Customer Reviews

Steel [VHS]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Ok, this movie deserves to be watched again and again and again and again. My friend and I saw the last half of it on TV a couple months ago, and we laughed so hard that we decided to get the whole thing...it was one of the best investments I have ever made! One advantage to actually owning it on tape is that you can rewind it once, twice, thrice and watch the same scenes over and over until your sides bust! This movie is non-stop laughs, and I personally guarantee that you'll love it! STEEL! There are so many pointless, random scenes that just kill me! Get it! Get it! Go Steel, go! I haven't seen it yet, but I'm planning on going out and renting Kazaam (a movie where Shaq plays a genie! ) and if it's half as funny as Steel, I know I'll die laughing! RENT IT, STEEL IT, BUY IT, JUST SEE IT!

What is this.... I'd rather watch a penny collect rust than watch this again. OMGAWD. Shaq should be sent to Guantanamo Bay for this. I think this movie is an indication of the forthcoming end of time............

Personally, I have no idea how Shaquille O' Neal would want to act in movies. He is not that good a voice actor at all, but he does great action stunts. I always liked Steel, even though I've hardly ever heard of him. At least the comics have an African-American character. Now, why would this movie be bad? The effects aren't THAT bad. It's not exactly predictable. And besides Shaq, everyone else acts well. It's a nice little plot, not too simple, keeping you confused at the beginning and making you feel good at the end. Of course, Annabeth Gish's character being able to walk again at the film's end is a bit much; if anything, they should have saved that for a sequel. Shaq has the size and the looks. His films are B material at best, but STEEL was obviously his best. KAZAAM, of course, was hilarious, but not as good as this. This movie was MEANT to be taken seriously, so don't expect too much. I mean, the romance in TITANIC, the 1998 romance/tradgedy, was awful. And on the back of the case, it said "Titanic has been hailed as the greatest motion picture of all time". That's bull. I mean, who wrote that, anyway? God, or something? At least STEEL doesn't brag like THAT. The movie is one of the best I've ever seen in action. They just should have found a tall black man who wasn't Shaq, and made the story longer, and this could've been a classic. Shaq, please don't star in any more movies. There's something just dumb about how you act. But you survived it. And if you can do that, I think the movie's viewers should be able to treat it with a little more respect. In other words, shame on all of you. At least Shaq TRIED.

This is the only time I will ever say something is worse than the putrid TV sitcom Suddenly Susan, but Judd Nelson should have stuck with that rather than get in this tin can.

It's sad that Annabeth Gish was in this, because she was in the stellar Last Supper, but with Judd and Shaq aboard, you can only expect so much. The dialogue could have been written down from cable access, and the acting is so stiff the title comes to mind.

Basically, I give this one star because I can't fathom anyone buying it. This is something you watch at 2am with your friends and laugh at. You can't/shouldn't even watch all of it, as it's not as absorbingly bad as a lot of relatively B action films that received mass release.

Steel is so bad sometimes it's painful. The acting is barely worth mentioning because there is none, and the film doesn't have good enough special effects or writing to make up for it. Shaquille O'Neal is quite a "Larger than Life" individual, and I think he is a great basketball player, one of the best playing today. Yet Shaq will never be the best actor. Really though in this film, he is about the best all the others are so terrible. Unless you love a good "B" movie which is predictable and humorously bad, stay away from Steel. And Mr. O'Neal, If I were you I wouldn't give up my day job anytime soon for a new career in movies.

Back in 2004, I found this at the bargain bin at K-Mart for a mere dollar and thought "This might be a 'so bad it's good' romp to laugh at" and boy was I wrong. Steel was one of the most torturous cinematic experiences of my life. I want my dollar back (I'm not kidding).

For those of you too young to remember the 90's well enough, here's some history for you. Back in the early 90's, Shaquille O' Neal was a rising star in the NBA, so much so, he got record deals to record several rap albums, have his own fighting-themed video game called Shaq Fu, and star in his own movies called Kazaam and Steel; all of which are blights to their respective categories. His rap albums made rap fans scream in agony, Shaq Fu is the rightful whipping boy of video game enthusiasts, and his films are heavily (and rightfully) lambasted by film critics and forgotten by the public. You know how in some vintage cartoons there would be a witch that would touch a plant and it would die on contact? It seems like when Shaq touches anything not relating to basketball, it dies on contact. Given how this cinematic dud still hasn't been released on DVD to this day, I'm certain that it never will since nobody old enough to remember it even remembers it that much.

