Steel trailer on YouTube.

Finally: to view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

THE PRESTIGE

 

Publicity poster for The Prestige (© Christopher Nolan/Touchstone Pictures/Warner Bros Pictures/Newmarket Films/Syncopy/Buena Vista Pictures Distribution – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

My movie watch on 13 April 2022 was the fascinating sci fi/fantasy thriller The Prestige, one of the best films that I have viewed in a very long time, and truly magical in every sense of the word.

Directed, co-produced, and its screenplay co-written by Christopher Nolan, released internationally by Warner Bros in 2006, and based upon the 1995 titular Christopher Priest novel, The Prestige pits two early 20th-Century London-based stage magicians, Robert Angier (played by Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale), against one another in an intense rivalry based upon increasingly obsessive one-upmanship, each desperate to outdo the other, whatever the cost.

Angier and Borden begin their careers as friends, working together in the same act, until Angier's wife Julia drowns on stage inside a water tank after being unable to untie the problematic type of knot that Borden has obstinately used on her, despite having been warned against it by their very experienced mentor John Cutter (Michael Caine). Angier blames Borden, and they become implacable enemies thereafter. Establishing their own separate, rival acts (Angier as The Great Danton, still working with Cutter; Borden as The Professor, working with the mysterious Bernard Falon), they ruthlessly sabotage and out-compete each other's tricks at every available opportunity, as a result of which Angier is partially crippled and Borden has a finger blown off.

Their deadly confrontations culminate (and fulminate!) with a visually sensational trick devised by Borden and called by him 'The Transported Man', in which he enters one wardrobe and then almost instantaneously steps out from inside another one placed at some distance away from the first. Angier is desperate to discover the secret to this extraordinary illusion, but Borden skillfully fools him into setting forth on a wild transatlantic goose chase to America, in order to visit none other than the contentious Serbo-American scientist Nikola Tesla (and played by none other than David Bowie, employing an intriguing Scottish accent!) at his laboratory in Colorado Springs. Here he is aided in his highly controversial, explosive experiments in electricity and magnetism by his loyal assistant Mr Alley (Andy Serkis).

However, Borden's cruel scheme unexpectedly backfires when Tesla creates for Angier a machine that will duplicate Borden's trick, and in an even more spectacular manner – but at a terrible cost, yet one that Angier is willing to pay in order to surpass Borden's act.

As a movie whose theme is sleight-of-hand stage magic, do not be surprised to learn that nothing in The Prestige is what it seems to be, most especially the true explanations for the two magicians' respective versions of 'The Transported Man'. Borden's involves a traditional but ingeniously-executed deception, whereas Angier's is something else entirely, as you'd expect from anything created by Tesla. Having said that, I've actually included a subtle clue as to the latter's incredible modus operandi here in this mini-review – did you spot it? And, if you need a clue for Borden's, thinking about anagrams is the name of the game…or the game of the name!

The Prestige is a superb, wonderfully entertaining movie, which kept me totally captivated throughout its 2-hr 10-minute running time. It includes excellent performances by all four of its leading cast members (Scarlett Johansson being the fourth, appearing as Olivia, a double-agent love interest between the two magicians), as well as some exciting special effects, especially within Tesla's classic 'mad scientist' laboratory, whose evocative design incorporates some dramatic steampunk visuals.

Josh Hartnett was apparently considered for the role of Angier, but Jackman's powerful rendition of this embittered character, driven half-crazy by his wife's needless death at the hands of Borden and hell-bent upon avenging her, is absolutely perfect, as poignant as it is chilling, especially when the twin voices of conscience and reason beseeching him inside his head become increasingly stilled as his mania escalates swiftly and surely towards its inevitable, catastrophic conclusion.

Adhering to the sacred traditions of stage magic, I'll say no more, but the closing scenes, when all is finally revealed, are as visually breathtaking as they are shocking – their stark, unforgettable images exposing the horrific depths to which the rivals have sunk in order to achieve each other's total destruction, yet little realising how this will impact upon their own survival. Or, to put it another way: what goes around, comes around.

Last but certainly not least: if you don't already know what a prestige is in the particular context of prestidigitation ('prestige' deriving from 'praestigium', the Latin word for 'trick'), you need to watch this movie – all will be revealed, or will it? But if you can't wait that long, here is Cutter's own explanation of it:

Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called "The Pledge". The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course... it probably isn't. The second act is called "The Turn". The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you're looking for the secret... but you won't find it, because of course you're not really looking. You don't really want to know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn't clap yet. Because making something disappear isn't enough; you have to bring it back. That's why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call "The Prestige".

