With $27.3 million, “Real Steal” had the best opening weekend of any boxing-themed film. It beat “Rocky IV,” which opened with $20 million in 1985.

The $110 million robot fighting film from Dreamworks stars Hugh Jackman (“X-Men Origins: Wolverine”) and attracted a primarily male audience, according to Disney. Also, 44 percent of the filmgoers were under 25 years old.

George Clooney’s film, “The Ideas of March,” featuring Ryan Gosling, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Evan Rachel Wood and Marisa Tomei, came in second with 10.4 million.

The other films comprising the top five films of the weekend carried over audiences from last week.

1. “Real Steel” — $27.3 mil
2. “The Ides of March” — $10.4 mil
3. “Dolphin Tale” — $9.2 mil
4. “Moneyball” — $7.5 mil
5.” 50/50″ — $5.5 mil

Source: Entertainment Weekly

This movie was supposed to be terrible.

It’s a preposterous and sappy PG-13 action film with giant fighting robots and a precocious, yet adorable child. It’s a story that’s been told 1,000 times- down-on-his-luck raffish charmer learns the true meaning of love and responsibility, while making a spectacular comeback in the ring, demonstrating the power of the human/American spirit, etc.etc. The only real difference is, oh yeah, the GIANT FIGHTING ROBOTS.

So you can imagine my surprise at about the midway point for “Real Steel”, when a terrible, inescapable realization came over me.

I was actually enjoying myself.

How is this even possible, when the trailer was enough to make me laugh myself silly and then lapse into a dark reverie over the depressing state of American cinema? How could my impeccably pretentious taste levels be so overcome with ragged affection for a robot movie? The only answers I have for you lay with director Shawn Levy, a Brett Ratner–level hack whose past credits include the atrocious “Pink Panther” remake with Steve Martin and “Just Married” with Ashton Kutcher. Somehow, despite all expectations, Levy managed to imbue a ridiculous concept and script with stunning imagery, technical agility and, not least of all, charm.

Hugh Jackman, of course is the down-on-his-luck raffish charmer name Charlie, armed with a leather jacket and pissy attitude. In this near-future tale, Charlie’s boxing career was demolished years ago by the rise of robot boxing. He now travels around as a robot boxer controller, playing in (sigh) underground robot fight clubs. Charlie discovers that his son (Dakota Goyo), whom he has never seen, has recently lost his mother, and he must reluctantly bring him into his work and his world until he’s able to shove the kid off onto his aunt and uncle.

Of course, Charlie cannot remain a heartless bastard for long, and the story line between his son and him is ridiculous and very played. But young Goyo and Jackson have a rather shaggy repartee with one another that I actually found both charming and smart. The movie is primarily just the two of them and the robot, and in less capable hands their paternal angst could get boring very quickly. Goyo especially knows how to walk the fine line between adorable and nauseating and by the end I kind of wished he was my kid.

The movie also seems to have a surprising amount of technical literacy. A marvelous scene, which takes place in an underground robot fight club at an abandoned zoo, is both a terrific action sequence and an exuberant, noisy panorama of chaos, with tinges of “Mad Max” and Tarantino. In a real rarity, Levy seems particularly adept at shooting fight scenes. He eschews wide shots and shaky cam for solid, claustrophobic close-ups of metal and motor oil dripping, as the crowds roar around the players. It’s frankly gory, or it would be if it were flesh and blood being pounded on. Also, the technology in the film seems mainly on-par with what it would look like in 2024 (or whatever year it’s supposed to be). In fact, in many of the scenes the robots are real animatronic wonders created by Legacy Effects. Their physical presence can actually be felt off-screen; you’re strangely startled every time one of them walks up behind one of the human actors, or turns its head to look into the camera.

This isn’t a great movie. I’m not even sure it’s a good, given the basic concept and shoddy, exposition-heavy writing by John Gratins, Dan Gilroy and Jeremy Leven. And there’s a weird thread of xenophobia running through the narrative; the villains are both wealthy and foreign, and the least believable part of the movie is when they explain that Japanese robots are inferior to American-made ones. But God help me, I had a good time watching it; and unlike movies like “Transformers”, which are simply soulless holes to stuff with marketing tie-ins, this movie actually wants to be about something. It’s about people living on the edge of civilization, in all the ways people do, and about the pain and joy of watching your dreams give way to something you hadn’t expected. It doesn’t tell that story in a particularly adept or sophisticated way, but at least it’s making the attempt.

