The Smashing Machine, the movie with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Emily Blunt in the leading roles, comes out in theaters nationwide today.
The movie is based on the 2002 documentary The Smashing Machine: The Life and Times of Extreme Fighter Mark Kerr and is directed by Benny Safdie and distributed by the A24 movie studio.
Joining Johnson and Blunt on the cast are Lyndsey Gavin, Oleksandr Usyk, Bas Rutten, Ryan Bader, Satoshi Ishii, Yoko Hamamura, Paul Cheng, Cyborg Abreu, and Zoe Kosovic.
The movie finished filming in Vancouver in July 2024 with additional principal photography also taking place in Los Angeles, New Mexico, and Tokyo.
The Smashing Machine has received fantastic reviews from critics, saying it’s Johnson’s best movie so far. The director, Benny Safdie, won the Silver Lion at the Venice International Film Festival last month for best director following the world premiere. Johnson also received a 15-minute standing ovation at the premiere.
Colin Vassallo has been editor of Wrestling-Online since 1996