October 3, 2025 • 39 mins
Dwayne Johnson takes his rawest role yet in The Smashing Machine, Benny Safdie’s gritty drama about MMA legend Mark Kerr. On this Moviegoers Society episode, Sean and Drew break down The Rock’s career-defining performance, Emily Blunt’s powerhouse turn, and Safdie’s uncompromising direction — and ask the big question: is this finally the role that earns Johnson awards recognition?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:14):
Well, hello and welcome back to the Movie Goers Society podcast.
I'm Sean Tarshborg, the mayor ofNurtropolis and joining me, as
always is my Co host Drumenhausen, the the
professional media and movie mastermind.
You know, I'm tongue twisted. It's been already a busy week of
interviews, but yeah, today we're talking about one of the
most talked about films in the fall festival season, I think
(00:37):
Smashing Machine. I think especially amongst movie
fans like us in our audience whoare kind of excited to see
Dwayne Johnson, AKA The Rock, You know, who was one of the
biggest wrestlers on the planet,who has become one of the
biggest movie stars on the planet.
But for the really the first time in his career, taking a
(01:00):
more prestigious turn. Like really trying to show off
the acting chops in a in a smaller movie, a more of a
character study, not the typicalbig budget, big budget.
See, I'm getting tongue twisted too.
Big budget action movies that weare so used to seeing him in
now. Yeah, Drew, show off your
(01:20):
T-shirt. What does that say?
That looks very familiar from this.
Says team, bring it. I've got the Brahma Bowl here on
the sleeve. This is one of the Rocks
wrestling shirts from circa 2011.
I think is around the time when he was making a big return
leading up to a WrestleMania match against John Cena.
(01:42):
Yeah, this is to show that I I've been with this guy for a
long time, that I'm not just a movie fan, I'm a wrestling fan.
I mean, really, the shirt is newcompared to how long I've been
following the Rocks career. But yeah, so I've I've got a lot
to say on him and his career andand this movie.
Yeah, I grew up a big fan of TheRock.
(02:02):
I still remember WrestleMania 17at the Astrodome.
That was a big match that that was a legendary match in my eyes
as a little kid. And for years, you know, he's
leaned into blockbusters and those family friendly popcorn
flicks that I watched and enjoyed.
I mean, I really like this. I liked him as a Scorpion King,
like and the mummy and then the movie.
I was like, yeah, bad CGI. But like that was like when he
was like, this guy is pretty cool in the movies.
(02:24):
You know he's well, that's. I mean, it's credit to him,
right? When you watch The Mummy
Returns, it opens with that bit with the Scorpion King where
it's actually The Rock and you're like, Oh yeah, this guy's
got the juice. And then, you know, the whole
movie is amping up to the returnof the Scorpion King.
And then and then you get the CGI mess there and it's
disappointing 'cause you're like, if it had just been The
(02:47):
Rock, it would have been cool. Like they didn't need to do
that. And that's credit to The Rock,
because we wanted to see him. That's true.
There is one film that I thoughtreally showed off as chops, Pain
and gain. Is that what it was called?
Yes. I thought that was a really.
Michael Bay movie. Good movie.
Really good, really dark and wild.
(03:09):
And I thought that really showeda little bit of what The Rock
could do. And then he, like, disappeared
from what that potential was forwhatever reason.
But The Smashing Machine, Benny Safi's MMA biopic starring
Dwayne the Rock Johnson as Mark Kerr, someone I wasn't too
familiar with, but you know, this is not just a action role
(03:30):
for The Rock. I think this was a total 180 and
we got a lot to break down. I truly think the Rock once he
appears, he truly disappears into this role of Mark Kerr, one
of the most celebrated yet tormented fighters in MMA
history before you know the UFC was even existence.
(03:53):
This is like the I don't know how to explain it, like the the
pre days of mixed martial arts where it's getting really
popular globally. It's a raw career, like career
defining turn, I think for the Rock.
I mean, I keep saying Rock, I know he likes going by the
Dwayne Johnson, but it's just it's in our blood to call him
The Rock. Yeah, this is a this is a Dwayne
Johnson picture. Pretty much.
(04:15):
I mean, yeah, I like the shot a lot, actually.
Drew, when you think about Dwayne Johnson's career, how big
of a shift does this role feel to you?
