Back in 2019, Benny and Josh Safdie directed Adam Sandler in Uncut Gems. It cast Adam Sandler in an unusually dramatic effort that looked as though it might nab him an Oscar nomination but that didn’t happen.

Benny returned on his own for 2025’s The Smashing Machine, a tale that cast Dwayne Johnson in an unusually dramatic effort that looked as though it might nab him an Oscar nomination. As I write in early 2026, that possibility remains to be seen.

Set in the late 1990s, wrestler Mark Kerr (Johnson) becomes a competitor in the brutal world of “Ultimate Fighting Championship” (UFC) mixed martial arts. With his girlfriend Dawn Staples (Emily Blunt) at his side, he earns celebrity and goes undefeated.

During a trip to Japan, Mark finally loses, though perhaps due to his opponent’s use of illegal moves. Along with increasing use of pain medication, this sends Mark into a spiral from which he struggles to emerge.

In 2024, Benny and Josh decided to split as co-directors, and both put out their first features since 2019 in 2025. While Benny made Machine, Josh created Marty Supreme, also a tale about a competitor’s monomaniacal quest.

Timothée Chalamet’s lead performance seems like a lock for a Best Actor Oscar nod, and he may be the favorite to win. On the other hand, Johnson’s quest for an Academy Award feels much more tenuous.

Probably because Johnson doesn’t really bring great chops to Machine. While he delivers a perfectly competent piece of work, he doesn’t elevate the part above that.

I always liked Johnson as a comedic actor, as he usually shows good timing as well as a charming personality. Despite a build that places him in plenty of action movies, he pulls off those roles less ably, though he still manages obvious credibility in these movies that became his bread and butter.

Obviously Johnson matches up fine with the bulky athletic demands related to Mark, though he proves far too old for the role. The real Kerr was 28 in 1997, whereas Johnson’s nearly 25 years older.

If we get beyond this, Johnson doesn’t compensate with a performance that allows us to ignore the age issues. Although he seems adequate, he fails deliver the character’s complexities.

Blunt gets little more to do than flash eye candy and occasionally be a thorn in Mark’s side in a variety of ways, as Dawn often acts as a trite “bad influence”. Also saddled with a less than convincing American accent, Blunt looks amazing but can’t do much with her underwritten role.

Not that Safdie actually manages to bring depth to the proceedings. Basically a tale of a competitor who falls into a pit and battles to emerge, Machine comes with clichés and not much else.

This tends to feel tedious, mainly because the movie never finds anything creative to do with its characters or themes. Mark enjoys success, suffers after a setback and stages a return to prominence – that’s all.

Granted, many clichés become clichés because those concepts enjoy persistent relevance. Comeback tales will always find a place in storytelling.

The issue remains that Safdie doesn’t develop the tale well. Mark never turns into an intriguing protagonist, and his journey feels flat and undeveloped.

As told here, Mark immediately becomes a star, goes into decline before too long, and then battles back. Though Safdie spreads this across two hours, the narrative too often feels stagnant and stuck in neutral.

Safdie can’t manage to bring sizzle to the MMA sequences either. Cripes, even the worst Rocky movie managed some lively fights, but Machine suffers from flat competition scenes that add no vivacity to the proceedings.

During this disc’s audio commentary, Safdie talks a lot about technical domains and his attempts to make the movie feel “real”. He devotes less time to his script or actual themes/characters.

This leads me to think Safdie focused so much on his stabs at 1990s verisimilitude that he couldn’t bother with anything else. Hey, why bother with a well-told story when you can worry that every extra wore the right period-appropriate clothes instead?

I could enjoy a two-dimensional Machine that brought thrilling competition. I could enjoy a three-dimensional Machine with rich, engaging characters.

Unfortunately, Machine flops on both accounts. This leaves it as a slow and tedious look at one man’s athletic and personal journeys.

Footnote: some images of the real Kerr and others appear during the end credits. These make it even more obvious how Johnson was decades too old to play the role. 12/21/68 5/2/72

The Smashing Machine appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this 4K UHD Disc – well, except for one brief scene shot IMAX 1.43:1. The rest of the movie used 16mm cameras, as choice that left the image good but not great.