If you'd like to conjure forth a tantalizing glimpse of the spellbinding sights and incongruous illusions that await you in The Prestige, be sure to click here to view an official trailer for this dark, twisted, yet mesmerizingly macabre, magical film on YouTube.

To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

FREE GUY

 

Publicity poster for Free Guy (© Shawn Levy/Berlanti Productions/21 Laps Entertainment/Maximum Effort/Lit Entertainment Group/TSG Entertainment/20^th Century Studios/Walt Disney Studios – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

After viewing various trailers for it in impotent impatience at not being able to view the movie itself, on 12 December 2021 I purchased its DVD and later that day finally watched Free Guy – the newish but covid-delayed sci-fi/fantasy comedy/action movie starring one of my favourite actors ever since first watching him in Deadpool (not to mention Deadpool 2, and Once Upon A Deadpool). Yes indeed, none other than the irrepressible and extremely funny Ryan Reynolds, at the top of his game, in every sense.

Directed and co-produced by Shawn Levy, with Reynolds as another of its co-producers, and finally released by 20th Century Studios and Walt Disney Studios in August 2021, Free Guy stars Reynolds as Blue Shirt Guy, initially an NPC (non-participating character) in an online multi-player video game called Free City. In best Groundhog Day fashion, Guy follows exactly the same storyline every time the game is played by anyone, as a blue shirt-wearing bank teller who falls to the ground when a gang of robbers bursts into the bank where he works.

However, and this time in best They Live fashion, after donning a pair of sunglasses normally worn only by the game's heroes and villains (the participating characters controlled by the online players), Guy can now see all the gaming cues and prompts that only the players see. This revelation in turn gives him self-awareness of what he is, and that his friends and this city in which they live are all part of that same video game, all mere simulations.

But with self-awareness comes self-dissatisfaction, as Guy now yearns to become his own person, in control of his own destiny, especially when he falls in love with Molotov Girl, a character who turns out to be the gaming avatar of Millie Rusk (both played by Jodie Comer). Millie and her computer geek friend Keys (Joe Keery) created another game, but one whose source code has been cunningly snaffled and hidden within the code of Free City by their ruthless rival, the egotistical megalomaniac Antwan Hovachelik (Taika Waititi, who also starred with Reynolds way back in the super-hero movie Green Lantern – click here to watch a very funny mini-interview in which this fact is inconveniently mentioned to Reynolds, whose dislike of Green Lantern is well documented).

Moreover, Antwan's love for Free City (based, incidentally, upon Grand Theft Auto III and IV's Liberty City) and the vast amount of money that he earns from it knows no bounds (indeed, it is exceeded only by his all-embracing love for himself!). So he is not going to concede to Millie's claims without one truly epic fight. But will Guy come to Millie's rescue and save the day for everyone? What do you think?!

As required for such a storyline, the CGI special effects in Free Guy are incredible, and I'm happy to say that Reynolds is full of Deadpoolesque wisecracks and quips. Amusingly, a Deadpool poster featuring him in this role actually appears briefly in one scene, and a Deadpool figurine appears in another! Also worth looking or listening out for are various characters played or voiced by the likes of Channing Tatum, Hugh Jackman, and Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson.

Plus there is a truly hilarious scene where Guy is confronted by a character called Dude who has Guy's (i.e. Reynolds's) face but a body of Schwarzeneggerian proportions (supplied by real-life bodybuilder Aaron W. Reed). In increasingly frenzied attempts to defeat Dude, Guy employs all manner of iconic weapons against him, including a Star Wars light sabre, the Incredible Hulk's fists, and Captain America's shield (cue a brief cameo from Captain America star Chris Evans). There is also a sweet, poignant, but fitting twist right at the end of the movie, which I won't reveal, as it makes a perfect finale to what for me is a perfect film.

I should point out, incidentally, that Free Guy apparently contains all manner of gaming in-jokes and subtle gaming product links, as well as cameos by some YouTube gamer celebrities, that my computer and video gamer friends spotted instantly and greatly relished when they watched this movie. Conversely, I regret to confess that the presence of such inserts escaped me completely (until I read or was told about them afterwards), as I've never been into gaming. Hey ho, you win some, you lose some.

Not that not spotting them spoilt my enjoyment of this movie in even the slightest way. No indeed, for me Free Guy was a total delight, keeping me thoroughly entertained for the best part of 100 mins (excluding the lengthy end credits, which I laboriously sat through in case they contained any inserted additional scenes – they didn't). There are now plans for a sequel - can't wait!!

