He has to be controlled by a person... he's essentially a remote-controlled robot. Also, he wasn't intact when they found him. They had to rebuild him and replace a lot of his inner-working for him to be functional again.

Agreed, it makes the saying, "It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game" really count for something. People love winners but they'll still respect a near-winner who shows heart.

Is it too much to hope that Wepner's lawsuit went all the way to the Supreme Court, but he wound up losing, and then married the girl that worked in the pet store?

They did settle out of court but no pet shop dame as far as I know.

And I think it's fair to say Wepner didn't end the Cold War single handedly, either.

The Cold War was won on two fronts: Rocky in Russia, and Rambo in Afghanistan.

We also can't discount fighting crime here at home as well.

That man is a national treasure.

Rhinestone was on cable two weekends ago. I saw 20 minutes of it very much against my will.

I think they must have focused group the versions of the script where he got knocked out and didn't get up. It scored low.

Also, I think they must have tried versions where he didn't get "knocked out" at all. Same.

I want to warn people who haven't seen this movie -- the robot gets knocked flat, and there's a 10 count. But don't assume it's over and walk out. Wait for the whole ten count to see if he gets up. You might be pleasantly surprised.

I also hated this movie because it was disrespectful to the source material. My Rockem Sockem robot never recovered after being "knocked out". It didn't matter if I had someone counting to 10 and a young kid screaming "GET UP!!" nearby. It was over, man. Over.

Jay and Hanzo are going the whole ten rounds on this one.

Yes, I now see how dumb I was for demanding the robot be knocked out immediately during the film's climax.

I want to be the Japanese guy that gets angry and smashes the only thing that controls his robot before the fight is even over.

I think this film could have done better financially if they had secured the "Rock 'Em, Sock 'Em" brand name... and the company who owns that brand could have made a jillion bucks selling the Atom versus Whoever playset.

Did they actually have the robots sit down on stools between rounds? Even in a movie about a little boy controlling a robot in a boxing match, that seemed a trifle silly.

Well, when you make a statement as controversial as this one --

"While I'm willing to roll with it because it was a fun movie, I did think it was amusing how the robot had enough "heart" to not be damaged enough to shut down."

-- you better expect some confrontation.

They did, but it made sense because repairs to the robots were done during the "breaks".

Yeah, but on stools? I mean, what were the stools made of that could support the weight, yet still be flipped around by Hugh Jackman like they were wooden?

Stools that have enough heart to last an entire robot boxing match, that's what.

Whattaya want, a stool sample?

Reading people nitpick the all the tiny details, reminds me of comics today. Older fans and creators obsessing over continuity and things making sense, meanwhile kids just have a great time watching.