I’m kind of embarrassed to be admitting I liked this movie so much. I had dubbed this thing “Rocky-Sock ‘Em Robots” before I even stepped in the theater. But this story has been told 1,000 times because it still has the power to affect you. They wrote a movie about fighting robots because when it’s done right, fighting robots are awesome to watch. It’s a movie every machine-loving pre-pubescent boy (or girl) can love. And I didn’t mind it either.

DreamWorks Studios is holding an open audition call for a 10-14 year old male actor for a lead role in upcoming film “Real Steel,” starring Hugh Jackman. The role to be cast is Max, a “street-smart, tough, charming kid with a hard, untrusting outer shell which hides a warm enthusiastic spirit…a complicated, strong-willed and resourceful boy.”

In the film, Jackman plays an ex-fighter who becomes a promoter when human boxing is banned for being too violent. Humans get replaced by 2000-pound fighting robots with human qualities. Since he is not able to adequately compete in Robot Boxing, he begins focusing on a discarded robot that always seems to win. In the meantime, he learns that he is the father of a 13-year old boy, and they bond as the robot fights its way toward the top.

Anyone who is interested in the role can submit a videotaped audition through www.realsteelcasting.com. Additionally, two open call auditions will be held starting on February 14 in Chicago and then on February 20 in New York. No acting experience is necessary for interested actors, nor are they required to prepare anything for the audition.

Details on the open call auditions are as follows:
Chicago: February 14: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Chicago Academy of the Arts 1010 W Chicago Street Chicago, IL 60642-5490 (Parking behind building)

New York: February 20: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Shetler Studios 244 West 54th Street 12th Floor New York, NY 10019-5515

Complete details on the auditions are available on the web site at www.realsteelcasting.com. All videotape submissions will become the property of DreamWorks Studios and will not be returned.

Laura Saltman can dish it out. Whether she’s interviewing the stars for Access Hollywood, posting celebrity news on her blog A Dish of Salt, or discovering the next big thing in entertainment, Laura Saltman isn’t afraid to ask the juicy questions. And she does it all with a smile on her face and a light in her eyes. She’s bright, she’s funny, she’s passionate, and she really cares about the people she interviews.

Blast recently chatted with Access Hollywood’s celebrity reporter about rising stars, Glee, American Idol and her beloved dogs (a black lab and a beagle/spaniel mix). What do you ask someone who asks really cool people questions for a living? Well, you start with the really cool people.

BLAST: What is your favorite interview you’ve ever done?

LAURA SALTMAN: My favorite was with Hugh Jackman on the day it was announced he was People’s Sexiest Man Alive. I love Hugh Jackman. He gave a fantastic interview, and I think he’s drop dead gorgeous. But there was this controversy, with people at work saying "Hugh Jackman’s not the sexiest man alive!" So I came up with the 10 reasons why I love Hugh Jackman and why he should be the sexiest man alive. I had it framed, printed on nice paper, and I brought it to him at the interview. He absolutely went nuts for it, he thought it was the greatest thing ever. He was reading the whole thing and he couldn’t believe that I went through all this trouble! He told me he was going to put it in his man room, which is his version of the man cave in the basement. And I really believe that that is hanging on his wall in Australia right now.

BLAST: What were some of the things you put on the list?

LS: He man-scapes. The fact that he is still married and loves his wife. His masculinity, even though he’s played a gay man on Broadway. And I think one of the reasons was his chest. And because he’s a great interview and he always knows the right answer to give. He’s the best, such a sweetheart.

BLAST: What was your worst interview?