And if you'd like to venture into the cyberworld of Free City yourself, all that you need do is click here and here to watch a couple of sensational official Free Guy trailers on YouTube!

To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

THE GREATEST SHOWMAN

Publicity poster for The Greatest Showman (© Michael Gracey/Laurence Mark Productions/Chemin Entertainment/TSG Entertainment/20^th Century Fox – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

On 15 September 2018, I finally watched The Greatest Showman, the then fairly recent (late 2017) film musical directed by Michael Gracey, and starring Hugh Jackman as Phineas T. Barnum, with Zac Efron playing his junior business partner Phillip Carlysle, Rebecca Ferguson as the 'Swedish Nightingale' Jenny Lind (Rebecca's singing voice being provided by Loren Allred), and Sam Humphrey as Charles Stratton (aka General Tom Thumb).

During the late 1800s, Barnum's incredible museum of freaks and oddities (most famously including his 'Feejee mermaid', an eyecatching taxiderm gaff created by deftly combining a preserved monkey's head and torso with the body of a fish), followed by his spectacular big top circus starring all manner of very special, very different performers, revolutionised showbusiness not only in the USA but also across the entire globe.

Due to its massively popular soundtrack, #1 in the album charts for months, I'd already heard all of the major songs, but with the very notable exception of 'Never Enough' (fast becoming a standard) I wasn't overly impressed with them. Hence I feared that the movie would prove to be that most paradoxical of productions – a musical that wasn't very musical.

Happily, I was proved wrong, because, having previously listened to its songs only as stand-alone tracks, when listening to – and (crucially) viewing – them in context, as set pieces in the film, they became much more memorable, very ably evoking and then complementing the feelings and sensations conveyed by the visuals. This is especially true of 'This Is Me', which in 2018 deservedly won a Golden Globe Award as Best Original Song – Motion Picture. Click here to watch the poignant but triumphal scene featuring it, and sung by Keala Settle as Lettie Lutz, a bearded lady.

Needless to say, comparisons with the much earlier stage musical Barnum (containing one of my all-time favourite musical theatre songs – 'The Colours of My Life') are inevitable, because they were both inspired by Barnum's life and career. Moreover, both of them take liberties with the facts, but The Greatest Showman much more so – certainly, it cannot be considered to be a factual biopic in any sense, any more than the Danny Kaye-starring film musical Hans Christian Andersen could in relation to Denmark's world-famous purveyor of fairytales.

But just like the latter musical, The Greatest Showman has a magic all of its own that transcends factual reality anyway, and I was fabulously entertained by it throughout. So by that token, The Greatest Showman definitely succeeds, and how! An awesome film, one of the best that I have seen for a very long time, it is also one that through Barnum's company of unique performers offers a very telling, timely message for everyone, everywhere, throughout all of the ages – "who ever made a difference by being like everyone else?"

And on the remote chance that you have yet to view it yourself, click here and here to view a couple of official trailers that very succinctly but successfully embody and embrace the magic and also (here) the music on offer in The Greatest Showman.

And to view a complete listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE!

A MISSING LINK DOUBLE-BILL - SAME TITLE, TWO VERY DIFFERENT MOVIES!

Publicity poster for Missing Link (1988) and front cover of official DVD for Missing Link (2019) (© David and Carol Hughes/Universal Pictures; (© Chris Butler/Annapurna Pictures/Laika/Universal Artists/AGC – both images are reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Today's Shuker In MovieLand double-bill features two movies with the same title – Missing Link – but dramatically different formats and approaches, as will be seen.

MISSING LINK (1988)

The full cover for the official VHS videocassette of Missing Link, the live-action movie released in 1988 (© David and Carol Hughes/Universal Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

After rediscovering during the afternoon of 11 June 2020 the hitherto-unwatched (by me) Time Masters animated movie on one of a batch of old videocassettes that I'd taped various movies, TV shows, etc onto, back in the late 1980s and 1990s (click here to read my Time Masters review), I carried on going through them and found another unwatched gem of a movie - Missing Link, made in 1988, which I duly watched the following day, and what an awesome film it is.

Directed and written by David and Carol Hughes, Missing Link is produced in the style of a wildlife documentary with a voiceover narration by actor Michael Gambon. It is set in Africa one million years ago, and follows a voyage of discovery across this continent by a lone adult male 'man-ape' belonging to the early hominin species Australopithecus robustus. He is seeking others of his own species after having fled from the direct ancestors of ours, Homo sapiens, when his entire family was viciously slaughtered by them, leaving him as the only remaining representative of his species in that area.