I mean, it's, if you really think about it, it's huge.
You know, the when he was being billed as The Rock in a lot of
(04:36):
the movies, he kind of had gained that reputation as being
the kind of the franchise savior.
You know, they inserted him intothe 5th Fast and the Furious
movie, which is still consideredto be 1 of if not the best movie
in that franchise. They inserted him into AGI Joe
sequel and like, you know, journey to the mysterious island
like he was in the sequels and the sequels were sometimes
(04:59):
bigger or better than the original with his presence.
And and then that has led to himbeing a big movie star franchise
guy. You've got the Jumanji movies,
you've got the fast and the furious.
Of course, you've got Moana where he's a huge voice part.
You know that an iconic voice role and.
(05:21):
The live action 1 coming I was just looking at his IMDb but
like what is coming up and he has like 16 projects in the
work. Oh, he's got he's got a ton And
and we're used to seeing him as he is big, muscular, the bald
head, the, the shining smile, they the his tribal, you know,
(05:42):
tattoos for his, his heritage. And like that's what we know
when we see the Rock or Dwayne Johnson.
And this is probably the first movie of his entire filmmaking,
you know, film filmography whereI didn't look at him and say,
like, I see The Rock or I see Dwayne Johnson.
(06:03):
He, he truly did become Mark Kerr.
And, you know, you mentioned at the beginning that you didn't
know who Mark Kerr was before this movie, and neither did I.
And then now having seen the movie, it's clear that that's
kind of the point. Like I, I guess that's not a
name that people were familiar with unless you've maybe been a
big fan of the UFC since its origination or followed Pride
(06:27):
fighting like really in the riseof MMA in the late 90s as we
entered the new Millennium. Yeah, it actually was just
watching one of the episodes from the Joe Rogan podcast and
Mark Kerr was on there. So I'm like halfway through that
episode. Really good episode.
If you want to learn about Mark Kerr from Mark Kerr himself and
Rogan about UFC and and MMA. So like that's like additional
(06:48):
reading after you watch this film, go check out that podcast
with Joe Rogan with Mark Kerr. It's fantastic.
And I'm like I said, I'm only halfway through it because, you
know, those are like 2 1/2 our episodes.
Do you think audiences are readyDrew to accept Dwayne Johnson
and and and a darker grounded character, something totally
different? Like I said, a 180.
(07:08):
I know that I don't speak for all audiences here, but I would
say yes. I know for myself personally,
it's like, this is a guy who I've been with since he was a
wrestler and I'm going to be with for his entire film career
and I'm always rooting for him and I'm always going to show up
(07:29):
for his movies in the theaters. And it's been a rough go, I
would say personally, the past few years.
I mean, Moana too is a voice role.
I can't fault him. But like, I think you were
higher on Red One than I was. Like, he's fine in that Fast X.
He's like a cameo at the end. So I barely even count that.
(07:49):
Black Adam, I was not a huge fan.
The DC League of Super Pets again, that's a voice roll.
Red Notice I thought was was terrible.
Jungle Cruise I thought was OK and the Jumanji movies I've
thought are OK, but it's just like, you know, fighting with my
family, which is the WWE movie, you know, about Paige and and he
(08:11):
plays himself in that. So it's it's been like a weird
past few years we got. We got to mention Rampage.
I do enjoy that film in an odd way.
See, I thought Rampage was bad. I actually didn't mind
Skyscraper, which was the same year I thought and.
Then San Andreas and then Baywatch.
There's these. They're really random if you
(08:32):
think about his filmography. It's, it's just, it's a lot of
hit and miss. Like the same year you have
Jumanji and Fate of the Furious,which were huge, but you had
Baywatch, which like wasn't verywell received.
So it that's, that's kind of what happens with them.
Like you have fighting with my family, which does what Hobbs
and Shaw, you know, not as well received and but then you get
(08:57):
another Jumanji movie that does well.
So it's like he's always just it's peaks and valleys.
And I think that we've all, I don't want to say overexposure
because he only, you know, it's like consistently 2 to 3 movies
a year, but we've just gotten soused to seeing Dwayne Johnson,
(09:18):
The Rock, whatever you want to call him.
And I was pretty much. I was ready for him to do
something different, to disappear into a role.
And you know, it's surprising because, like I said, I, I
forgot I was looking at him in this movie.
