Movies THE SMASHING MACHINE Starring Dwayne Johnson (Bombs at the Box Office)

LeonardoBjj said:
- You look mad, bro.
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Let me explain maybe then its better understandable. The whole arc of Kerr is that his abuse of drugs with HGH, Roids and pain medication destroy him longterm with the amount he is taking. He mentally folds like so many others and it makes a depressed junkie out of him. Add to that his dysfunctional relationship. Its basically the exact same road The Rock is on regarding abuse of drugs.

You think Johnson will do that as an honest portrayal? Never in a million years. Everyone would see the writing on the wall that this is also the Rock. The talks with physicians that this is high level destructive abuse of his body...etc . With the Rock its even more obvious as he is much older.

And without that all what makes Kerr so unique is gone. What made Kerr so special was also his brutal honesty about himself. He made himself vulnerable to the camera to the point it got uncomfortable. The opposite of what Johnson is. Mark also showed how soft and empathic he was on the inside deeply hurting. Thats what captured peoples attention and what made Smashing Machine such a hit combined with his MMA career. Thats just way out of Johnsons ability to act.

I am gladly proven wrong. If this turns out to be an authentic hommage to Kerr I am all for it.
 
volodya said:
Did they get Dana White to play Igor??

But, I'm all in just because seeing the PRIDE logo for half a second
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Usyk's playing Igor.

usyk-boxing.gif
 
listrahtes said:
Let me explain maybe then its better understandable. The whole arc of Kerr is that his abuse of drugs with HGH, Roids and pain medication destroy him longterm with the amount he is taking. He mentally folds like so many others and it makes a depressed junkie out of him. Add to that his dysfunctional relationship. Its basically the exact same road The Rock is on regarding abuse of drugs.

You think Johnson will do that as an honest portrayal? Never in a million years. Everyone would see the writing on the wall that this is also the Rock. The talks with physicians that this is high level destructive abuse of his body...etc . With the Rock its even more obvious as he is much older.

And without that all what makes Kerr so unique is gone. What made Kerr so special was also his brutal honesty about himself. He made himself vulnerable to the camera to the point it got uncomfortable. The opposite of what Johnson is. Mark also showed how soft and empathic he was on the inside deeply hurting. Thats what captured peoples attention and what made Smashing Machine such a hit combined with his MMA career. Thats just way out of Johnsons ability to act.

I am gladly proven wrong. If this turns out to be an authentic hommage to Kerr I am all for it.
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Thanks for the spoilers
 
Sobek said:
Ah nope.

Looks like a scene by scene remake of the doco with actors and ex fighters. What is the point?
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No one saw the doc outside of us hardcore MMA fans and it helps bring the story of the early days to a new generation and I liked the directors work on Uncut Gems so I'm hopeful for this.
 
cmw43 said:
No one saw the doc outside of us hardcore MMA fans and it helps bring the story of the early days to a new generation and I liked the directors work on Uncut Gems so I'm hopeful for this.
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Fair point I guess.
 
listrahtes said:
Let me explain maybe then its better understandable. The whole arc of Kerr is that his abuse of drugs with HGH, Roids and pain medication destroy him longterm with the amount he is taking. He mentally folds like so many others and it makes a depressed junkie out of him. Add to that his dysfunctional relationship. Its basically the exact same road The Rock is on regarding abuse of drugs.

You think Johnson will do that as an honest portrayal? Never in a million years. Everyone would see the writing on the wall that this is also the Rock. The talks with physicians that this is high level destructive abuse of his body...etc . With the Rock its even more obvious as he is much older.

And without that all what makes Kerr so unique is gone. What made Kerr so special was also his brutal honesty about himself. He made himself vulnerable to the camera to the point it got uncomfortable. The opposite of what Johnson is. Mark also showed how soft and empathic he was on the inside deeply hurting. Thats what captured peoples attention and what made Smashing Machine such a hit combined with his MMA career. Thats just way out of Johnsons ability to act.

I am gladly proven wrong. If this turns out to be an authentic hommage to Kerr I am all for it.
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Frankly, this post comes off to me as so naive that it is out of touch with reality. Yes, Mark got addicted to painkillers, and his drug addiction ravaged his life. He was open about that after his career ended. But he competed in MMA when most hardcores regarded PRIDE, not the UFC, as the premier MMA promotion in the world, and it was hardly a well-kept secret that it was open season on steroid usage in that promotion, with possibly the majority of the top fighters using steroids or other PEDs (Rampage Jackson at one point revealed that for one of his fight contracts PRIDE went out of their way to print, in giant emboldened all-caps, "YOU WILL NOT BE DRUG TESTED").