Definition seemed pretty good but lacked consistency. Thanks to the 16mm source, most shots seemed fairly concise but the film clearly came with more softness than we’d get from something shot on higher-resolution stock.

No issues with jagged edges or shimmering manifested, and I saw no edge haloes. Grain appeared moderate but natural, and the flick lacked print flaws.

In terms of colors, Machine opted for a fairly orange and teal vibe. The hues showed appropriate impact, with some extra punch from HDR.

Blacks were reasonably deep and dense, while shadows were acceptable. They could be a little murky, but that wasn’t a serious issue. Whites and contrast enjoyed some boost from HDR. Though it looked better than I typically expect from 16mm, that stock nonetheless meant we found a product that didn’t stand out as something that used the 4K UHD format all that well.

As for that one IMAX 1.43:1 sequence, it came at the movie’s very end and lasted a whopping two minutes, 38 seconds. No spoilers related to the content other than to say it presented such a mundane sequence that it felt like an odd choice to use the alternate format.

Of course, this IMAX segment boasted superior visuals to the rest of the film. However, its brevity – and the bland nature of the scene in question – meant that the higher resolution didn’t make an actual difference.

Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, the movie’s Dolby Atmos soundtrack proved more impressive. Despite the tale’s character focus, the soundfield opened up in an engrossing manner.

The mix featured dialogue from a variety of spots, and music emanated from all the various channels as well. Effects mostly delivered general ambience, though they kicked into greater action for MMA scenes, and those formed a solid sense of the fights.

Audio quality satisfied, with speech that remained concise and natural. Effects appeared accurate and boasted appealing range.

Music fared best of all, especially thanks to some particularly deep and rich low-end. I thought the mix worked very well for the story at hand.

We get a mix of extras here, and the set opens with an audio commentary from writer/director Benny Safdie. He provides a running, screen-specific look at cast and performances, sets and locations, sound design and music, photography, the documentary style and stabs at realism, editing, makeup effects and related topics.

As I mention in the body of the review, Safdie appears to care much more about nuts and bolts than story-telling, and he concentrates on those domains here. Safdie does dig into the technical aspects of the production well but I would’ve liked more about the rest of the project – and less happy talk as well.

What It Means to Be a Fighter goes for 25 minutes, eight seconds. It brings remarks from Safdie, production designer James Chinlund, costume designer Heidi Bivens, director of photography Maceo Bishop, producer David Koplan, supervising stunt coordinator Greg Rementer, and actors Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, and Bas Rutten.

The show looks at a documentary about Mark Kerr and Johnson’s desire to adapt it as well as how Safdie came to the project and his approach to the material, influences and stylistic choices, characters, cast and performances, sets and locations, makeup and costumes, cinematography, music, and the movie’s MMA segments.

Despite some repetition from the commentary, “Fighter” turns into a fairly good overview. Though it stays a little too oriented toward praise, the expansion of participants’ voices helps it.

Two Deleted Scenes follow: “Bob’s Burgers” (2:38) and “Buddhist Temple” (4:00). “Burgers” shows Mark at a fast food place where he oddly walks up to the drive-thru.

“Temple” lets us see Mark as he shops in Japan and then visits a religious shrine. Both feel utterly superfluous and would’ve simply padded the movie’s run time for little purpose.

Finally, we locate a 16mm Camera Test that runs nine minutes, nine seconds that shows Safdie as he stands in as the Mark character for some scenes. Some commentary would make this reel much more interesting, as the end result lacks much to make it compelling.

Like apparently all A24 releases, this one comes with six Photo Cards that display shots from the film. They seem forgettable.

Dwayne Johnson steps into something more dramatic than usual with The Smashing Machine but he fails to do much with the role. Given the movie’s generally thin characters and lack of real drama, though, I can’t blame him for the film’s lackluster nature. The 4K UHD comes with generally good visuals held back by the stocks used along with surprisingly strong audio and a mix of bonus features. Nothing about this stale drama clicks.