And if you look at pictures of Mark Kerr circa 1998 when this
movie was taking place, and those pictures, I mean, the way
(09:40):
they made the Rock look like the, I'm going to say the rock
the whole time. And I don't know what he would
prefer. You and I were just talking.
You know, some people call his friends, call him DJ.
And you know, I, it's, it's pretty uncanny how much he,
they, they made him resemble Mark Kerr.
Mark. Kerr said that himself too.
When he said he's watching. He's like, people are saying
(10:01):
this is just odd. It's not just the, you know,
it's the physical transformation.
As you can see, you know, with the covering of the tattoos,
makeup team with some of the prosthetic on the face later on.
He is bald. They have a hairpiece on him
when he has hair, you know when his.
When his head is shaped bald waswhen I was like, this is looking
a little bit more Dwayne Johnsonhere because we're used to him
(10:24):
being bald, but just still like it's like uncanny valley Dwayne
Johnson. But Mark Kerr was saying the
mannerisms were on point and, like, not scared him, like, not
a negative way, but like, kind of was eerie.
It was like, I'm watching myselfon screen.
And even his son said the same thing, who is much older now and
said, yeah, that's he's got yourmannerisms down is what he said.
(10:46):
And, you know, Johnson really leans into the pain, the
diction, the self doubt that defer that, you know, defined
Kerr's life. And like I said, remind me of
what we saw a little bit in painand gain of the rock kind of
disappearing and just offering us a little different character.
I know it's a wild character. It's not similar at all.
But it's one of the films that stands out in his filmography
(11:07):
was pain and gain. And this is one that really,
really stands out. You mentioned it.
You kind of bought him as curl right away, But did it take you
any time? Like when did you know, like
this is no longer, you know, Dwayne Johnson?
This is a a new this Mark Kerr like because it's hard.
Like he has a very his shape, his size, everything about him
(11:30):
is distinct. So it's hard to kind of hide.
But I thought they did as much as they could to make him feel
like a different person and not really see Dwayne The Rock
Johnson. It's I'd say it's pretty quick
because he's he is kind of doinga voice like he's trying to
mimic Mark Kerr's speaking voice.
He's it, he's very soft spoken, but when he is in the actual
(11:52):
ring at, you know, for a fight, he turns on this brutality that
like, even though we've seen Dwayne Johnson as the Rock as a
wrestler, this is still a much more brutal version of that
because it's MMA. It's it's a brutality that we're
not even used to seeing from theRock.
So it's it's all different. And I think that was the thing
that I was most impressive impressed with in the
(12:13):
performance where the quiet moments, because he does play
the calm, almost overly nice, you know, like personable
personality that he has. He plays that very well.
And I don't think this is a spoiler to say for the movie.
It's it's biopics. It's kind of hard to spoil.
Like if you know what happens, you know what happens.
(12:34):
But like, we see Mark Kerr at the end of the movie, as you
tend to do with these movies about real people.
And like, you're like, yeah, he got the likeness pretty right.
Like the, the the voice, the thetone, the the the kind soft
spoken nature when he's not in the ring.
I thought was like pretty spot on when you get to see it at the
(12:54):
insulate made it it made it moreimpressive.
Yeah. And he really showcased both
extremes of a performance of, you know, the vulnerability, the
softness, and then, like the aggressive side of things from
the fighting and then some of the lashing out and everything
else and the anger. There's some tears as well, like
we see ways that Dwayne Johnson hasn't performed before.
(13:16):
We haven't seen him go through these types of emotions in a
role. I can't I can't recall of
anything that really put him in this position to showcase that
type of range and those types ofsituations.
Do you think this is the role that finally earns him some
serious awards recognition or it's just the starting point and
he needs to continue to kind of build up from here?
He's definitely going to be at the very least in the
(13:39):
conversation, which is good. You know, he's never been in the
conversation before. And that's what's important.
And there's a lot of folks that sometimes they get in the
conversation and whether or not they get the nomination is
something is one thing. It's helpful that you have
things like the Golden Globes, which have actors in a comedy
and in a drama that opens up thethe pool.
(14:00):
And I think that there is a chance he gets nominated,
especially at one of these showswhere they like to have the big
stars there. That gets him in the door and
that's a big deal for award shows.
