I didn’t think much of Real Steek when it came out last year. Seemed a little cheesy to me. After watching it, I’ve come away more impressed than anything.

Real Steel owes a lot to Rocky. It’s an underdog boxing story set in the not to distant future. Human boxing has been outlawed and robot fighting as taken it’s place. Audiences wanted more unholds barred and feroucious fighting and when robots are pummeling each other, it’s quite the spectacle. Charlie (Hugh Jackman) is a former boxer, current dead beat dad. When his ex dies, his son Max (who he hasn’t seen in 10 years) comes to live with him for the summer.

The set up is pretty standard and while the movie is rather predictable (estranged father and son grow close when they bond over a common interest) the movie won me over with it’s charm. It also helps that the robot special effects are fantastic. Boxing is quickly becoming passe as MMA continues to dominate professional fighting today. The choregraphy and motion capture for the fighting robots was done by professional boxers and supervised by Sugar Ray Leonard. Great idea and execusion that shows off some terrific fighting on screen. I can’t remember the last time I was that entertained watching boxing, The chemistry between Charlie and Max is good and there are some funny moments. There was a surprising amount of light cursing (I think they could have changed it pretty easily without it being awkward) and the robot violence got this a PG-13 rating but I think this is great for kids 10 and over.

At 2 hours it felt a little too long, but it doesn’t hold Real Steel back from being a good movie. Great for a rainy day this fall.

A good sci-fi movie is hard to come by these days. Prometheus was really promising but lost its way. Ener Looper from writer/director Rian Johnson who did Brick (which also starred Joseph Gordon Levitt) which I absolutly loved. Rian also directed two episodes of Breaking Bad which makes him even greater in my eyes.

Looper is a time traveling movie. Joe (Joseph Gordon Levitt) is a “Looper”, an assassin who kills the people that his mob employer send back to be disposed of. Time travel is a possible and outlawed 30 years in the future (the movie takes place in 2044, so 2074 for this time tech) so only the bad guys are using it. Here’s the catch, being a Looper means you’re in a contract with a rather harsh end. You “close the loop” when the mob sends your future self back to yourself so you can kill…yourself. You get paid off and your contract is finished. They do that to server all ties to you being an assasssin and working for them. So if you are a live 30 years (or so) in the future, you’re going to kill yourself.

How is that for mind bending? But there’s more. There’s some (extra) shady busisness going on with the mob and Future Joe (Bruce Willis) isn’t having any of it. Future Joe manages to get away from Present Joe and the chase is on. Present Joe is in a heap of trouble.

So it’s a cat and mouse chase that is so smart an inventive. The set up and execusion is so well done and handled. The cast is brilliant. Looking at JGL with the prothsteics to make him resemble Bruce Willis looks odd at first, but that feeling quickly melted away and JGL plays a younger Willis so well that I really thought I was watching the same person 30 years apart. There’s quite a bit more to the story, but I think that’ll ruin it too much if I say more. Future Joe’s reasoning and methods really push the concept and story forward.

I loved every second of it. Please go see it, this one needs to be a huge success, we don’t get many movies of this quality that offen.

I’ve watched a lot of movies waiting for the Fall TV season to come and most of what I’ve seen can be put into quick hits.

Shame- Michael Fastbender as a sex addict equals Fastbender in a shockingly boring movie. This movie was all hyped up because of it’s subject matter and nudity. I found his character to be so incredibly pathetic and weird that seeing the credits roll was the best part of the movie.

Hesher- Joseph Gordon Levitt is Hesher, a guy who just doesn’t give a fuck. Who is he, where is from, where does he go? No one knows. He befriends a kid, TJ who recently lost his mother and generally hates life. Hesher, through a weird series of events helps the kid through the most difficult part of his life. Liked this one a lot and it took me by surprise. It was on odd but unique and touching story. You’re never really sure where it’s going but in the end the story is a good one. Natalie Portman, Rainn Wilson and JGL are all awesome and Devin Brochu as TJ was really impressive.

Project X- A High School party movie using the found footage directing technique. It’s cast well, the situations get bigger and crazier…even though it doesn’t really do anything terribly new, I thought it was a fun movie.

The Grey- It’s Liam Neeson giving Les Stroud a run for his money! Can this guy do no wrong or what? This time he’s caught in the woods trying to survive. Aside from some awkward looking wolf puppet attacks, it looked awesome and was a fun ride. Really liked the ending.

