The Smashing Machine Review

This was a film that got a lot of hype from all Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson fans because this was going to be a test of his acting skills. Typically Dwayne Johnson just gets to be himself in his movies, but in this movie he had a totally different appearance and had the role of acting an MMA legend, Mark Kerr. The reason I chose this film is because it's based around MMA which is something I grew up watching and even trained a little. So this movie was my ally when it comes to being interested. This movie also had Dwayne Johnson and seeing him act out another person is what brought me interest because we all know him for being in really good movies but not as acting as someone else and really having to show more acting skills. This movie was for sure talked about in the news and it was mainly because of Dwayne Johnson. Yes this movie also sparked interest because it's a life story of MMA legend Mark Kerr but it was portrayed in the news more so as if Dwayne Johnson can succeed in this new environment being in a character driven story-line for a movie.

This is a movie made around a Mix Martial Arts legend, Mark Kerr. It shows the greatness he achieves in the MMA scene fighting in international events and in the UFC. But it also shows how he struggles during this time with drug use, pain in his body, and relationship issues with his girlfriend Dawn. The film's director was Benny Safdie. He is famous for being a filmmaker and even an actor. Some of the notable movies Benny has directed are, "Uncut Gems", "Daddy LongLegs", and many more. Movies you may recognize him from are, "Happy Gilmore 2", "Oppenheimer", and even the new upcoming movie "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie." These are all very well put together movies loved by many and his work is shown to be great by having great box office numbers on those movies. A key actor in this film is Dwayne Johnson who plays Mark Kerr. Some of the movies he has been in are "Moana", "Jumanji", "Baywatch", and many more movies that have done very well. Like I said earlier, this film is something totally different when it comes to acting for Dwayne as the character he is playing is a role that he has never acted like in his career. The last key actor in this film would have to be Emily Blunt who was playing the girlfriend of Mark Kerr, Dawn Staples. She is an English actress who is known for being in films like, "The Devil Wears Prada", "Edge of Tomorrow", "The Girl On The Train", and many more. The box office numbers worldwide are about 21 million dollars. This is not very good for how much the film cost and the star power the film has.

Like I said earlier this film caught a lot of attention simply from the fact people wanted to see how Dwayne Johnson would do in this more serious role and a physical transformation. Dwayne Johnson has always portrayed a character that is just himself, by being someone with a lot of passion and funny type of acting. This is seen in films like, "Jumanji", "Rampage", "Central Intelligence", and basically any other movie he has been a part of. What makes this different in this film was the fact he couldn't at any point be that type of character because it was important to Mark Kerr for him to really show how his story really was and try to portray his story identically in the film. In the article below it says, "For years, I've been dreaming and hoping," he said. "My desire was to play not only a dramatic role, but something that I felt like I could really sink my teeth into, and rip myself open. You hear that term. I just didn't want to do drama. I wanted to do something that really allowed me to do that." This text shows how Dwayne wanted for a while to expand his acting skills and take on a serious role. He would also mention in the article he was nervous for the role because of how different it was gonna be and didn't know if he could take on that challenge. Another major difference from other films was the physical appearance for Dwayne. He is used to just being himself as 'The Rock' in movies and being the nice guy everyone likes. But for this film he had to make a big change like he has never done before. In the article below it says, "Johnson endured three hours of makeup and prosthetics a day to look like Kerr, and he's never played anyone quite so real before. But it's something he says he's been aching to do." This shows how Dwayne was dedicated to doing this role and how serious he was doing it. To completely flip what you're used to when he doesn't have to show how he still wants to expand his skills as an actor and the amount of love he has for it.

Article:https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dwayne-johnson-on-tackling-a-dramatic-role-in-the-smashing-machine/

The movie I will compare this movie from is Creed. Creed is another movie based around a boxer who is on the rise to hopefully be like his father who was a champion. Creed is a very famous film which stars famous actors Michael B. Jordan and Sylvester Stallone. These two films share similarities like both being professional fighting films, character driven stories, both showing the life of the fighters, and other little things. But some of the things that make Smashing Machine different is that it doesn't follow the typical 'underdog fighter' to winning big. Smashing Machine is a movie based upon Mark Kerr's life and goes deeper than that. Mark Kerr was already an all time great in MMA but it was more so about the battles he faced outside the ring that was setting him back. In the movie Creed it was just a typical 'underdog' story where Creed is chasing dreams as a small fighter and gets an opportunity to fight for a world championship. Another difference between these two films is that Smashing Machine is based on a real character. It shows the real life events Mark Kerr had to face versus getting a made up story from the writers like in the movie Creed. In a lot of movies when it comes from Sport Drama films, you don't get a lot of films based on a real person or story and that is what sets aside this film Smashing Machine.

