The Smashing Machine (2025)

 The Smashing Machine tells the story of MMA fighter Mark Kerr. I’ll be honest I didn’t know the story or particularly interested but the idea of Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson transforming himself was something that got me interested. The story takes place between 1997 and 2000 when he is already a fighter and we follow Kerr as he tries to win some Pride event in Japan.

The story isn’t that interesting which is a major problem in a biopic. He has a drug problem, tries to kick it and win a competition whilst having issues with his girlfriend. There have been better stories to tell and I wonder what it was about this that people thought was worth making a story about. The other issue with Dawn played by Emily Blunt. I like Emily Blunt and think she’s a very good actress but I did not like Dawn because she just seemed to be there to start an argument with Mark. This seemed to be the pattern in the film that they would be ok, have an argument and then a little while later would be ok again. The last we see of her is when she is wheeled off in a police car on the way to seek treatment after trying to kill herself. Blunt makes the role better than it otherwise would have been but it was hard to like the character.

The film works purely because of Dwayne Johnson. This isn’t the sort of role we are used to seeing him in but it was a surprisingly restrained performance we saw from him which unfortunately does have ‘Oscar Bait’ written all over it. Whether we will be talking about it in February or March of next year is a mystery but it definitely worth talking about. The thing about Mark is that he seems to be a nice if flawed person. Another thing that was good about this film were the fighting scenes. They seemed like the fighters were have the hell beaten out of them. They are edited together to make them seem like MMA fights are quite entertaining even though the idea of the fights sounds barbaric to some. 

Overall this film is little bit underwhelming. It is worth seeing just for Dwayne Johnson although there is probably a more interesting documentary or series about this guy that you be able to find because despite the great performance from him and the incredible fights, there is something lacking to make this a great film and will probably fail in its Oscar bait plan.