I'm not saying that's, you know,the only reason folks get
nominated, but I mean, he'll be in the conversation.
I I've already seen some really,really great performances this
year. Jesse Plemons in Begonia is
(14:23):
amazing. Leo in one battle after another
is fantastic. So like it's already some tough
competition and there's other things to come.
You know, George Clooney and J Kelly and we've already we got
Michael B Jordan and sinners. Like there's a lot of of noise
already out there in the best actor race.
And so he's got his work in campaigning ahead for him if
(14:46):
he's going to make it in. But still, the fact that he's
even in the conversation, I think it's a big deal.
And that's my big take away coming out of this movie is that
I hope this unlocked something in him and doing a deeper
character study and really, really showing your acting
chops. And we know that, you know, he's
losing weight for his next role.And so like, clearly there's
(15:08):
maybe a change happening here. He knew that something something
needed to to adjust. And that makes me much more
excited for what could come in the future.
Yeah, he's losing all this weight for playing the chicken
man in the movie Lizard Music. A young boy stumbles upon
(15:28):
strange lizard musicians on latenight TV, leading him to the the
friend and man with a elderly chicken.
And apparently he's playing likea 75 year old, So there's other
things to it. Interesting synopsis, but that's
why he's dropping all that weight.
Talking about the supporting cast, Really fantastic.
I think we could start with Emily Blunt, who is phenomenal
(15:52):
here as Kerr's partner. You can see why, you know,
Dwayne wanted to work with her again since Jungle Cruise wasn't
a fan of Jungle Cruise as much. Emily Blunt I like a lot, but I
don't think, I never think she'slike amazing, amazing.
But this film, I can see why like people talk highly of her.
(16:13):
I think she takes the jobs very seriously, and she did in this
role. And then you also have, you
know, real fighters in this movie.
You have Ryan Bader movies aboutMark Coleman.
So he plays Mark Kerr's best friend and he's a real fighter.
I thought he was really good in the best friend role and fellow
trainer, which is awesome. And then he had, you had that
(16:34):
elderly trainer Boss Rutin, I think.
And it was kind of like that Rocky and Mickey energy that
grounds the film emotionally. And they're like, look,
everyone's looking out for Mark Kerr in this film, Dwayne's
character and kind of making sure that his his future wife
doesn't take the focus out of him and everything else that's
(16:54):
going on. So who stood up most to you?
I'm assuming it's Emily Blunt, but you know, pretty good
supporting cast as well. I mean, the main thing for me
with Emily Blunt is the say whatyou will about Jungle Cruise,
but she and Dwayne Johnson at least had chemistry in that, if
anything. And that continues here.
And I think that's important, especially not to say not for
(17:19):
this to sound negative about Dwayne Johnson, but just like
he's just such a movie star in aspecimen that like, him being in
a romantic relationship in a movie is always like just kind
of weird. It's tough to kind of even get
them the right match and someonehas to really because he's a
large man. So you need someone to impose
largeness in a small body too. So I thought Emily Blunt was
(17:41):
able to like play large and really go toe to toe with him in
this and really give him AI Don't know.
I don't know, not really. Spoiler bird get really into
him. Yeah, and like Emily Blunt, it's
kind of surprising I she only has 1 Oscar nomination
previously and that's for Oppenheimer where, you know, she
plays the wife in that. And so she does, she's good at
(18:04):
it, but she has a history of like playing the wife, playing
the girlfriend. And, you know, I, I think that
she's really great as a lead too.
And, you know, I think that she's really good in this.
She's she is like it's, it's a juicy part for her, but it's
still like you're playing against Dwayne Johnson in this
movie that really is centered around him.
(18:25):
I, I think Ryan Bader stood out to this is a Safdie thing,
right? Like Josh and Benny Safdie, the
Safdie brothers. We haven't really mentioned them
yet, but Benny Safdie on his owndirected this one.
And the Safdie's have a history of of casting, you know, real
people in movies or people who like truly work in this
profession to play a character. And so Ryan Bader, while not
(18:47):
playing himself, is, you know, playing a fighter.
And there is something about thefact that he really is, you
know, an MMA fighter that bringssome legitimacy to it and some
some realism because he he readslike a fighter.
Like you can just tell this guy's.
Authenticity is very important in these roles.