LS: My worst interview was Daniel Craig, which is ironic, since they’re currently starring on Broadway together. It was for the movie "Defiance." But he’s Bond, right? You’re going in, thinking he’s going to be suave, charismatic, sophisticated, so cool. I’d never interviewed him before and never met him, and I was expecting him to be Bond, and he was not Bond. He was just charmless. He was very matter-of-fact, and I could not get him to warm up to me. Of course I thought it was me! But then I asked other people about it, and they all said the same thing, that he’s just not the person you expect him to be. He’s a very serious actor, and he doesn’t play into all the Hollywood stuff. He just wants to be an actor, and that’s all. But he’s Bond! It surprised me.

BLAST: What’s it like interviewing someone who’s on a reality show, as opposed to someone who’s born and bred famous?

LS: To me it’s better because people who are on reality shows don’t have the agents, the managers, the publicists breathing down their neck, telling them every single word to say. It changes to much, they’re just being real. I would so much rather interview somebody who’s just being who they are than someone who’s already calculated what they’re going to say to me. I don’t like stuff like that. I would rather interview someone from American Idol, or one of the Bachelors, or even the celebrities from Dancing with the Stars, who have been knocked down a few pegs and are now doing the show trying to come back. I’d rather interview them because they’re less guarded than celebrities.

BLAST: Do publicists get in your way a lot? Are there a lot of canned responses?

LS: It’s become a bigger problem in our industry as the tabloids have taken over. You have to walk a fine line. I have to think, "If I were a celeb, would I want someone asking me that? What would I say back?" Some take it better than others. I’d rather have someone say to me "No comment" than just walk away. With Twitter, people are now getting ahead of the story. Like Jessica Simpson. There was a story about when she broke up with Tony Romo, and she went on Twitter and said "I’m doing ok, don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine." So instead of the paparazzi hounding her to get the first response from her, she just went on Twitter and said how she was feeling. It took the paparazzi out of the picture.

BLAST: What’s it like to interview a rising star? I noticed you interviewed Lea Michele from Glee recently. What’s it like to interview someone like that, where you know that this is their first big break?

LS: It’s cool because you can see it in their eyes. You can see how excited they are for the interview. I was one of the first people on the set of Glee, and I could just see it—they had this glint in their eyes, they were so excited for Access Hollywood to be there. The great thing about Lea is that now that the show is so successful—I’ve seen her seven or eight times since the first interview—she still has that gleam in her eye. Lea, to me, is still excited, and I think she’s going to be a huge star.

BLAST: Any other young celebrities we should keep our eyes on?

LS: Today I interviewed Victoria Justice. She has a Nickelodeon show coming out called Victorious. It’s kind of like Fame, High School Musical, Glee… and she is drop-dead gorgeous. She was on Zoey 101, but she wasn’t the lead. Nickelodeon is really pushing her to be their next big star. She looks just like Nina Dobrev from The Vampire Diaries, so we actually talked about how people mistake them for each other. If the show does well, I think she’ll actually end up being a pretty big star.

BLAST: What’s your absolute favorite thing to report on?

LS: American Idol. I love it. I’ve been covering it since the very first season. I was interviewing some of the contestants from last season and Alexis Grace said to me that all the people from the last eight seasons of American Idol all know each other, and they all hang out. And I said it was so nice that they all stayed together, and she said, "Yeah we’re like a family, but we feel that you’re part of our Idol family too, because you’ve always been around and everybody knows you." She just made my day! I feel like I’m part of the American Idol family, and I would be devastated to not be a part of it anymore.

BLAST: Speaking of things we love, you interviewing Katee Sackhoff from Battlestar Galactica. What’s she like?

LS: She’s awesome! She’s one of my most favorite interviews. She is like a ball of energy, and she’s funny! You don’t expect that, because she’s Starbuck, right? You expect drama. I told her when she walked in, "I feel like you could totally kick my ass." I told her she could do a sitcom she’s so funny. Every time I asked a question she came up with this hilarious joke about it. I absolutely loved her. I surprised her by bringing in some of our fanboys who work at Access Hollywood, and she could not have been nicer to them. You can tell that she really loves the attention, and all these guys adore her. She’s great. Absolutely loved her.

BLAST: What first made you want to be an entertainment reporter?

