Tag Archives: Boxing

New Releases, Oscar Bingo, Reviews

Cinema Review: The Smashing Machine (2025) – an authentic portrait of a MMA fighter that hits big!

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Cinema Review: The Smashing Machine (2025)

Directed by Benny Safdie

Written by Benny Safdie

Based on documentary The Smashing Machine: The Life and Times of Extreme Fighter – Mark Kerr by John Hyams

Produced by Benny Safdie, Dwayne Johnson, Eli Bush, Hiram Garcia, Dany Garcia & David Koplan

Main cast: Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Ryan Bader, Bas Rutten, Oleksandr Usyk etc.

*** MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS ***

Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine (2025) is a bruising, compassionate, and unvarnished portrait of a man torn between physical dominance and emotional fragility. Centered on a three-year stretch (early 2000s) in the dramatic life of MMA pioneer Mark Kerr, the film captures both the bone-rattling intensity of the ring and the private turmoil of a fighter whose greatest battles unfold far from the crowd’s roar.

Dwayne Johnson delivers a revelatory performance as Kerr, casting aside his blockbuster charisma to reveal deep vulnerability and conflict. His portrayal is raw, unguarded, and humane—showing a man both addicted to the high of combat and trapped by the pain that follows. The film traces Kerr’s tumultuous relationship with Dawn Staples (played with nuance and sensitivity by Emily Blunt.) Together they find emotional truth in every scene, exploring the strain that MMA fighting, addiction, mental health, fear-of-losing, obsession and self-doubt place on intimacy.

The fight sequences are stunningly authentic, shot with kinetic immediacy and documentary realism. Safdie immerses the audience in the grit and chaos of early MMA, where glory was fleeting and paydays were meager compared to the sport’s modern era. Supporting performances from real fighters Ryan Bader and Oleksandr Usyk lend further credibility, grounding the film in the texture of lived experience.

Safdie’s direction is as intense and uncompromising as his subject. He resists the traditional rise-and-fall sports narrative, opting instead for a slice-of-life, near-documentary approach that prizes authenticity over heart-pounding drama. If the conflict surrounding Kerr’s addiction, rehab, and Dawn’s own mental health struggles feels under-explored, that restraint is also what makes the film feel so painfully real.

Inspired by the documentary, The Life and Times of Extreme Fighter – Mark Kerr by John Hyams, The Smashing Machine (2025) isn’t a conventional sports movie—it’s a portrait of survival, identity, addiction and the brutal intersection of ambition and vulnerability. Unflinching and deeply human, it cements Johnson’s performance as the best of his career, and confirms Safdie’s gift for finding poetry in the MMA fight scene. Ultimately, the film works best as a tribute to the trailblazing strength and passion of the fighter, Mark Kerr. The fight game is a crazy, tough business and it’s heartening to see, especially in the final scenes, that Kerr survived such battles and lived to breathe another day.

Mark: 8 out of 11

Cinema, New Releases, Reviews

CREED II (2018) – MOVIE REVIEW

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CREED II (2018) – MOVIE REVIEW

Directed by: Steven Caple Jr.

Produced by: Sylvester Stallone, Kevin King-Templeton, Charles Winkler, William Chartoff, David Winkler, Irwin Winkler

Screenplay by: Juel Taylor, Sylvester Stallone

Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Sylvester Stallone, Tessa Thompson, Wood Harris, Phylicia Rashad, Dolph Lundgren etc.

**MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS**

The boxing rags-to-riches story of Rocky (1976) was one of the film classics I grew up watching as a kid. With several successful subsequent sequels the franchise would come to a reasonably decent end with Rocky Balboa in 2006. But, you cannot keep a good man down and Rocky was back in 2015 acting as a boxing coach and life guide to Apollo Creed’s illegitimate son, Donny. Subsequently, Creed (2015), in the deft directorial hands of Ryan Coogler and with a bona fide star turn by Michael B. Jordan, became a big sleeper hit, ensuring a sequel was very much on the cards.

