We follow Mark Kerr, an MMA fighter between 1997 and 2000 and his battles in and outside the ring.
The film is in many ways a character study of Mark and his love of winning and accomplishment, and how he deals with that which I found to be very interesting and well done.
Dwayne Johnson has been getting a lot of acclaim for this role and there is even some Oscar buzz and honestly, I think it would be a well earned nomination. He brings a tenderness and surprising subtlety to the character and his struggles with addiction, and you can tell The Rock must’ve had so much passion for the part because he gives the performance, his all and his quite incredible and captivating to watch
Emily Blunt is a great actress and so unsurprisingly she gives a great performance lol. I did think her character was under developed and written to be overly antagonistic. Like the drama didn’t feel authentic and more like a storytelling cliché to add more tension. to Mark‘s struggles. That being said, Emily Blunt’s early 2000’s Valley girl inspired performance was one of my favorite parts of the movie
Martial artist turned actor Ryan Bader was quite a surprise because he felt very natural and had a lot of good chemistry with everyone and you don’t think of many martial artists turned to actors, but this guy is a real stand out in this movie.
One of my absolute favorite parts of the movie was the soundtrack, it has this very casual, smooth, jazz vibe that I thought was very cinematic when juxtaposed against the intense and brutal fighting while also bringing a real warmth in vulnerability to the more romantic scenes
The pacing is very loose, very casual, and there are a few points where it did feel a little slow, but it would always pick back up and my attention was kept throughout, so that’s always a plus lol.
The film takes place in the late 90s and very early 2000s and whoever was in charge of decoration deserves a raise because as someone who was there, they did a fantastic job recreating the time period
This was directed by Ben Saffy and one of his strong suits as a director is finding actors who don’t seem like actors and regular people and getting really strong performances out of them. For example, in this movie Bas Rutten I thought was quite funny in a real stand out while also giving quite the powerful emotional scene at one point, and this guy was mostly a fighter, but Saffy just knows how to get a really good and natural performance out of these people and I really enjoy those parts.
The film could’ve been a little tighter, probably a little shorter, but that’s more of a personal taste thing.
A lot of real life MMA fighters show up in the movie and I I could not tell you anything about them, but for people who are a fan of MMA and that whole world I’m sure you’ll get a great kick out of it and as an outside there, I can tell you that the film conveys the fun and excitement of the sport very well.
The smashing machine is very heartfelt movie with expert craftsmanship when it comes to the filmmaking, strong and memorable performances, a beautiful score, gorgeous to look at, and some incredible attention to detail, I give it four stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ don’t worry I save the pun for the end this time: Dwayne Johnson really… Rocked in this movie 🪨😂
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