In the 1990s when Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) was seen as controversial in the U.S. and got banned in several states, one of the sports’ top performers, Mark Kerr (played by Dwayne Johnson) is set to compete in the Pride Fighting Championships in Tokyo, Japan. Preparing for his next match alongside fellow American competitor, Mark Coleman (played by Ryan Bader), Kerr faces a bad lose to what he believes was an illegal maneuver, and while the fight is deemed a no contest, this fall from the top pushes him into drug abuse, which causes problems in his homelife with his girlfriend, Dawn (played by Emily Blunt). With his career in a bit of an awkward spot while Coleman continues to climb, Kerr will get his chance at the PRIDE Grand Prix 2000 Finals to see if he can shake off his past problems, but reclaiming his former glory may be permanently off the table
With a pretty lukewarm reception and the worst box office opening Dwayne Johnson has ever had (only earning $6 million on a budget of $50 million), THE SMASHING MACHINE was the wrestler-turned-actor’s try at a more serious project, but it didn’t bear the kind of fruit he was hoping for. While technically acceptable and featuring some decent performances and nice ambience, it lacks any soul or weight behind its sweat and bluster, and offers little in terms of engaging narrative, dynamic characters or fresh direction.
Being largely inspired by the 2002 HBO Mark Kerr biography similarly titled The Smashing Machine: The Life and Times of Extreme Fighter Mark Kerr, this cinematic feature decides to copy the same narrative points but sidesteps most of his past and the world’s view on UFC as a sport and how that affected his life. This is already odd considering a condensed documentary was able to still feature both the necessary and superfluous information, but this film generally doesn’t feel in service of the actual person, but rather in service of the main actor.
It was evident from the outset that THE SMASHING MACHINE was meant to be Dwayne Johnson’s ticket to win an Oscar, but in the process, the film may’ve forgotten to appeal to any kind of audience, as it doesn’t really cater to anyone. Casual audiences will find it laboriously dull, lacking in engaging characters, and won’t respond to its slower pace and spacey ambience, but cinephiles won’t like the loose scripting, style-over-substance direction, and lack of nuance for what should be a complicated sport and person.
Being directed, written, co-produced and edited by Benny Safdie (who rose to prominence for directing the 2019 Adam Sandler crime thriller, Uncut Gems), this is as much his film as it is Dwayne Johnson’s, and while you can see the benefits of his style through some decently paced and performed scenes, and an atmosphere that is uniquely chill and grounded while also occasionally featuring a sense of aggressive and even psychedelic energy, most of that comes at the cost of offering anything meaningfully connectable or even interesting about its focal fighter.
While presented in a theatrical sense, nothing is really gained from having this story be a movie, as the script offers little outside of predictable conflicts and character dynamics, the story follows a basic three-act-structure but the steps to reach the end barely engage due to minimal investment, and while handled in a sound enough way to not come across as lazy, it doesn’t feel crowd-pleasing enough for mainstream audiences or intellectual enough for critics.
While Dwayne Johnson has been in enough movies to say he’s more than just a celebrity casually appearing in films, it’d be a stretch to call him an ‘’actor’’. He’s had a few parts where he proved he can be cool and even funny, but every role was mainly just him playing himself in a very stoically unbothered sense. With this in mind, it is bold of him to tackle a genre and role so antithetical to his usual formula, and while it hasn’t resonated with his fans and the box office speaks for itself, he hasn’t lost all of his shame.
This isn’t an incredible performance as it doesn’t feel that different from his usual fare and delivers a few reactions that scream of wanting attention for being ‘’dramatic’’ and ‘’emotional’’ (any time he cries is like watching a toddler fake for sympathy), but there are enough scenes that’re delivered in a perfectly acceptable and sometimes even genuinely decent manner, not necessarily evolving his status but at least proving he can do more with effort.
It helps that he’s paired with Emily Blunt, a far superior performer whom he shared good chemistry with on the 2021 Disney adventure film, Jungle Cruise, so it’s not surprising that the best scenes are when they’re together, but what hurts them is that their roles are pretty bland. Mark Kerr has aspects worth exploring and the overall world of UFC would be fascinating to dissect, but this movie doesn’t paint either in a complex light, leaving him feeling very shallow, narrow-minded, self-absorbed and dismissive. Blunt isn’t treated any better, stuck as a one note love interest who the film randomly decides to make antagonistic without any proper backing, wasting a talented actress on a part any random person could’ve played.
With no other major characters, the rest of the cast mainly consists of MMA fighters either playing supporting roles or just themselves, and that can be a bit of a double edge sword. Ryan Bader as Mark Coleman isn’t bad and has a few nice friendship scenes with Johnson, but has a flat delivery expected of a non-actor and can feel very wooden in what should be emotional moments, but Baz Rutten actually brings a lot of passion and character to his bit part as Kerr’s trainer, using his brief past experience in film to bring life and personality to a film that’s pretty bereft of it.
The film’s visual style feels reminiscent of television and VHS tapes from the 1990s, with a scratchier feel and saturated color grading that effectively emulates that specific period, but outside of select moments (like in the opening), nothing really grand comes from this specific visualization. It feels too tight in moments, with the cinematography by Maceo Bishop coming across as cramped due to trying to present scenes like it’s being filmed on a camcorder.
While it can occasionally help build intimacy, it’s often too narrow and limited of a scope, resulting in shots that fail to create a lasting image, which can even be said for the location itself (Tokyo looks beautiful, but it’s not really shown off in that interesting a sense). Even the wrestling isn’t that special, somehow portraying it in a way that isn’t close enough to feel personal, but also not distant enough to allow for good angles or tight editing, it’s doesn’t spotlight the sport very well.
The musical score is pretty decent, with the unique sound produced by Nala Sinephro offering something fresh in what could be familiar territories, as the almost jazzy vibe in the chiller sequences providing a smooth and almost thoughtful attitude (even if the content doesn’t support it) and the hasty drums during the combat subtly projecting the whirlwind of emotions felt during such a tussle, it’s not spotlighted enough to be largely memorable, but still shows solid talent.
THE SMASHING MACHINE was meant to be a vehicle for Dwayne Johnson to prove he could be a credible actor but in trying something totally different without full-proof execution, the end result wasn’t what he’d hope for. While not a bad film as it’s competently structured, performed, shot and composed, nothing really stands out about it, and the story of Mark Kerr was probably better off as just a documentary(with this just being a slightly higher budgeted version for The Rock to literally flex on). The performances are passable, the music is nice and there are worse examples of arthouse films with clear award envy, but with a barely noticeable script, uneven visuals, and characters that show more sweat than soul, this muscle show ironically doesn’t have that much meat to chew on.
