The Smashing Machine is a drama-documentary starring normally-doing-action-films Dwayne Johnson (a former WWE fighter) as former UFC fighter Mark Kerr, and takes place from 1997 to 2000, starting with Kerr’s first ever UFC fight, in San Paolo, Brazil, going on to win, before having a string of successes, but can he handle it if he was ever fated to lose?
Events soon trip on to 1999 to Phoenix, Arizona, and then to the Tokyo Pride 7 Championships, that September, where due to safety concerns, the powers that be ban some of the more violent actions in the sport, yet it depends on how well their referees apply these new changes…
Along Kerr’s journey, we see him taking narcotics for the eventual pain that he’ll endure, as well as taking in Emily Blunt (Oppenheimer) as his girlfriend, Dawn Staples, although it’s a tempestous relationship, since both of them are hot-headed; plus Ryan Bader as Kerr’s friend, coach and former fighter, Mark Coleman.
It was nice to see some 1999 songs being featured, such as Sugar Ray’s Every Morning (also used in the trailer), whereas Rod Stewart’s Rhythm of My Heart is from 1991, and Jon Secada’s Just Another Day was released in 1992.
I was really looking forward to The Smashing Machine, with The Rock actually acting for a change, and with writing/directing duties coming from Benny Safdie (Good Time, Uncut Gems), so I was stunned just how flat this feels as it plays out, with soap opera-style dialogue. There’s no spark to it.
As such, The Smashing Machine limps out of the ring with a hand sprain.
As an aside, this film reunited Johnson with Blunt after 2021’s Jungle Cruise (which I still haven’t seen – and since it’s on Disney+, it’ll never get shown on TV), and they’ll be back together in Martin Scorsese’s forthcoming as-yet-untitled crime drama, with Johnson also teaming up again with Safdie for Lizard Music.
It’s not a spoiler to mention the content of the very last scene in this film, but I’ll put it behind a spoiler header if you want to avoid it. It’s also the ONLY scene shot in 1.43:1 – not that it particularly uses that format – so anyone watching on IMAX on such a screen can view that way. That said, only four cinemas in the UK can show this, and for the only one near me – Vue Printworks – the film isn’t showing on their IMAX. This week, it’s been One Battle After Another or a re-release of the awful Avatar: The Way of Water.
NOTE: There are NO mid- or post-credits scenes.
The Smashing Machine is in cinemas now, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, once announced, it will appear on the New DVD Blu-ray 3D and 4K releases UK list.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 123 minutes
Release date: October 3rd 2025
Studio: A24
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1 (Super 16); 1.43:1 (IMAX) (epilogue), 1.33:1 (Video) (opening fight scene)
cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 4/10
Director: Benny Safdie
Producers: Eli Bush, Dany Garcia, Hiram Garcia, Dwayne Johnson, David Koplan, Benny Safdie
Screenplay: Benny Safdie
Music: Nala Sinephro
Cast:
Mark Kerr: Dwayne Johnson
Dawn Staples: Emily Blunt
Mark Coleman: Ryan Bader
Himself: Bas Rutten
Igor Vovchanchyn: Oleksandr Usyk
Elizabeth Coleman: Lyndsey Gavin
Enson Inoue: Satoshi Ishii
Akira Shoji: James Moontasri
Kazuyuki Fujita: Yoko Hamamura
Himself: Stephen Quadros
Masaaki Satake: Paul Cheng
Fábio Gurgel: Cyborg Abreu
Paul Varelans: Andre Tricoteux
Mestre Hulk: Marcus Aurélio
Jacqueline: Whitney Moore
Hans Nijman: Paul Lazenby
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.