150 Word Review: 'The Smashing Machine' (2025)
The Rock-y
Dwayne Johnson’s fake eyebrows are the most successful element in The Smashing Machine, writer-director Benny Safdie’s respectful and melodramatic tribute to the early days of the UFC, the now hugely popular cage fight.
The prosthetics transform Johnson’s famous face into that of the soft-spoken Mark Kerr, a wrestler-turned-MMA fighter who helped innovate the spectacle. The Rock never entirely disappears, though, and Safdie’s affection for Kerr flattens what dimension there could have been.
Ironically, Johnson shares one of Kerr’s weaknesses: neediness. The character gets hooked on drugs, love, and winning, and Johnson is at his most vulnerable during Kerr’s wobbly sobriety journey. But this is more of a traditional boxing picture than a recovery story, and the bull rarely rages.
As his girlfriend, Emily Blunt has little to do except suffer her boyfriend’s fame and her own resentments. The fight scenes are pulverizing and monotonous. There’s a quirky and moving coda.