You can't just get some actor and be like, oh, you're an MMA
(19:08):
fighter and then pretend you areone in the film.
And especially if you don't havethe physique or the OR the
technique to do some of these fights.
Exactly. So I do always think it's it's
impressive when you get these guys that you know, are are
playing themselves or a version of themselves or somebody who
(19:28):
works in in the same career. I mean, like, look at Kevin
Garnett in uncut gyms who playedlike a fictionalized version of
himself. Like there's something special
that the Safdies are able to bring out of people that are
traditional actors and get performance out of them.
And even though this is just Benny directing this by himself,
(19:49):
it like I still feel like that'sthere.
There's still, it still has the feeling of like a Safdie
Brothers movie. Yeah, and, and, and Speaking of
Benny Safdie in his direction, Ilove that he shot this in like
this grainy, like 16mm. I guess look at the camera right
there. And I, I guess he shot it for
IMAX. I wish we saw it in IMAX.
(20:10):
Just the way it's shot. It's really awesome, really
transports you. It feels brutal and immersive
the way this film is shot. I really feel like you're there
for the underground years of theMMAI really liked it.
And also the only negatives I can say about this film and we
can touch a little bit about it was the pacing.
At times I thought there was waytoo much fighting.
(20:32):
I kind of wanted to see more of Sounds Horrible with some of the
darkness. I think they could have leaned
in more in the darkness of the story, and some of those fights
were just drawn out too much. And I didn't think we're going
to get that much fighting, surprisingly, you know?
Yeah. I was just.
Going to say the runtime for this movie is 123 minutes, so
just over 2 hours and this wouldhave been like a prime hour 40
(20:56):
movie if they could have cut, you know, a little bit, I feel
like it, it really would have flowed.
I, I will say there are some wonders and, and some long takes
and, and some of Dwayne Johnson's silence as part of his
performances is really well done.
There's a lot of really good physical part of parts of the
performance. There's one scene in particular
where he slight, ever so slight spoilers, but he he loses a
(21:19):
match and the camera follows himout of the ring and all the way
through this, this facility to back to the dressing room or
whatever you want to call it. The, the locker room.
I should say, if you can even call it.
That's not much of A locker roomin in the movie where he's
stationed, but it's a long shot following him as he's just by
(21:41):
himself for most of it in silence, digesting what just
happened. Going through this venue that's
like not a traditional sports venue and dealing with that just
seems. Like, it was at a hotel, I think
it was at a hotel they had to gothrough because there's the
kitchen, the service elevator, and yeah, there's just one long
shot of him trying to get back to it and navigate and just
(22:02):
dealing with all the emotion of losing and like and shock pretty
much. Yeah, And, and I think as much
as I'm a fan of his performance in this movie, I do still feel
like I don't want to say something's missing, but like, I
don't know the the what I'm kindof getting at is when you watch
the Oscars, you watch these award shows, right?
(22:24):
And you get, you know, so and sonominated for best actor and you
know, Dwayne Johnson as Mark Kerr in The Smashing Machine.
And you get a clip, you get a short clip from the movie of
their performance. And it's usually, sometimes it's
a big moment, sometimes it's a more subtle moment.
But like you get that Oscar clip.
And I just kind of he has some good moments in this movie and
(22:46):
he has some quiet moments. He has some moments where he's
in an argument or where he is a little bit bigger, but I just
don't know if it quite got thereto be like, give me that Oscar
clip, am I? Am I being too harsh?
What do you think? No, I think it comes also down
to the movie or like the writing.
And I don't think this is the movie that's going to win him
any awards. Obviously, it might get him
(23:07):
some, you know, some recognitionthat movie is out.
There, it's not. It's not all on him.
That's fair. It's not on him at all.
I think it's due to the type of movie and so we have to see what
he really wants to do. I would like to see him in some
type of like historical fiction film too.
Something I I feel like like howJason Momoa made that series
(23:32):
Chief of War and I'm not sure ifyou've seen it, but it has
really good I've heard. Good things.
Really fantastic and really dives deep and like really gets
they dive into the emotional aspect of it too and and dives
into that culture. I think he needs to find
something that fits his physique.
That's not AI don't want to callit a problem, but it's a set
back his physique. But he did.
(23:54):
He's losing 75 plus pounds for this next film.
