Steel (1997)

Several years ago, DC Comics killed Superman. Four characters leapt to the forefront and claimed to be the fallen Superman. Steel was one of these characters and he showed great potential.

Then a movie was made bearing the same name. The movie sounded good in theory and it showed much potential. Then someone casted Shaq and the rest was history. Other bad choices were made like casting Judd Nelson. On top of all that a director was chosen.... not Oliver Stone, not even Tim Burton, but Kenneth Johnson. Kenneth who? The same Kenneth Johnson who did "V", "Alien Nation" and "The Incredible Hulk". It is no wonder the Hiroshima of cinema was created. This movie is the exact opposite of what a good movie should be. Bad acting, bad script, bad directing. This movie became something that would have made Ed Wood proud. The rest of us on the other hand should forget this movie was ever made. I know it is hard, but try...... please try to forget.

Fmovies: O'Neal is John Henry Irons, a military weapons specialist who's just been discharged and returns home to enjoy civilian life with his family until one of his corrupt ex-compatriots (Nelson) uses his military training to deal high-tech weaponry on the streets. In order to thwart him and stop the criminal underworld from acquiring a sophisticated arsenal, Irons becomes an unlikely hero. Believe it or not, this actually had the potential to be successful, but it's done in by dumb dialogue, unconvincing special effects, and an abundance of silly Shaq in-jokes. Might have been a better idea to actually develop the story, rather than spotlighting stupid basketball references. *½

As an enormous Superman fan I picked this video up (for less than 5 dollars) just to add to my collection. I know it had nothing to do with the actual origins of the DC Comics Steel which came from the Death of Superman story but still has some similarities. The story revolves around John Henry Irons, played of course by Shaq, an army Lieutenant who worked on the creation of high tech sonic weapons along with Susan Sparks, played by Annabeth Gish, and Nathaniel Burk played by Judd Nelson. After a miscalculation leaves Susan paralyzed Irons leaves the army into civilian life. Nathaniel becomes the evil nemesis building the weapons and preparing to sell them to world arms dealers but first testing them on bank robberies with street gangs. Irons with the help of Susan referred to as Sparky and Iron's Uncle Joe played by Richard Roundtree build their own crime fighting weapons as well as a head to toe...well except for his face...outfit of steel.

The acting does get rather bad, it feels like a grade school play, and the jokes get far too reality based as so many people have pointed out. The Shaft joke just isn't funny, and the basketball references are unnecessary but that's not what wrecks the movie. What wrecks the movie is the storyline. They could so easily have based this character after the Superman origin. They made reference to the man of steel so many times that it would not have taken much to create Iron's character following the death of Superman. Shaq is not a terrible actor, there are far worse, but his physical stature makes his regular joe schmoe character almost unbelievable.

He towers above everyone and just looks silly. They never establish any sort of romance between Susan and John Irons although they hint to it, it never turns into anything. The story moves along at a good pace, and I thought Judd Nelson played a kick butt bad guy...although he played it almost sarcastically, it fit the movie really. The special effects were cheesy and obviously cheap but I can look past that. The part that bothers me the most is that his "steel" suit being bullet proof is fine but the good 5 or 6 inches on his face that was uncovered miraculously never got touched by bullets or anything else.

Plot holes are almost expected in a film like this so you have to swallow your reality to enjoy it. But sometimes if the movie isn't good enough, it's not worth swallowing anything. I don't regret watching it, it's not the worst movie I've ever seen that's for sure. 5/10

Steel fmovies. Steel

Wearing a suit made out of steel sounds amazing. Moving around in a suit made of steel sounds impossible.

Fortunately, the 7-foot tall vigilante in this action movie has the strength to manipulate his metal pants.

When a weapon he designed for the army causes an accident that cripples his friend, Sparky (Annabeth Gish), John Henry Irons (Shaquille O'Neal) retires.

With Irons gone, a duplicitous army officer, Nathaniel Burke (Judd Nelson), begins selling Irons' lethal inventions to the criminal underworld.

When Irons' gets wind of this, he recruits a now wheelchair bound Sparky and Uncle Joe (Richard Roundtree), to help him wage war against Burke and his cronies in an impenetrable armoured suit.

Based on the DC Comics character inspired by Superman, Steel's armour has many chinks: namely Shaq's acting abilities and its insufferable script.

Sadly, when this African American hero arrives, old white women still think he's the villain.

Red Light

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James Berardinelli gave this 2/4 stars - more than he gave "Trees Lounge." I find that hard to believe. This is one of the worst films I have ever seen in my entire lifetime, and I've seen quite a few.

It's yet another comic-book-adaptation based on a series that was unpopular to begin with. Shaq does his Attack as Steel, a superhero who runs around very slow in a heavy metal suit.

Whereas Spidey and Batman, et al, all have their special powers, Steel really just has a bulletproof metal suit - the "wire shooter" is a rip-off of the device used by Michael Keaton in "Batman." It attaches itself to a building and up, up and away he goes! However, the device moves at an astonishingly slow pace. Why didn't the cops just shoot him instead of standing there for over thirty seconds (yes, I counted) watching him pulled up into the air by a thin thread?

No matter. This movie is awful. Not even Richard Roundtree can save it.

And what's with the wheelchair lady?

Why, Bender, why?

I've never seen a movie as bad as this one. A few come close, but none have the power to topple "Steel". First off, when are people going to realize most athletes can't act, ESPECIALLY Shaq?? The effects are not-so-special, and are in fact quite terrible, which is ironic because so is the plot, the acting, and generally everything else in this so-called movie (read : vehicle to make some money off Shaq's name). I think the director and producer deliberately wanted to insult the audience with this tremendous piece of crap.