adonis98-743-186503 John Henry Irons designs weapons for the military. When his project to create weapons that harmlessly neutralize soldiers is sabotaged, he leaves in disgust. When he sees gangs are using his weapons on the street, he uses his brains and his Uncle Joe's junkyard know-how to fight back, becoming a real man of "steel." 1997 wasn't that kind for DC Comics and it's fans since Steel, Batman and Robin and a failed attempt on JL happened all in once and all failed but after seeing this film for the first time? i have to be honest, i liked it alot. This film is super hilarious, Shaq's acting abilities are not that good and the villains alongside the writing is terrible but the film was still cheesy and enjoyable for me to care for it's story and character. I mean common where else can we see a spinning wheelchair that shoots people, or the most frustrating grenade scene in the history of cinema or even better the funniest foot chase ever made. This film isn't good and it knows it and that's what it's good for it it's retarded and so over the top that i found it great enough for me to have a good time and besides lots of people still somehow like 'The Room' now why can't we like 'Steel' too? If you've never seen this failed attempt on a New Robocop film please do and watch the trailer as well it's super freaking hilarious. (7.5/10)

Marthian80 I thought we had hit rock bottom with Batman & Robin in '97 regarding comic-book movie adaptions, but then I discovered this amazing production that takes it even further, oh boy..The story starts with our main action hero John Henry Irons (played by professional basketball player Shaquille O'Neal) who is in the army creating and testing new super-weapons. One soldier named Nathaniel Burke (Judd Nelson) for some reason decides to set a weapon to maximum when John's team is testing a new sonic gun, which blows up the building the team is in. The building collapses which cripples John's partner Susan "Sparky" Sparks (Annabeth Gish). John doesn't like that and leaves the army as does Burke who is dismissed from the military for doing stupid things like blowing up buildings he is standing in... While John goes back to LA and takes a shot at a three-pointer (which he misses, isn't that hilarious?!? An actor who is a professional basketball player misses a shot? Well wait till you see the other basketball jokes...!), the evil Burke teams up with a video arcade manager (???) to hatch a plot to sell the not-so-secret high-tech weapons to criminal gangs. John witnesses a bank robbery organized by over the top acting gangsters wielding the high-tech weapons he helped designing. Because he is unarmed, he decides to chase one gang member armed with a high tech gun who makes a run for it, because you don't just shoot down John! After going unarmed to the not-so-secret hide- out of the over the top acting gangsters and not getting any information, John decides that enough is enough. He goes to get Sparky Susan, who is very depressed being wheelchair-bound but is instantly happy by just opening some windows, get's her to work for him and with the help of Uncle Joe (?? who?), in-explainable technology and some lame 80's music he forges a suit of armor and bring Justice to the city, HA! Let me start that there is absolutely nothing in this movie that can be defined as "good". The acting is extremely bad, not only is our main hero a lame actor but the rest of the cast is also not really going for any awards here. The special effects look awful, those super-weapon look like cheap firework and the Steel suit is comparable to what you could wear to a larp event. How the suit operates is never explained, magic I guess? Shaquille also looks really silly in this costume, I almost fell off my couch from laughter when he waves his finger at the gangsters when they try to shoot him. The plot is behind stupid as well and it makes no sense whatsoever. The main villain want to lease weapons because he is the only one where they can charge up the guns? Why don't they just shoot him and take the guns for free? You can ask yourself that question a thousand time during this movie: "why don't just shoot him/her!?". Especially when John goes chasing an armed gangster unarmed and when Sparky Susan fires off her wheelchair guns... Oh my goodness that was another moment when I couldn't stop laughing. I never laugh at people in wheelchairs but this looked so ridiculous that I just couldn't help myself. Ow and don't get me started on the basketball puns, I completely lost it and had tears in my eyes from laughter during the final act when he has to throw a grenade trough a hole. "I never make these!". Ow make it stop! Steel is an awful movie but it's so bad that you should watch it for the laughs. If they hired some comedy actors and marketed this as a parody, it could have worked though.

utgard14 Garbage superhero movie based on the Superman spin-off character, Steel. One of the all-time bad comic book movies. Shaquille O'Neal is terrible, delivering lines like he's reading a menu. The armor his character wears is ludicrous and cheap. His sidekick is a woman in a wheelchair named Sparky, played by Annabeth Gish. Poor Annabeth tries but the material she's given is dreadful. Judd Nelson gives a self-consciously bad performance as the villain Burke. He knows he's in trash and doesn't even try to make the material work. In many scenes he's clearly suppressing laughter at the terrible lines he's given. It may not be professional behavior but I can hardly blame the guy. Collect that paycheck, Bender. Despite taking place in 1997, the police are driving cars that look like they're from the early '80s. Just another sign of the shoddy production, I guess. The whole thing looks cheap like it was produced by the dollar store. I suppose there is some unintended comic value of the "so bad it's good" variety. But mostly it just stinks.

bob the moo John Henry Irons is a weapons designer for the military who has been key in the development of a range of experimental weapons that immobilise enemy troops without any fatalities. However when Nat Burke tries to increase the power of the weapon during the test, the result sees a Senator dead and one of his colleagues disabled. The court martial sees Burke kicked out of the military and John decides his days of weapon design are over – returning to LA to work in a small steel mill. However when his weapons somehow make it into the hands of LA's criminal underworld, John decides that it is "on" and takes steps to counter the threat.Universally derided ever since it was even green lit for production, this film does have little to recommend it but still produces very basic distraction if that is what you want. The plot is obvious and goes just where you expect it to and it offers little for the discerning adult viewer (or to be honest the undemanding ones too). The action will please children but it is the wider delivery where it all falls down and, contrary to opinion, it is not all Shaq's fault. The script is clunky for the most part and has lots of injokes, most of which are embarrassing basketball references although, that said, the "Shaft" joke drew a laugh from me simply because it was so unexpected and so disrespectful to the film! This is very basic stuff though and nobody seems that interested in trying to make it more than that.Johnson is happy to deliver a kiddie-friendly superhero movie for the most part and this is all it seems to be. The cast have potential but too few of them have any decent material to work with. O'Neal can't act and that's the truth. He can play basketball and, given the riches this has given him we should not feel too sorry for him here. He says his lines and he stands where they tell him to stand but that is not the same as producing a character and being engaging – neither of which applies in this situation. Gish has little to do and Roundtree seems happy just to be a walking reference. Nelson hams it up in an obvious baddie while Harper, Hall and Ray J (!) are not the ones to address the lack of quality. The only person that I actually noted with interest was Kevin Grevioux, not because of his performance here but more because he is an interesting man who has built a small but varied career.Overall then this is a poor superhero movie but one that has had just about enough money spent on it to make it distract children and undemanding adults. The backlash against has been a bit overly cruel but it is still not any good with basic acting, basic script, basic plotting and action that only aspires to be colourful and noisy.