This very unusual movie is more than a little reminiscent of another one that I watched not long ago, Jonathan Livingston Seagull (click here to read my Shuker In MovieLand review of it), in that although there is not a great deal of plot, the cinematography (again the work of the Hugheses) is absolutely spectacular. Missing Link was filmed on location in various Namibian national parks filled with iconic African fauna such as lions, elephants, giraffes, gazelles, zebras, mongooses, wildebeests, and those veritable avian locusts the red-billed queleas, whose immense flocks swarm and swirl through the sky like living composite super-organisms.

This memorable movie's unnamed, unconventional star – a lone surviving australopithecine ape-man (© David and Carol Hughes/Universal Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

The unnamed australopithecine is played by Peter Elliott, and the fur suit as well as the constructed head and face that transform him into the man-ape are very impressive indeed. Viewing this movie constantly reminded me of the much later TV documentary series Walking With Cavemen (first screened in 2003, it was a successor to the highly successful, ground-breaking Walking With Dinosaurs and Walking with Beasts series). Certainly, Missing Link was indeed far ahead of its time, but its lack of any major storyline or dialogue (other than Gambon's occasional words) probably explained why it was not a commercial success when released, and why it is seemingly not available on DVD. (Following its cinema debut, it was released in VHS videocassette format, examples of which are occasionally listed for sale online, but these are usually quite pricey.)

This is a great shame, because Missing Link is very deserving of being seen, as a tragic testament to how our ancestors almost certainly contributed to these distant relatives' eventual extinction - unless the mysterious agogwe, séhité, kakundakari, and certain other diminutive hairy man-beasts reported across Africa in modern times are relict survivors?

Offering a taster of the dramatic wildlife vistas and compelling content of Missing Link, here is an official trailer for this very different but definitely must-watch movie.

MISSING LINK (2019)

Photographic still for Missing Link, the animated feature film released in 2019, with Dora the Yeti Elder seen at far right (© Chris Butler/Annapurna Pictures/Laika/Universal Artists/AGC – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

I spent the evening movie-watching on my birthday last year, 9 December 2019, of which my favourite was the DVD of Missing Link.

Directed by Chris Butler, this delightfully droll animated crypto-classic from early 2019 tells the story of what is supposedly the very last sasquatch (a restrained but all the more hilarious vocal tour de force by Zach Galifianakis). Namely, a very sensitive male bigfoot named Susan (don't ask!), who hires adventurer Sir Lionel Frost (voiced with great aplomb by Hugh Jackman) to end his loneliness by transporting him to the Himalayas where he can be united with his nearest kin, the yetis. (Cryptozoological purists be warned: the yetis here are portrayed as having white fur, a traditional if mistaken representation, as according to local eyewitness reports these mystery man-beasts are actually brown- or red-furred.)

Along the way, they meet up with a former significant other of Sir Lionel, the feisty Adelina Fortnight (Zoe Saldana), and are pursued tenaciously by the evil henchmen of Frost's nemesis, the repressive, insane Lord Piggot-Dunceby (Stephen Fry). His obsessive goal is to prevent Frost's discovery of both Susan the bigfoot and the yetis of Shangri-La from ever becoming known to the world at large.

Speaking of which: my favourite character is the etiolated, secretive, and deliciously paranoid Yeti Elder, Dora, voiced with acerbic zeal by Emma Thompson. Also worth listening out for are Little Britain stars David Walliams as Lemuel Lint, Sir Lionel's former assistant, who barely escapes with his life from his ever-perilous role, and Matt Lucas as Mr Collick, the no-less neurotic assistant of Lord Piggot-Dunceby.

Publicity poster for Missing Link featuring the Loch Ness monster (© Chris Butler/Annapurna Pictures/Laika/Universal Artists/AGC – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Full of the dry, quip-driven humour that always appeals to me, but with a hefty dollop of good old-fashioned visual slapstick thrown in too, Missing Link also includes many spectacularly eyecatching scenes (one of which features fellow cryptid Nessie, the Loch Ness monster!), but none more so than the splendorous ice palaces and hidden valley of the yetis. Watching this charming movie was without a doubt a very enjoyable and highly entertaining way to pass a birthday evening.

To prove my assertion, here is a very funny official trailer for Missing Link – and here is another one!

And to view a complete listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE!

A version of this double-bill review of cryptozoology-themed movies can also be accessed here on my ShukerNature blog.