So we have to see how that translates on the big screen.
And that's why you see, I mean, John Cena wanted to retire.
He's going to lose weight. Just like who am I about to
mention Batista? Batista lost all this weight so
he can get better roles that fithim because it's weird to be
first of all, it's hard to keep all that mass.
It's too hard, especially when you get up in age and a roll
(24:17):
needs to fit physically as well.And so that is tough to do.
And I, I think Dwayne Johnson isrealizing that.
So he's slowly rolling towards figuring it out.
And this is the first time he's losing weight ever, I think, in
his. Career there is a It's worth
bringing this up. The Hollywood Reporter did an
(24:38):
article about a month ago. I don't know if he saw this
where they did the top 10 wrestlers turned actors and
ranked them. Did you see this list?
I don't think I saw that specifically.
I did hear rumblings about it, but I never took a look at it.
You get folks like Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan and Big
Show and Kevin Nash folks that are on the list, but.
(24:59):
But those are. Naturally.
Those aren't the real actors to me.
Right, the top. The top three, of course, are
the current big three, which areit not in order.
Dwayne Johnson, Batista, Dave Batista and John Cena are the
top three. If you, Sean personally had to
(25:21):
rank them 123. The top wrestlers turned actors.
What are what are you, what are you doing?
What are you, how are you ranking them?
What, what? And I'm not, you know, there's
no conditions here. I'm just saying like your
personal ranking. I'm going to put some conditions
on it because there's a lot of controversy over.
(25:42):
I'm pretty sure I won't put Batista one, but Batista is a
student of cinema and film. So yeah, he has the best, I
think, potential and he has shown it, but I don't think he
has really. I mean, the characters he's
played, I still see Batista. I see all these, all these
wrestlers. I still see the wrestler in
(26:03):
them. It's really tough.
John Cena is hilarious. I love him in comedies.
I think he's perfect in comedies.
I don't see how he can go serious.
I really don't see it. I mean, he's going to be in that
Looney Tunes movie, that comedy versus Acne movie.
I don't know what type of roles he's going to excel at once he's
done with wrestling. To Be The Rock has been the most
(26:25):
successful, regardless of the duds.
He's taken big swings. He has entertained us more in
cinema than the other two for sure, with the amount of content
put out. Not all of them, but amazing.
But like there's a lot of prettyfun stuff in there and he's been
playing himself pretty much and and that's what worked I think
entertainment wise. And that that translates from
(26:47):
wrestling to film. The Rock had the best
personality and in ego or whatever you want to call it and
the all that stuff that translate well to cinema.
Kind of want to see where Batista goes, but he just
released this one movie that wasvery small that didn't get much
of A reach. I don't know what it was called
so I'm not sure what's next fromsome of the movies I've seen
with Batista other than like Dune and then also Blade Runner,
(27:09):
which were the small rules, I got to see him do something
else. So I probably put Rock, Batista,
Cena. They they did rank 1 Batista, 2
Dwayne, three Cena, and then it goes on. 4 is Roddy Roddy Piper.
Of course, I'm I for me it's it,it is kind of conditional.
(27:34):
Like I think for me #1 is DwayneJohnson 2 just as far as pure
movie star stamina goes? Like, but if you're going, if
the criteria is by pure acting ability, then yeah, I probably
put Dwayne. I probably put Batista above
Dwayne. I think he has taken a lot more
acting course. Like, I don't know, maybe maybe
(27:57):
has a little bit more range, butthis at least opens the door for
Dwayne Johnson to be in that conversation because this is a
good performance. And I and I think that that's
important. So Cena is always going to be
Cena. I don't think Cena even has any
aspirations for being more than like John Cena.
And right now we're so I'm so deep into, you know, the current
(28:19):
season of Peacemaker, which I'm all caught up on.
And like, even though he's Peacemaker and playing it a
superhero, like he's still John Cena to me, even if he's being
profane or whatever. I to be clear, that's a this is
positive. I love John Cena and I like
watching him in movies and TV show and I will go to show up
and see whatever he's in as well.
I'll say this true. If I had to pick right now who
(28:42):
my favorite entertaining wrestler out of the three
delivering movies, good or bad, is John Cena, What was that?
Ricky Sticky? What was it?
Ricky Spinicky. That was hilarious.
