La Máquina: The Smashing Machine

This movie was so slow. I struggled to get into it. Half the fights were cut out, not sure why. You can try to see what the movie was trying to do, but execution was horrible. I don't see why the Rock playing a fighter is considered a huge acting lift.

Save your money and wait for streaming to be disappointed.

While this is undoubtedly the best we've seen dwayne johnson, that's not necessarily saying all that much. If an NBA player goes from 2 points a game to 15, that's an impressive improvement but that doesn't mean he's an MVP. And with all the talk of dwayne johnson's performance, it's a little ironic that emily blunt and ryan bader acted circles around him every scene there were in.

Overall this was a frustratingly well stylized movie that would be otherwise aggressively mediocre.

The movie has the frame of a good biopic but never quite lands. The Rock pushes himself more than ever, yet the story doesn't feel worthwhile.

There's a thread about two best friends in a fighting league, but it gets sidelined for a tired relationship arc we've seen countless times.

Ironic, really, for a film built around the idea of never achieving greatness.

Expect a sad, bad edited, and strange movie. It is not about fighting, but about the relationship between Mark and his girlfriend, and between Mark and his addiction to opioids. There is absolutely no happy moment in this movie. No build up towards an epic moment. It was very flat. On the other hand, acting was great.

The Rock makes a decent performance compared to other things I've seen him in. But it's far from award winning. I feel this is massively over hyped. It barely has a plot which is it's biggest flaw! It's not a patch on a film like The wrestler. I viewed it at the cinema with friends and we all came out disappointed. I'm glad I watched it as it has been spoken about so much pre release. The place is slow and respectfully the main characters back story wasnt interesting enough. It was a great effort by the director but being based on a true story is no good, if the true story is pretty boring. No amount of poetic licence could bring this film to life. I enjoyed the odd cameo and the soundtrack was pleasant.