Dwayne Johnson’s drastic physical transformation for The Smashing Machine has paid off, as his turn as the legendary UFC fighter Mark Kerr has been praised as a “career-best” performance. The sports biopic has received a verdict on Rotten Tomatoes, and it seems fans of the actor should prepare to see a truly revelatory role for the wrestler-turned-movie star.
As of this writing, The Smashing Machine has a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 14 reviews. The film, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival, was directed by Benny Safdie and stars Johnson, Emily Blunt, Ryan Bader, Bas Rutten, and Oleksandr Usyk. A bulk of the praise has been for Johnson and Blunt, who play Mark Kerr and Dawn Staples, respectively. Johnson, in particular, gave what has been consistently described as the best performance of his career. Variety says that he seems like a “a new actor” in the film, in which he captures the “silent, moody, hidden side of Mark with a quality of mystery.”
Although some critics feel like The Smashing Machine does little to break the mold of sports biopics, the emotionally vulnerable performances by Johnson and Blunt are what separates the film. IndieWire says it moves between a “sweet duet between a remarkably unembellished Johnson and a blazingly good, blue-collar and freshly blown-out Emily Blunt.” Meanwhile, Screen International made it clear that, while the film doesn’t reinvent the wheel, Safdie’s direction offers a “candid look” at Mark Kerr as a working-class athlete with personal struggles.
“The Smashing Machine may not always transcend genre conventions, but is a consistently idiosyncratic and candid look at a working-class athlete with a complicated romantic relationship and a crippling opioid addiction.”
Dwayne Johnson Was “Hungry” for a Project Like ‘The Smashing Machine’
More to come.
The Smashing Machine
- Release Date
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October 3, 2025
- Runtime
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123 minutes
- Director
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Benny Safdie
- Writers
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Benny Safdie
- Producers
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Beau Flynn, David Koplan, Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia, Hiram Garcia