The Thing- The new one. I’m kinda torn about this one. Carpenter’s the thing is pretty much a masterpiece so it’s really hard for anything to walk anywhere near this universe. I think it did a lot of things right, it looked like it took place in the same time and place, it fits into the beginning of Carpenter’s movie well. The paranoia was played up well and they wisely avoided directly ripping the big moments off from Carpenter. That said. they didn’t really have a huge moment to hang their hat on. They show a lot of the monster frequently and it reminded me a lot of the stuff you see in anime (especially Gluttony from Full Metal Alchemist). I really want to see a making of to see how and why they choose to do things, what’s cg and what isn’t. It looks like they did as much as they could practically, added CG to enhance and full CG where they had to. I’m wondering if just being able to say that they did it with cg makes it less intense. Just knowing it’s digital makes it easier to brush aside [there is some wild shit they did with the attacks]. I got confused a lot because all the guys have beards so they all look alike. When the eating starts it was difficult to remember who was left alive. I’m totally on the fence about this flick. It wasn’t bad, it respected Carpenters movie but there’s just something that wasn’t right. I guess i’m just thinking it shouldn’t have been made which sounds really harsh. That makes it sound like the Psycho remake.

Chronicle is a movie that snuck up on people. There was no buzz while it was being made with no big name actors to draw attention to it. Then the marketing department came up with some great ideas an it caught some curiosity. $100 million or so on a $12 million budget is a cracking good start for everyone involved.

Here’s the story: three high school friends find a hole in the ground that seems out of the ordinary. They go exploring inside and when they make it out they’ve been given telekinesis powers. Slowly they learn to use their extraordinary power and expand what they can do. Soon a power struggle emerges between the boys which quickly spirals out of control.

Chronicle is a bit like a comic book movie, but more established in reality. It’s a “What if…” tale that asks you what would happen if you could move things with your mind? Would you be able to control it and yourself? The classic ethos of “With great power comes great responsibility” is literally told here.

I really liked how this story was handled and shown to the audience. All the actors are good, their motivations clear to understand. For a movie with such a low budget, the FX are done really well. There is some rough compositing and weird fake physics that clearly shows, but for the most part it all works and sells itself well. Really impressive. There’s a lot of great ideas (direction and action wise) at work here.

The choice of going with “found footage” like Blair Witch Project is bold one as you’d think it would really limit on what you’d be able to show as you need a character to hold a camera the whole time. I noticed one or two suspect moments where the camera location would be suspect (near the end, there’s no way you’d hear what the characters are saying in the situation we are shown). The main character, Andrew, is going through a really bad part of his life and decides to record everything. While he learns to use his powers, he figures out how to make his camera float around while doing something else. Not only does this open the doors to camera movement and placement, it also shows how much better he is at controlling his powers than the other two boys. Another character is said to have a video blog, so she is recording everything she does too. While an obvious reach to get another camera rolling for parts where Andrew isn’t around, I let any nagging thoughts go and let it ride.

I’m a big fan of Chronicle, I had a great time watching it. Reminded me a bit of Moon where this little project from the minds of a few ingenious people comes to life on screen. I hope the writer and director continue on from this great start.

This is a very simple review to write. If you are an action fan, you have to see The Raid. I wish I saw this in theaters, for some reason I slept on it and decided to wait for it to hit home screens. Writer and Director Gareth Evans has some serious talent.

Set in Jakarta, there is an apartment complex that is run by a crimelord that no one has been able to touch for years. It’s considered off limits to authorities, until an elite squad of officers are assembled to go in and bring out the crimelord. He’s believed to be on the 30th floor, the very top of the building. The team makes it to the sixth.

This movie is just packed with some of the best fight choreography seen in years. Guns, an alarming amount of knives, fist and feet aplenty go flying for an hour and a half. It’s hard to describe the amount and quality of athletic prowess on display. The direction is expertly thought out and serves up clear widescreen carnage that very few American directors even dare to think about. Really heroic stuff matched musically by Mike Shinoda (Linkin Park).

A must watch, The Raid has it all. Solid actors with a simple and effective plot and a story that keeps you engaged through every tight and explosive action scene. People will be passing this around for years as an example of the best of the genre. If this is just the beginning, the sequel is going to redefine the game.