The Smashing Machine

While this is undoubtedly the best we've seen dwayne johnson, that's not necessarily saying all that much. If an NBA player goes from 2 points a game to 15, that's an impressive improvement but that doesn't mean he's an MVP. And with all the talk of dwayne johnson's performance, it's a little ironic that emily blunt and ryan bader acted circles around him every scene there were in.

Overall this was a frustratingly well stylized movie that would be otherwise aggressively mediocre.

If you want to see an extremely sweaty Johnson, boy do I have a movie for you. In THE SMASHING MACHINE, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson stars as Mark Kerr, an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighter before UFC became the UFC it is today. He was a pioneer of the sport, but between 1997-2000, Kerr had a lot going on. Struggles with his conflicting relationship with Dawn (Emily Blunt) and with his personal demons. This movie is...fine, but I do have a few problems with it. It successfully avoids the typical tropes you usually see in sports movies, but it doesn't replace that with anything of substance. The screenplay is flat, the characters feel like ideas of people instead of actual people (which they actually are). Don't get me wrong, the acting performances here are impressive. Blunt is always great, but Johnson actually puts in the work here, much more than his signature smolder. Nothing pulled me in. I needed more feels. It's shot like a documentary, keeping the audience at arms-length. They go for a more observational approach, going from life event to life event, not breaking the surface of anything. I wanted to be immersed in Mark's world, but I never was. The music, while interesting, was overbearing at times. I like the duality between Mark the soft-spoken, kind-hearted guy, and Mark the smashing machine. The makeup is amazing, successfully transforming a rock into a smashing machine. Overall, THE SMASHING MACHINE is sadly underwhelming, but I love the acting. A24 took a swing with this, sport fans might enjoy this, but I found it only alright.

Expect a sad, bad edited, and strange movie. It is not about fighting, but about the relationship between Mark and his girlfriend, and between Mark and his addiction to opioids. There is absolutely no happy moment in this movie. No build up towards an epic moment. It was very flat. On the other hand, acting was great.

The Rock makes a decent performance compared to other things I've seen him in. But it's far from award winning. I feel this is massively over hyped. It barely has a plot which is it's biggest flaw! It's not a patch on a film like The wrestler. I viewed it at the cinema with friends and we all came out disappointed. I'm glad I watched it as it has been spoken about so much pre release. The place is slow and respectfully the main characters back story wasnt interesting enough. It was a great effort by the director but being based on a true story is no good, if the true story is pretty boring. No amount of poetic licence could bring this film to life. I enjoyed the odd cameo and the soundtrack was pleasant.

The movie has the frame of a good biopic but never quite lands. The Rock pushes himself more than ever, yet the story doesn't feel worthwhile.

There's a thread about two best friends in a fighting league, but it gets sidelined for a tired relationship arc we've seen countless times.

Ironic, really, for a film built around the idea of never achieving greatness.