Community Corner
Has Hollywood Maligned San Leandro?
Real Steel stars actor Hugh Jackman as the trainer of a boxing robot. The movie includes scenes that supposedly occur in San Leandro -- which one reviewer calls a suburb of Oakland.
While San Leandro tries to boost its image , Hollywood depicts the city as the home of robotic fights that draw low-brow crowds.
The movie Real Steel, in theaters now, stars actor Hugh Jackman as the trainer of a boxing robot that fights in a fictional San Leandro Fairgrounds.
Writing on the web site FilmDrunk, reviewer Vince Mancini describes scenes that place at a "county fair in San Leandro — a suburb of Oakland, which looks strangely like Texas in the future. One of many confusing narrative choices."
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A review in the Detroit Free Press reports that Real Steel was shot in Michigan and that a farm in the town of Hartland "is the location for the San Leandro Fairgrounds."
Judging from the reviews, Real Steel is not destined to be a classic. So San Leandro's best bet may be to ignore the slight.
Find out what's happening in San Leandrowith free, real-time updates from Patch.
But doesn't it seem like the wrong message to send about a city that is sensitive about its image?
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