Do you really believe these fighters lives were made worse, when all things are weighed, because of steroid use? I certainly don't. Perhaps choosing to be an MMA fighter wasn't the wisest decision, especially for those early fighters, when the pay was shit. What a brutal life. But that's the life they chose. Blood for glory.

Do you honestly think Alex Rodriguez, for example, ruined his life because he was already doing steroids in high school? I wonder how many naive phenomenally talented guys out there drank the Kool-Aid from all the D.A.R.E. speeches about not ruining their lives only to find themselves pushing mops or working a cash register at the Wal-Mart 10 years after high school when, maybe, just maybe, they could have been hitting home runs with up to a 9-digit contract in the MLB.

You honestly think the Rock's life has been made worse by steroid abuse? What about that steroid physique is yielding the hard life? The professional wrestling superstardom? One of the most lucrative Hollywood careers as a jacked action star that has him shortlisted as a candidate for the biggest film star in the world into his 50's?

Guys been suckling milk and honey for over two decades, now. At what point does the frying pan sizzle his egg?
 
Pittie Petey said:
This looks really frickin good, A24 doesnt make junk and the movie is made by the guys that made Uncut Gems, which is a gritty down and dirty masterpiece imo, so I had some decent expectations for this one, first impression looks like it delivered big time, looking forward to it
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Hopefully it ends up like that movie Foxcatcher. When that movie got announced people were like man this is a good sports story but semi obscure + people weren't fans of the Channing Tatum and Steve carell casting.

Ended up being arguably a top 5 movie for the entire year.
 
I liked the documentary from 2002, but I find The Rock too unlikeable to even try to watch this.

edit: I just watched the trailer and it actually doesn't look bad. I might give it a try.
 
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Madmick said:
Frankly, this post comes off to me as so naive that it is out of touch with reality. Yes, Mark got addicted to painkillers, and his drug addiction ravaged his life. He was open about that after his career ended. But he competed in MMA when most hardcores regarded PRIDE, not the UFC, as the premier MMA promotion in the world, and it was hardly a well-kept secret that it was open season on steroid usage in that promotion, with possibly the majority of the top fighters using steroids or other PEDs (Rampage Jackson at one point revealed that for one of his fight contracts PRIDE went out of their way to print, in giant emboldened all-caps, "YOU WILL NOT BE DRUG TESTED").
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You misunderstand my point completely. Its not about a moral judgement or that "PEDs are bad" or forbidden. Its about that PED abuse can have a very significant negative impact on your mental health and physical long term effects. You are turned into a junkie. With Mark the addiction was a huge part of his mental decline thats his story. Roids can be attributed sometimes to an elevated anxiety, agression, mood swings, manic symptoms, paranoia. Even abuse of Corticosteroids can have serious mental health consequences as you manipulate your cortisol system which is highly interconnected with processing stress. Pain medication can also have serious mental health consequences. Thats a huge part of Kerrs story. Its a part we usually dont see only if someone opens up or well does a Chris Benoit thing.

Regarding "open season" in Pride. It was open season everywhere just so in the UFC. Only difference was Pride didnt try to hide it while the UFC had an official stance against it while they supported it just as much as Pride. There really is no difference in that regard. Sure it created a succesful career for him and for the Rock in movies taking all that stuff. The point of Smashing Machine was that we got a private look into whats also the price you might pay for ped /medication abuse. Something usually every athlete will hide at all cost as it damages his reputation.

Regarding the Rock I have no idea what his real situation is. He is all about projecting a clean cut generic image and will protect that at all cost. So he certainly wont adress these issues in a movie or much less about himself in an honest way. Thats why he is very much the wrong choice for this. This would have been great with a real actor willing to explore all of that.
 
I forgot it was the Rock in moments during that trailer, and that's the first that's ever happened.
 
The Rock acting the least like The Rock since Be Cool? Interesting
 
They also should have bought a red NSX for the film. They can afford it.
 
As a movie it looks good. It'll be interesting to compare it to the documentary.
 
fingercuffs said:
I wasn't a massive Ruten fan but he's looking pretty neat for his age.
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Was always impressed with his fierce fighting style and punishing kicks in pancrase (like MMA but no punching). His back and forth battle with Frank Shamrock was incredible AF - those 2 warriors WERE NOT "point fighters" !

Quick watch fc, start @ 2 minutes in and see 2 of the best to ever do the man dance !







Bas later did a show on how to deal with cocky guys at bars that just had to FAFO. <Moves>
 
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