We all know the beats of the story; it’s a sub-genre formula that works very well. Our boxing hero must overcome insurmountable odds inside and outside the ring in order to become or sustain his place at the top. Donny Creed’s story in the first film was that of an angry “orphan” knocked from pillar to post in foster homes before being adopted by his father’s wife into a lap of luxury. However, he desires a ring career to make his mark and succeeds with Rocky’s help. The sequel finds Donny settling down with Tessa Thompson’s Bianca and continuing his successful fight career.

With our hero on terra firma what the narrative demands is a nemesis. Enter a blast from the past and beast from the east in the guise of the Ivan Drago and his son Viktor. Virtually exiled to the Ukraine, Dolph Lundgren’s Drago is a bitter and broken man who lost everything after to his defeat by Rocky in the fourth instalment. Living vicariously through his son he craves revenge. Similarly, Donny is prepared to take the fight in order to gain revenge for Drago killing his father. While Lundgren doesn’t have much dialogue his chiselled and lined face aches with desolate pain, rendering him a key antagonist within the film. Indeed, the moment the older Drago and Rocky meet is pure filmic dynamite.

Sylvester Stallone, who also co-wrote the screenplay, once again brings his sage-like experience and star quality to a role he was born to play. The script is full of thematic power with a trio of father and son relationships at the heart of the drama. In fact, the family dramas almost shade the fight scenes for impact. However, the final ring battle and the preceding desert training montage do not disappoint for explosive style and action. Overall, while very familiar, Creed 2, is a well-crafted film that will not disappoint Rocky and boxing movie fans.

(Mark: 7.5 out of 11)

Cinema, New Releases, Reviews

JOURNEYMAN (2017) – CINEMA REVIEW – including PADDY CONSIDINE Q & A

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JOURNEYMAN (2017) – CINEMA REVIEW

Directed by: Paddy Considine

Written by: Paddy Considine

Starring: Paddy Considine, Jodie Whittaker, Paul Popplewell, Anthony Welsh

UK Release Date: 30-03-18 

**SPOILER FREE REVIEW**

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“There wasn’t a dry face in the house,” opined a member of the audience following the screening of Paddy Considine’s low-budget, big-hearted boxing narrative. We laughed at the minor malapropism because for ninety-two minutes our emotions and heart-strings had been poked, pulled and ultimately yanked apart in what was one of the empathetic and compassionate human stories I have seen in some time. I mean, I’m no hard man but it still takes a lot for me to be moved to tears, yet, Paddy Considine’s film had me welling up throughout.

The story begins with World Champion Matty Burton (Considine) and the build-up to his fight with brash, unbeaten and mouthy prospect Andre Bryte (Anthony Welsh). Burton is an experienced fighter branded a fraud by the belittling Bryte but he takes it all in his stride preparing to allow his fists do the work. Supporting Burton is his wife, Emma (amazing Jodie Whittaker), and the two have a young child together. The opening montage establishes Burton’s life showing he has everything to fight for including: family, friends, pride, career and community.

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What begins with the makings of a standard sporting genre movie is transformed following Burton’s fight with Bryte. After which Considine and Whittaker take centre stage in a deeply moving portrait of a family coming apart due to tragic circumstances. Their performances as two characters battling to stay in love, together and just fighting to keep going is remarkable. There are so many startling scenes and moments which punch and wind you; in particular, the long-take that holds on Considine while on the phone to his wife moved me beyond words.

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Following the screening Paddy Considine took questions from the editor of Total Film and the audience. It proved to be one of the best Q and A’s I’d experienced. Considine is a passionate writer, director and actor with a clear vision of the projects he loves to work on. His love of boxing as a craft was clear as he both acknowledged that while creating champions, fame and wealth, it’s also a brutal sport which can damage lives. Ultimately, Journeyman is honest and raw and reflects such battles in and out of the ring. This is not a traditional boxing film but rather a sensitive and compelling love story; and while it may be a small independent British feature it’s more epic than most big-budgeted movie releases of recent years.

 (Mark: 9.5 out of 11)