The Smashing Machine (A PopEntertainment.com Movie Review)

THE SMASHING MACHINE (2025)

Starring Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Ryan Bader, Bas Rutten, Oleksandr Usyk, Lyndsey Gavin, Satoshi Ishii, James Moontasri, Yoko Hamamura, Stephen Quadros, Paul Cheng, Cyborg Abreu, Andre Tricoteux, Marcus Aurélio, Whitney Moore, Paul Lazenby, Olga Dzyurak, Eric Odbaatar, Zoe Kosovic, Nate Williams, "Dirty" Dutch Mantell, James Romero and Nick Toren.

Screenplay by Benny Safdie.

Directed by Benny Safdie.

Distributed by A24. 123 minutes. Rated R.

Sometimes it is interesting to see a film that is “based on a true story” of someone who is relatively obscure. Going into The Smashing Machine, I have to admit I had no idea who Mark Kerr was. Now that I have seen the movie on his life, honestly, I don’t know all that much more.

It seems he was one of the early pioneers of mixed martial arts. It also seems that he was at least for a while hooked on pain-killers, is more than a bit passive-aggressive and was in the middle of a horribly dysfunctional love relationship. All stuff we’ve seen in many sports biopics.

In fact, just in the world of The Smashing Machine, Mark Kerr was far from the most interesting character. In fact, as someone who is not a student of the sport – oh hell, I know next to nothing about it – I personally would have been much more interested in a film about his best friend and MMA rival Mark Coleman. Coleman was also a pioneer of the sport, was a much nicer guy, didn’t seem to have a substance abuse problem, he had a much more settled family life, and even in the brief time period of this story (1997-2000) had more success as a martial artist than the other Mark who is the subject of this film.

But that isn’t who the filmmakers decided to focus on. Okay, fine, how does The Smashing Machine work as the story of Kerr?

Well, good things first, this is definitely the best acting that Dwayne Johnson has done in years – perhaps ever. And even if the makeup job they did to make Johnson nearly unrecognizable is sometimes distracting, even under all that latex Johnson is able to connect emotionally with the audience and the characters.

Truthfully, much of the acting here was pretty spot on from Emily Blunt (her girlfriend character is nearly unbearable, but Blunt gives her all in the role) to Ryan Bader (as the aforementioned Coleman) to Bas Rutten (a former MMA fighter who plays Kerr’s trainer), the acting here is top notch.

Now on to the problems. I actually have two – admittedly rather selective issues – with The Smashing Machine. The first one is a very basic one – The Smashing Machine did not sell me on the sport of mixed-martial arts, which is a bastardization of boxing, wrestling and martial arts. In this film, it seemed somewhat like a violent bore. Throughout the runtime I kept remembering a 2011 film called Warrior with Tom Hardy, Joel Edgerton and Nick Nolte, which told a very similar story around an MMA tournament, but was much more intriguing, both in complicated characters and in the showing off of the sport.

Which leads to my other issue with The Smashing Machine – writer/director Benny Safdie. I do not deny his technical skills – both visually and as a writer. However, just like on his way, way, way overrated 2019 film Uncut Gems (co-written and co-directed with his brother Josh), Safdie is fascinated by characters who are brash, immature, compulsive, abrasive, and frankly kind of assholes. And they never, ever learn from their many, obvious mistakes.

In fairness, Mark Kerr is less obnoxious than Adam Sandler’s character from Uncut, and he even does make the attempt to come off as a nice guy before the mask slips, and you realize how petty he usually is. Also unlike the earlier character, Kerr does show some selflessness and empathy sometimes. But overall it’s really a chore to spend a lot of time with the guy, even more so when you are stuck with him and his girlfriend, who have to be one of the most toxic couples in recent films.

Look, I know that it is possible – sometimes even preferable – to make a film about an antihero rather than a hero. We’re all flawed, and you can’t ignore that in film any more than you can in real life. However, if you expect me to spend a couple of hours of my life with this guy, can you give me something, anything, to hold onto? Some reason to overlook his obviously self-destructive ways.

I went into The Smashing Machine knowing absolutely nothing about Mark Kerr’s life. I came out wishing that I still knew nothing about it.  

Jay S. Jacobs

Copyright ©2025 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: October 1, 2025.