LS: I was obsessed with celebrities. I just wanted to know everything about them. I was such a huge fan of movies and TV, and I was fascinated by the process of making TV shows. I’ve always said that I don’t want to be a star, I just want to interview them. It started when I was a little girl, because my parents put a TV in my room since the age of 7. My parents would make me go to bed at 9 o’clock, and there were certain shows that I wanted to watch, so I’d take the TV and I’d put it under my bed and watch it upside down, so they wouldn’t see the light. I’d hang over the edge of my bed and watch "Dallas" upside down! I’ve always wanted to do this.

BLAST: And now you have a great reputation as a no-holds-barred interviewer, and everyone takes you very seriously.

LS: It does get me in trouble though. (laughs)

BLAST: Do you have any words of advice for young people who want to do your job?

LS: Everyone told me I was never going to be what I wanted to be, it was too difficult, but I was still determined. If someone tells me no, I do the opposite, I prove them wrong. Now it seems like it’s a lot easier to get into because there’s so much media involved with celebrities and entertainment. Obviously you’ve got to go to school, but as soon as you’re out of school, you’ve got to get on these internet sites and become a writer. You don’t even have to live in LA now, as you know, to do this. You just have to meet the right people, get out there, start writing stuff, and learn as much as you can, meet as many people as you can. A lot of people that I’ve met have helped me meet someone else. So never say no to any job in entertainment, because you never know who can be your first stepping stone.

This Access Hollywood reporter knows how to do a good interview, no matter what side of the table she’s on. You can follow Laura Saltman on Twitter, or check out her blog.

Photos: Getty Images

ENFIELD, Conn. — My feeling is this: the only possible way that “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” could have been spawned is if the following conversation took place, in some undisclosed location with a pair of undisclosed Fox studio executives. Let’s call them Character and Assassination.

Character: Hey, even though the third X-Men was a pile of cow dung, everybody still likes Wolverine, right?

Assassination: Please. The better question is, who doesn’t like Hugh Jackman? That guy’s awesome.

Character: So let’s make a movie about him, throw in a lot of gratuitous cameos of other mutants — but let’s twist their personalities and abilities to the point where they are unrecognizable.

Assassination: Great idea! And let’s the film the entire thing on green screens! Think Lucas will give us a hand? He’s an expert at ruining franchises.

Character: Pshaw, think about how much that’ll cost? Instead, let’s blow our whole FX budget showing Sabretooth’s fingernails growing in extreme closeup, accompanied by Liev Schreiber’s sardonic smirk.

Assassination: I like the way you think. Maybe we could add a couple unfunny pithy one-liners. But what happens besides that?

Character: Doesn’t really matter. We could just have Wolverine get into a lot of pointless fights that don’t advance the plot at all. And he could growl a lot, sort of like Darth Vader in “Revenge of the Sith.” That was the best part, am I right?

Assassination: Totally. But what other mutants should we include?

Character: Well, the fans have been asking for Gambit.

Assassination: The only way I’ll allow that is if he drops his Cajun accent five minutes into the film, and also appears out of nowhere several times.

Character: It’s a deal. Also, let’s cast Van Wilder and Charlie from “Lost” somehow. And that guy from the Yes We Can video. I’m thinking we could tell them they’ll play cool mutants from the comics and then make their characters about a hundred times more stupid.

Assassination: With pleasure! And let’s abuse Cyclops again. I really just can’t stand that guy.

Character: How will we keep continuity with the other movies? For that matter, Liev Schreiber doesn’t look anything like the guy who played Sabretooth the first time, does he?

Assassination: Don’t worry about it. Just call him “Victor” the entire time and give him less hair. The audience won’t even know he’s supposed to be Sabretooth.

Character: Genius. You ready to film this thing, then?

Assassination: Yeah. But should we worry about the plot at all?

Character: Are you kidding? We’ll have as many plot holes as the amount of bloodless stab wounds. Gotta keep it PG-13.

Assassination: Let’s do this thing!

There you have it, folks. Now, that might come off as the bitter ranting of a disappointed geek — which I admittedly am — but the truth of the matter is that this was a bad, bad film regardless of geek affiliation or lack thereof.

