The Smashing Machine Reviewed by an Autist

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As someone who was too young to see the old pioneer days of UFC, I thought this movie paid decent homage to the legendary Mark Kerr. The Smashing Machine is a biopic based on a true story about the life and mixed martial arts career of Mark Kerr. It's full of dramatic twists and turns, which show the battles that can go on internally for a professional fighter outside the fighting ring. The movie also features real-life MMA stars such as Ryan Bader as the legendary Mark Coleman; Bas Rutten himself; and Oleksandr Usyk as Igor Vovchanchyn in some important roles in Mark Kerr's story. Having those real-life MMA fighters act in the film was a nice touch, as they portrayed the characters they depicted as Mark's friends who shaped his MMA career the way it had.

I thought Dwayne Johnson was a good embodiment of Mark Kerr, given that he and Mark have a similar background in wrestling but with different combat sport organizations. They even look strikingly similar to one another. Dwayne's acting performance shone when he used his wrestling expertise to shadow Mark Kerr's legendary wrestling fighting style. There were some intense acting moments that surprised me, such as his display of rage. He dealt with his toxic relationship with his then-girlfriend (Emily Blunt), which was expressed with screaming and yelling and smashing stuff to pieces around the house when he fought with her.

As much as this movie is a drama film, it had decent fight scenes that felt more like WWE-esque wrestling than balanced MMA fights mixed with ground and pound. It makes sense given the fact that Mark Kerr's specialty was wrestling, attempting to prove it's the best fighting style. If I wanted to watch fights with more intensity, I think Warrior would satiate my taste for intense fight scenes. The action scenes in this film are decent, but there's more to be desired in my opinion. With that considered, I found their depiction somewhat realistic for Mark Kerr's MMA journey. I've never seen Rocky before, but I may want to watch it to compare its fight scenes to The Smashing Machine's.

To put Mark's dramatic life into perspective, his life was an emotional roller coaster when he took steroids, which further impacted his emotional well-being, with roid rage causing him to be extremely irritable and confrontational. His toxic relationship with his girlfriend, Dawn, helped me deduce their marriage would've lasted 5 years at most, and I was right, as they were no longer together in real life even though they had a son together. Those emotional drains on his emotional state make you question what's worth fighting for at all.

All in all, this movie was okay as a biopic for an MMA legend like Mark Kerr, and I hope more people will know his name for generations to come. The fight scenes were decent, and the drama was something else. The highest honor this movie is nominated for is an Oscar for best hairstyling and makeup, which should tell you how flat the direction of the movie really is compared to the surrounding hype. I would say this is one of those films I wouldn't think to see again, but I would change my mind by surprise to do so. Seeing this movie with more wrestling was a good start for me to enrich my tastes in fighting movies with more fighting styles to watch than just MMA as the main style. Lastly, anyone who loves watching wrestling and is a fan of Dwayne Johnson shouldn't be disappointed in this movie. I give this film a 6 out of 10.