The Smashing Machine (2025) review - Dwayne Johnson impresses in stagnant biopic

Over his illustrious career, Mark Kerr (A transformed Dwayne Johnson) beat many opponents. His biggest win? The one against his own addiction.

Kerr was under the illusion that he could not lose. It’s no surprise. We first see him at the peak of his powers. He is punching, grappling, kicking and even eye gouging (until it is banned, a big blow to Kerr’s arsenal), his way through all of his opponents.

The mere thought of losing doesn’t even compute in his brain. Even when he is point blank asked how it would feel if he lost, he can’t even think of the words to entertain the question.

So what happens when the thing you never could conceive happening, happens?When the feeling of being invincible is brutally taken away from you by repeated knees to the head by your opponent?

Kerr found out how losing felt in devastating fashion. He took opioids for pain and then got addicted to them. His relationship with his partner, Dawn (Emily Blunt, who is great as always), hits the rocks. The crushing weight of toxic masculinity knocked him down, and he has to try to find a way to get back to competing at the highest level. 

This is the real story of MMA pioneer Mark Kerr, based on a 2002 documentary by the same name. It follows his life from 1997 to 2000, in which all the things previously mentioned took place.

I can’t comment on whether this film adaptation is as good as the documentary, but the film itself feels all too familiar. Unfortunately, the only big swings we get are from the gigantic fighters and not from Benny Safdie in the director's chair.

Without disrespect to Mark Kerr, who has clearly had a troubled but triumphant life, it often feels as if the drama from this period doesn’t carry enough weight to warrant the 122-minute run time.

It undeniably has heart. However, this risk-averse approach in which this film takes stops it from ever breaking out of the averages that have plagued most biopics as of late.

Instead of picking one theme and really going into detail on how it affected Kerr, it decides to juggle many without giving them the space to breathe. The ideas they introduce about toxic masculinity, addiction, the treatment of fighters and straining relationships are all interesting, but we never go into enough detail where it would leave an impact on you.

It leads the film to often feel like it is going through the motions. Each scene passes by with only a few making you feelfor Kerr. It’s almost like a void of nothingness with a fantastic performance by Dwayne Johnson in the centre. Dare I say it teeters on the side of Oscar bait at times. Not to take anything away from what is a career best from him. He truly is unrecognisable in this role, which, for someone of his stature, is impressive.

Though impressed by Johnson’s dramatic improvement, I was left more amazed by the performance of Ryan Bader. Considering he is a real-life MMA fighter and not an actor, he keeps up pace with the rest of the cast. Even Oleksander Usyk impressed in his film debut.

There are many things to appreciate here. Nala Sinephro’s score is beautiful. The sound design on the punches is fantastic. There are moments where the hits sound like bones cracking, which really emphasises what these men are putting on the line. The film as a whole is good. Yet, I left feeling as though it had the opportunity to do so much more.

It’s serviceable like most biopics, but I can’t help but feel I should have felt more emotion or even interest about Mark Kerr by the time I left the cinema. Maybe a few extra weeks of training camp may have helped this film achieve that knock-out blow for me. Sadly, no amount of scrappiness can stop The Smashing Machine from losing the fight to the usual biopic pitfalls.