This movie was an important film for two reasons. One was because it was interesting to see Dwayne Johnson take on this big role that was different from anything else he has taken before. Also was important for any MMA fans to see the life of Mark Kerr's legendary career as he is one of the greats of MMA but to see what he had to go through outside of the ring. According to the article below, the target audience for this movie were younger men aged 18-36. This is actually one of its weaknesses is the fact their target audience is very small and too specific. In the article it said, "Nearly 70% of crowds were male and 64% were between the ages of 18 to 36, according to PostTrak data. In other words, it’s the target demographic for the traditional Johnson tentpole. Meanwhile only 8% were above 55 years old, a key subset for arthouse releases. Those who were incentivized to buy a ticket were seemingly disappointed in the action (or lack thereof) on screen, which is reflected in the weak audience scores." This shows how the movie wasn't meant for a big enough audience for people wanting to watch. With most of the audience being men and especially younger, they didn't get a wide enough range of people wanting to come watch this movie. It also states in the text that people who bought a ticket were disappointed with the film. This shows that the movie underperformed when it comes to popularity. Many people did not like this film but many would say this was Dwayne's best true acting performance since it was his first time taking on such a big and different role. This also led to failing box office numbers pulling in 21 million dollars worldwide when they spent 50 million on just the set according to the article

Article:https://variety.com/2025/film/box-office/smashing-machine-flops-dwayne-johnson-box-office-1236540588/

A strength this movie had was the emotional pull it had on people. The acting Dwayne Johnson added to this film and also the girlfriend played by Emily Blunt, help people realize the struggle Mark Kerr had to handle and deal with. While everyone who knew Mark Kerr probably only knew about how he was a great champion in MMA but didn't know the backstory like this movie showed. Dwayne Johnson helped show people the drug use and relationship issues Mark Kerr had to handle while competing with the best in the world in MMA. This allowed people to really be more engaged and invested into Mark's story and get a real insight of how his life wasn't just being happy as the champion but his other life outside of that wasn't so great.

This movie has a lot of different feelings when it comes to critics. Some agree with what I think about the movie and some think the total opposite. Peter Travers said in the link below, "It'll be a hardsell for audiences to accept Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as a genuine actor ready to emerge from the exhibitionist surface of his wrestler’s body and indestructible movie-star appeal. But he does that here and passes with flying colors." Travers like me believes this is one of Dwayne's best acting in the film and was able to execute this film many people said he couldn't. On the other hand, you have people like Leandro Ariel Porcelli who said, "A noble project with little personality that aims to honor the fighters that helped make UFC what it's today while offering a barely decent The Rock performance and a disappointing start to the youngest Safdie solo career." He believes that this film didn't grab his attention and was bland. He also mentions that Dwayne's acting performance was not very good unlike what others think and also mentioned that Safdie directed a bad film. This film has a ton of mixed opinions on it and I think this film is truly based on if you like an MMA story of someone struggling while achieving greatness while the main character is being played by Dwayne Johnson. Personally I think the film was good from an acting stand point but hard to always stay engaged as the story plot gets very dry at times when you don't get those fight scenes or dramatic events. Although I don't think this is a bad movie, I don't think this will be a memorable one that will be brought up in conversations in the future. I think there are too many mixed opinions on whether or not it's a good film and at the end of the day the box office numbers don't help it.

Article:https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_smashing_machine_2025/reviews

This movie is promoted on basically all social media platforms and on commercial ads. It's on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, etc. The trailer alone on YouTube has over 24 million views with 112k likes. A lot of what they post are trailers, clips from the movie, and pictures of the film to help build hype for the film. Personally I did not go out and watch this movie when it was released and only watched it because my uncle bought it for himself and asked me if I wanted to watch it. It wasn't a movie that interested me at first but after watching I would say it's a solid movie. My uncle is the only person who watched the movie and he is a big MMA fan and knew who Mark Kerr was before this. He was a bit biased because of that and loved the film and loved the way Dwayne Johnson acted. He felt like it was a good story plot showing the story of his life while also giving amazing camera work in the fight scenes.

I learned that this film had very mixed feelings. I would totally agree with the people that say that this was a failure when we talk about numbers. It did not reach the numbers it needed to be at with the star power it had with Dwayne Johnson and the amount of money invested into it. I learned star power and more money doesn't always make a film good and create revenue. I would also say though that this was not a bad film to watch but could see how this doesn't spark interest to people as it really depends on what you like in a film since this is very specific about an MMA fighter going through life problems.

Links:

Search This Blog

Kai Russell

The Smashing Machine Review - Kai Russell

The Smashing Machine Review

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

GTA 6 Ad Campaign-Kai Russell

Kai Russell Blog