Now to the movie, it's absolutely awful. The plot is okay, I guess, but given that no one really puts in any effort into their roles, it just makes you want to bash your head on your office desk. For one, Shaq can't act if his life depended on it. Of course, he's monotone 95% of the time but when he really does try to put emotion into his lines, it's unbelievably forced. For example, the scene were army reject Nathaniel Burke (Judd Nelson) fires that soundwave cannon towards the beginning and when John Henry Irons (Shaq) screams out "Nathaniel No!!" is a joke. Shaq also has the stiffest face in film, when his cop friend gets hurt in the line of duty and when Irons chases down one of the bank robbers armed with one of his high-tech weapons, he supposedly gets "mad" and says "It's on" but you can only tell by his lines and not his face. Steel is also the most unimpressive superhero ever. While good superheroes have flaws, Steel is nothing but flaws. All he does is get shot at and fall like a corpse, not to mention that he's unbelievably slow when he moves. The other characters aren't impressive at all, either. For one, the gang members that Burke armed with Steel's weapons are rock stupid. They break into a giant bank but instead of doing something bearing some semblance to realism by being quiet, they yell like Lil' Jon as they steal the money.

While I'm not that hung up on imagery, the Steel costume is atrocious. When he's threatening that thug for stealing some stuff from that old, wealthy couple, you can tell when he's talking that his suit is made of rubber. You'd think they'd at least put some effort in designing a decent costume.

While I know that this is a superhero movie and not intended to be 100% realistic, I was quite annoyed by some severely illogical events in the movie. When Steel confronts one of the bank robbers about where he got that shiny laser gun, the head gang member shoots him in the back with the same type of gun. That same gun was able to shoot down a helicopter yet when Steel gets shot with it, he doesn't die from the blast, he doesn't even get severe burns from it!! There's a scene towards the end that contains the worst "Shaq can't make free throws" joke in the movie (more on that later) where Steel and his nephew are trapped with a live grenade but they were able to perform a whole comedy routine before the grenade explodes. If this had any shred of realism, the grenade would have exploded when Steel shouts "I never make these!!"

The humor is awful, just like everything else in this movie. There's a constant barrage of hammy in-jokes about how Shaq can't shoot free throws that'll have you pulling your hair and groaning in agony. Of course, the cherry on the s*** sundae has to be when Steel and his nephew get locked in that warehouse and are trapped with an armed grenade and the kid tells him to throw it through a small hole several feet above them, Steel utters "I never make these!!" Most of the "humorous" lines are blatantly stolen from other people. Steel's assistant, Susan Sparks, steals "It's not easy being green" from the Muppets and the worst offense has to be when Steel activates his Electro Hammer and blurts out "It's Hammer Time!!" That right there shows desperation and creative bankruptcy because even back in 1997, MC Hammer was out of style and for this cinematic joke to steal from a horribly outdated musician will surely leave the serious film fan doing the "face palm." When Steel's Uncle Joe (played by Richard Roundtree) says "I particularly like the shaft" about Steel's hammer, you'll be screaming to yourself "Is this the best they can do?!!"

Notice how I rated this 4% and not a 0%, that means there is SOME good in it, right? Well, yes. You're about to read my only "glass is half-full" take on this turkey. The only remotely good parts in this movie were when Sparks attacks some bad guys with some weapons installed on her wheelchair and when Steel successfully makes a free throw with a grenade in that warehouse, one of Burke's henchman makes a pretty funny face as he sees the grenade and screams "No!!," squeezed a little laughter out of me.

I hope that there isn't some apologetic, new-found appreciation for this dreck because that's what happened to Howard the Duck and that rotten egg was released on DVD recently. I hope Steel will NEVER be released on DVD because there's absolutely nothing remarkable about it and worth the waste of plastic to manufacture copies of a movie that NOBODY wants. Okay, maybe if there was a Riff Trax version of Steel, then it MIGHT be worth having on DVD.

You may be wondering what happened to my tape of Steel. I didn't bother selling it on eBay since I know no one wants this movie, so I did the next best thing, I blew it up with a Furby on the Fourth of July.

I watched the movie with my son who already liked the animated steel from the superman animation series. He thought it was great to see a hero in a real life sense. I know a lot of people didnt like it, but thats because they forget its just pretend..I think it's a great father and son movie...Shaq did a great job as the man of steel...........

while this movie is silly and unintentionally comical for most of the way through it, at least those who were involved tried to make the best of everything. Shaq tries too hard as an actor and for his own careers sake, he shouldn't give up basketball.

Anyone who has ever read the DC Comics character Steel knows that he has a Ph.D. in engineering, is on nearly the same power level as Superman (and, in fact temporarily replaced Superman when everyone thought he was dead), and is generally one of the most intelligent African-American characters ever developed for comics. No offense to Shaquille O'Neal, but the only thing that he has in common with Steel is that they are both big, bald, Black men. Warner Brothers should be ashamed of itself for destroying this character on film.

I bought this album looking for the hip hop tracks which are all good. Mobb Deep has a great track, B-Real, Ice Cube, KRS-ONE, Peter Gunz and Shaq appear on a posse cut and it`s good too. Spice 1 comes with a solid track too, but otherwise the r&b could be a lot better.