The Smashing Machine

This was an excellent documentary on a typical fighter and the trials and tribulations one must endure to not only compete, but to gain a certain level of success as well. In this case, Mark Kerr was the subject and we are showed quite a few of his ups and downs in his career, both personal and professional.

The Smashing Machine also brought the average joe into what is going on behind the scenes, the press conferences, the relationships with the other fighters, etc. We are shown that Mark Kerr and Mark Coleman are good friends, who train together and are also willing to step into the ring, octagon or whatever and fight it out with each other as well. At times, this actually seemed to drift away from Kerr and more onto Coleman, who started to become more interesting than Kerr later on in the movie.

We are also given a look at some intense training with Kerr and Bas Rutten. This was probably the best part of the documentary, as I was most entertained by the scenes with Kerr and Rutten.

Although I enjoyed The Smashing Machine immensely, I would have chosen someone other than Kerr to feature. Personally, I would like to see how someone like Randy Couture, Tito Ortiz, Ken Shamrock or any of the other bigger names in Mixed Martial Arts go about their daily business and training. I'm sure it would be just as enthralling, if not more. 8/10

This is a man who proves every man's worst enemy is himself.

This is a great behind the scenes look at the ugly side of what it takes to be a MMA warrior and stay one. Mark discovers that what brought him to the top is going to chew him up and spit him out unless he makes some serious changes in his life. Addictions to pain killers and too much partying used to give him an edge of not feeling pain. His relationship used to be the crutch that would hold him up till the next fight. Fame and pressure to stay at the top makes everything different and more demanding.

All of a sudden he is very alone at the top and realizes he's just not able to do it by himself, never realizing he's the one making that decision he can't do it so he obviously was fooling himself all along.

He has to decide between being tough and living rough to be the champion or caving in to the demands of his manipulative obsessive girlfriend and taking the easy way out to chumpville with the rest of us mortals.

It was awesome seeing the scenes with Bas Rutten reacting to what he saw happening with Mark. As Mark described it -it's weird when everyone else can see what you are doing wrong except you- and that's exactly the place where he was in this movie because he is in a co-dependent relationship with a negative controlling woman. Their relationship is based on his own loneliness, depression and emotional weakness and fueled by her jealousy and fear. The reason they were together is because both shared the same bad habits and loneliness and an attraction to the escape that the other one offered. Unfortunately, people that meet because they share bad habits, tend to only make it worse on both of them.

Mark Kerr is the main focus of this film, and it deals with his incredible rise from a wrestler, to one of the elite members of Mixed Martial Arts. Though Mark is at the top of his game, his need for pain relief grows to extremes, and other troubles soon arise. This documentary on "ultimate fighting," features many great Pride fighters like Igor Vovchanchyn, Vanderlei Silva, Mark Coleman and Renzo Gracie. Bas Rutten ultimately steals the show, though Mark is truly a specimen of massive power. The film manages to get in the very midst of the Pride tournament, and fans of Vale Tudo events would love to see such great shots and interviews of their favorite fighters. The film is very violent, though the athletes involved have the utmost technique and dedication for their martial art form. Truly a very unique type of person could be involved in these events, and the film captures that perfectly. Hopefully with this film, people will begin to appreciate the technique and sport, rather than just viewing it as fighting.

A 10 ****

As a big fan of Pro Wrestling, Mixed Martial Arts and No holds Barred fighting I must say that out of all of the truly great behind the scenes documentaries this may very well be the single most well paced and perfectly executed one of them all. Centering around the road to the Pride fighting championship tournament in 2000 it leaves few stones unturned in its portrayal and career demise of a very promising fighter in Mark Kerr. The soft spoken and polite Kerr was quite a magnificent grappler in his day, but once the reality set in that as an amateur he would make little money to sustain his life he turned to MMA after his good friend Mark Coleman (who is also prominently featured in the film, though to a lesser extent) recommended it. The Trials and tribulations he endured that led to him ultimately quitting MMA is well documented, drawing you into a world of addiction, withdrawal and diluted desire. Its sad to see what Kerr gave up for his future wife, but perhaps it was never meant to be as his heart never truly seemed to be into it anyway. Along the way you meet several different MMA stars he would share his fame with, such as his trainer the damn near unstoppable MMA LEGEND Bas Rutten. On the flip side you see the redemption of Mark "the Hammer" Coleman as he fights to rebound from the humiliating UFC loss to Maurice Smith he endured 2 years earlier. Seeing these men in such a different light is a sparkling reminder of just how human they really are (such as Coleman obvious love for his children), and subsequently how prone to human error they are as well. Watching Kerr hit rock bottom due to his Pain Killer addiction is a sad sight, but after all the pro wrestling and combat sports health issues and deaths it has to be seen. Perhaps someone will finally wake up and clean up an industry that has long needed cleaning... perhaps not. No harm in hoping though. In closing I have to say this film is must see viewing for MMA/Wrestling fans and a perfect example of how to document an individual without compromising their dignity. Highly recommended.

I rented the DVD of "Smashing Machine" because I remembered Howard Stern talking about how good it was on his radio show a few months back. Just to preface where my opinion is coming from, while I am interested in martial arts and have seen a few of the UFC specials on Pay-Per-View years ago, I am by no means an active fan who is current with these events or the fighters.

Before watching, I was a little worried that this movie might of been geared towards the fans, and since I had never even heard of Mark Kerr I thought it might be uninteresting. Glad to report I was wrong... I thought this movie was fantastic. It was partially a profile of Mark Kerr and partially showing the ins and outs of the Pride Fighting events. It was odd to see that these people that go in the ring and beat the life out of each other are just regular guys who go home to a family. I would recommend this movie to anyone that is interested by martial arts or fighting, I thought it was a great watch.