- Content: “A Moral Lesson About Winning”
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Watch:
What You Need To Know:
THE SMASHING MACHINE is a superb sports drama. Dwayne Johnson delivers a terrific performance as Mark Kerr, the title character. Emily Blunt is superb as Mark’s volatile girlfriend. In the end, Mark discovers there are more important things than winning, that among these are friendship and caring for the ones you love. True happiness comes from things like that. That said, THE SMASHING MACHINE has plenty of strong foul language and some strong and very strong ultimate fighting violence. Also, the relationship between Mark and his girlfriend comes to a disturbing head, but Mark’s love for her wins the day. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution.
Content:
Light moral worldview and premise overall as title character discovers that there are more important things than just winning, such as friendship, love and caring for the people who are closest to you (the title character’s friend is a strong family man), but title character is consumed by winning and making money in his chosen profession, which is ultimate fighting matches;
About 58 obscenities (including 43 “f” words), one GD profanity and two light profanities (plus woman seems to mouth three light profanities while riding an amusement park ride);
Some very strong and lots of strong violence centers on ultimate fighting matches which involve lots of sometimes brutal punching, kicking and wrestling, plus an attempted suicide is overcome by love, and title character and his girlfriend sometimes break things during their verbal jousts;
No depicted or implied sex scenes but title character lives with his girlfriend, and there’s a scene with some light innuendoes as the girlfriend helps him stretch in the gym;
Images of upper male nudity in the ring and locker rooms and some rear male nudity in locker rooms;
Alcohol use;
Smoking cigars and title character is addicted to painkillers but he goes to rehab; and,
Title character has verbal fights with his girlfriend (they push each other’s buttons; sometimes it’s funny because of how silly the arguments get, but sometimes it’s not).
More Detail:
As the movie opens, Mark Kerr (“Car”) is the epitome of Teddy Roosevelt’s adage “speak softly but carry a big stick.” He’s a hulking, musclebound former NCAA champion wrestler with a quiet, calm voice. Mark can pummel his opponents in the “ultimate fighting” ring, but he sounds like a pussycat outside the ring. That said, Mark has some inner demons. So, when his volatile girlfriend, Dawn, starts pushing his buttons, which she likes to do, Mark is not above taking a large wooden door and breaking it into pieces.
The movie opens with a funny exchange between Mark and a female reporter at one of the Tokyo “Pride” tournaments in 1998. The reporter asks Mark if he’s prepared to lose an upcoming fight. Mark replies, but it’s clear he doesn’t know the meaning of the word “lose.” “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he repeatedly tells the woman who keeps pressing the issue.
The interview returns later to haunt Mark when he unexpectedly loses a bout and returns to the locker room and breaks into tears. It turns out that his opponent won because he broke the rules and repeatedly kicked Mark in the head with his knee. Mark didn’t respond to the illegal move because, as he explains to the Japanese Pride officials, he was waiting for the referee to stop the fight and warn his opponent. In the end, the officials don’t give the bout to Mark but unjustly declare the fight a “No Contest.”
It becomes clear during the movie that Mark has become addicted to opiate painkillers. He eventually goes to rehab, after which he tries to stage a comeback. Mark also has a tumultuous relationship with his live-in girlfriend. Given Mark’s violent profession, will their verbal fights go too far?
As noted above, Dwayne Johnson delivers a terrific performance as Mike Kerr in THE SMASHING MACHINE. Johnson perfectly captures the man’s soft-spoken speech pattern, which can be seen in a 2003 HBO documentary and in later clips of Mark online. Johnson also adopts a slow, deliberate walking style that masks the tremendous power emanating from Mark’s huge physique. When Mark unleashes that power in the ring, watch out!
As Mark’s volatile live-in girlfriend, Emily Blunt is virtually unrecognizable. Her performance goes from angry, frustrating and infuriating to tender and back again. Ryan Bader is wonderful as Mark Kerr’s steadfast friend and sometimes training partner, Mark Coleman, a strong family man.
In the end, Mark discovers there are more important things than winning, that among these are friendship and caring for the ones you love. Mark finds out that true happiness comes from things like that. Thus, THE SMASHING MACHINE overall has an uplifting moral worldview that ends on a high note.
However, THE SMASHING MACHINE has plenty of strong foul language. The title character and his girlfriend have many verbal quarrels. Also, although the movie cuts away from the most brutal violence in its ultimate fighting matches, it shows enough of it to help viewers understand how violent those matches can get. Also, the relationship between Mark and his girlfriend comes to a disturbing head, but Mark’s love for her wins the day. MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution.