The production values were uneven at best and laughable at worst; there are scenes where I had to fight not to laugh, both at the bad CGI and painful dialogue. It was like watching the part in “Return of the King” where the hobbits are frolicking in bed together.

The plot was disjointed and frankly made very little sense. All the themes and questions that Bryan Singer and company developed in the first two X-Men films — and yes, even the abominable Brett Ratner contributed to those in the third X-Men — are completely absent here. Yes, it’s intended to be a different franchise, I understand that, but it is also supposedly set in the same universe. But no, the only continuity in this film was Jackman himself.

Ah! There it is: the film’s sole redeeming quality! Hugh Jackman is again excellent in the role, balancing the fan favorite “best at what he does, but what he does isn’t very nice” aspect of Wolverine with the human side. Jackman clearly has a love for this role and this character, and he played the different sides of the Wolverine beautifully. One such moment was near the end of the film, when Logan loses his memories. The change in attitude, in voice, was so perfectly on par with the Logan we see in X-Men 1 and 2 that I could only smile.

But unfortunately, one good performance doesn’t save a film riddled with inconsistency, stupidity, absurdity, and a lot of other nouns that end in “Y,” nor does that performance render the film watchable.

It’s a shame, really — and I do hate to say it — but the bottom line here is to stay away from “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.”

Stay far, far away.

This is an exclusive special report from Blast Magazine

BRISBANE, Australia — At least 181 people have been confirmed dead and thousands of homes have been destroyed in Victoria’s worst bushfire disaster.

According to ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) online, Victorian police are prepared for the death toll to reach 300 pending formal identification and retrieval of the dead.

Police Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon has warned the public to be prepared for more fatalities.

“We are going house by house and street by street to search for bodies … and we have some cause to believe there are clearly more people who have died in this fire” she said.

Many of the deceased died in their cars whilst trying to escape the fires but were quickly overcome by the flames.

Over 4200 calls were made to the state’s emergency hotline as fires approached residential areas.

According to the Herald Sun, emergency hotline operators (000) were forced to listen “to terrified Victorians dying over the phone” when help could not reach them in time.

Police forensic experts have the grim and time consuming job of identifying the dead, a nearly impossible feat considering the extreme heat of the fire.

Police are also looking for a man suspected of starting two fires on the outskirts of Melbourne (the capital city of Victoria.)

Although the blazes were quickly extinguished, the Country Fire Authority warns that they had the potential to become major fires.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has angrily condemned any arsonists responsible for lighting fires while speaking with Channel 9 reporters, saying that there are no other words to describe the arson than “mass murder.”

Survivors of the bushfire disaster have taken refuge in hastily erected centers and continue to wait for funds and supplies.

Australians have rallied for the bushfire victims raising $21.5 million for the Red Cross Bushfire Appeal, which aired on the Nine Network last night.

Several A-list stars such as Russell Crowe, Nicole Kidman, Keith Urban, Anthony LaPaglia, Miranda Kerr, Orlando Bloom, Ellen DeGeneres, Hugh Jackman and Rachel Griffiths, lent their support to the cause.

Australian Olympians as well as NRL (National Rugby League) and AFL (Australian Football League) players worked in the call center, as people from all over Australia phoned in to donate money.

SAN DIEGO — No need to fear, X-Men fans, for Gambit will be making his long awaited arrival in the release of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, coming May 1, 2009.

In a surprise appearance at today’s Comic-con Fox event, Hugh Jackman arrived, “directly off the plane” from the set of Wolverine after the cast and crew finished filming the final scenes. He brought with him a first look at the film, which Jackman assured the crowd he taped together himself on his plane ride.

From what the reel showed, it seems like the film will follow a Wolverine (Jackman) /Sabertooth (Liev Schrieber) friendship-to-mortal-enemies-type plot line, from their first meeting in a prison cell, through their training in Weapon X under the tutelage of William Stryker (Danny Huston). And yes, from the reel of footage, their was visual proof of a Gambit in the upcoming movie, being played by Taylor Kitsch.

Hugh Jackman seemed just as excited as we all are after the resounding applause for Gambit.