A young boy has to spend the summer with his feckless, effete father in the robot battling slice of cheese that is Real Steel. Essentially a remake of Stallone's Over The Top with snazzy cgi automata replacing the mulleted musclemen, this cliche riven tale has a Spielberg-ish focus on the father/son bond instead of concentrating on a future where robots duke it out for sport. Jackmon and Lilly's performances are competent enough but are only a smidge more emotional than the bots they tinker with and the script is just as functional. I know this wasn't made with a 30 plus viewer in mind and I'm not sure why even bothered but even for a kids film this was anodyne, stunningly formulaic guff. Definitely not the droids I was looking for.
Perversely the Harold and Kumar franchise seems to improve with it's sequels and A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas was the tightest and funniest yet. The pot heads have drifted apart but an adventure to track down a replacement Xmas tree brings them back together and they stumble their way through an increasingly unlikely series of escapades. With a sharp script and an admirable gag rate this inane, simple minded comedy kept me chuckling throughout and though it's not going to appeal to everyone it knows it's target market and has no lofty pretensions. I'm sure this won't be the last we'll see of the pair.
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