{"id":979767,"date":"2025-10-02T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.denofgeek.com\/?p=979767"},"modified":"2025-10-08T18:42:03","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T22:42:03","slug":"the-smashing-machine-review-dwayne-johnson-emily-blunt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.denofgeek.com\/movies\/the-smashing-machine-review-dwayne-johnson-emily-blunt\/","title":{"rendered":"The Smashing Machine Review: Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt Bulk Up Bland Sports Drama"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There are a couple of spectacular fights in Benny Safide\u2019s The Smashing Machine<\/em>. The new film, about the life and career of Mark Kerr during the early days of the UFC and mixed martial arts going mainstream, is marketed for its hard-hitting sports action, as well as Dwayne Johnson<\/a>\u2019s physical and spiritual transformation. And to be sure, the real-life wrestler with the Goliathian physique does fine work as Kerr in and out of the ring, stretching far beyond his Rock persona.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet the cinematic body blows that land hardest come squarely from the film\u2019s domestic side. It is when Johnson\u2019s Kerr and Emily Blunt<\/a> as longtime girlfriend Dawn Staples enter a verbal arena that Safdie\u2019s movie becomes devastating\u2014and certainly more exciting than anything occurring inside an octagon. Johnson and Blunt have of course acted onscreen together before, with their faint but tangible chemistry being one of the few bright spots in the literal Disney theme park ride movie, Jungle Cruise<\/em>. Those of us who noticed<\/a> that flickering crackle back then can now feel a sense of vindication, as the spark\u2019s been fanned into a roaring inferno that leaves both Smashing <\/em>performances burning bright.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\t\r\n\n\t\t