Steel – Der stählerne Held (1997)

Steel – Der stählerne Held: Directed by Kenneth Johnson. With Shaquille O’Neal, Annabeth Gish, Judd Nelson, Richard Roundtree. A scientist for the military turns himself into a cartoon-like superhero when a version of one of his own weapons is being used against enemies.

“Steel is one of those films where you constantly have to keep telling yourself u0026quot;this is NOT a TV movieu0026quot;. A cheap, outrageously bad superhero vehicle for the acting… er… talents?… of 7u0026#39;1 basketball player Shaquille Ou0026#39;Neal.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eCommendably, the film does actually have three clear acts, and Steelu0026#39;s emergence, though underplayed, doesnu0026#39;t happen for over forty minutes. In-jokes are a-plenty, as it mentions Batman, Superman, Jerry Maguire (u0026quot;show me the money!u0026quot;) and three instances of John Irons (Ou0026#39;Neal) having to net basketballs. The final time sees a life-threatening toss of a grenade. A lousy basketball player throughout, Shaq gets to quip u0026quot;I never make theseu0026quot;. Or would you prefer Richard Roundtree as Uncle Joe, who designs Steelu0026#39;s hammer for him? u0026quot;I did the metalwork,u0026quot; he explains, u0026quot;I especially like the shaft.u0026quot; Cue lots of double-takes and knowing glances, with Roundtree looking round, hands in the air, proclaiming u0026quot;what?u0026quot;u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe special effects are reasonable for tv movie land, but, as this is (pinch me, I must be imagining it) a real cinema movie, theyu0026#39;re quite cheap. Steel is badly written, contains atrocious dialogue, is poorly acted, shabbily directed and with an overbearing, repetitive musical score. It is, of course, tremendously entertaining.”