I I've had more fun with Cena films, as in the recent times
that I have with Batista in Rockfilms.
I do like the smashing machine alot, but I'm saying Cena has
entertained me far more. He can elevate some otherwise
(29:05):
would be, you know, not as good.He makes that.
Did you see Did you see Jackpot,the one with Aquafina?
Yes, yes, I liked it. I did like that.
Like. He's finding that too.
He makes that one better and he does have that ability.
And, and I when I spoke to Paul Feig about that, he was, I asked
him about John Cena and he was saying he's very talented,
(29:26):
especially when it comes to comedy.
And he is a student also. He's also trying to be a student
of film and cinema and comedy aswell.
And Batista is also hilarious when he's in Guardians, you
know, just the way he does it. I mean, Guardians is probably my
favorite Batista role as Drax. Of course.
And, and he is, I think it's debatable, but he's probably the
(29:46):
biggest breakout star of the first Guardians movie out of all
of them. Yeah.
And I like that was kind of the story out of that was how good
Batista was as Drax. And.
And then when I saw him in BladeRunner, I was like, whoa.
That was a whoa, but it was too short of a thing.
And then it just like disappeared.
Like that type of role didn't really come about.
Like I don't know what happened.I really wish he was like when
(30:09):
they for Batman they made him like Hugo Strange or something
like that. I thought that would have been
it still. Happened.
Could still happen sometime. It could happen like that would
be a comic book breakout role but when it comes to something
mainstream or outside, not mainstream but outs not
mainstream outside like big blockbusters and and superhero
(30:30):
films. I don't know what he would excel
at, but like, if he sticks to the sci-fi and does some fun
sci-fi stuff, I don't know. I don't know what he's doing
next. Maybe we should look it up later
on. But lastly, Drew, I want to ask
you this. Do you think this is, I think
that we know the answer. What are Johnson's best
performances? Or is it overstating it?
This is the best performance. Yeah, yeah.
(30:54):
I mean, I mean from a true acting perspective, he he is.
Say what you will about like acting, Dwayne Johnson is a
fantastic movie star. When he shows up as Luke Hobbs
in Fast 5, the dude has presencewhen he shows up in something
(31:15):
even like something like Jumanjiright where he's Doctor Xander,
Smulder Bravestone, you know, hehe brings something to that.
He is a star. And even though I thought Black
Adam was like pretty terrible, you put him in the suit, there's
something there like he is a movie star and there's something
(31:39):
about that. Not everybody can do that.
But from a pure acting perspective, this is his best
performance. Yeah, I'm with you and going
back really because I did pull up his, you know, IMDBI did
watch The Last Showgirl. He has a small role in that.
He's really good in The Last Showgirl, the Naked Gun scene
(32:00):
with him, and that is hilarious.I kind of like that playing.
Oh. Let's try to forgot he does.
He does have a cameo in that. Apparently he's in the
Highlander movie that's been delayed slightly because of
Henry Cavill's injury and then also he's might be in Roadhouse
2 which just added oh who they add?
Who's Alex Cross? Who is Hawkman in Aldous Aldous?
(32:24):
Aldous. Aldous.
Hodge, he's he. I still think of him every time
I see him. I think of him as voodoo in the
first season of Friday Night Nights.
I just can't get past it 'cause I was such a big Friday Night
Lights fan. So apparently he is part of
Roadhouse too, I think, if that's what I read correctly.
And then Batista is doing something for the legend, legend
of Ang film doing a voice in that.
(32:46):
And, and there's other things that we don't, I don't know
what's official and what's not official, but yeah, that's our
take on The Smashing Machine. But that's hitting theaters on
October 3rd. We're not just wrapping up just
yet. There's a couple things I want
to talk about, but let us know if you're planning on seeing The
Smashing Machine and whether youthink Dwayne Johnson finally
gets the recognition he has beenchasing.
(33:07):
We did talk about 1 battle afteranother.
We'll talk about real quick as we wrap things up.
For me, I think it's, I have to think really hard, but I think
it'd be one of my favorite, maybe any top 2 films of the
year, surprisingly. As of this time, for me
personally, it is the only movieI've seen this year that I would
(33:27):
give five out of five stars. I loved it.
I thought it was a masterpiece. I did.
It's worth noting because the last time you and I did a live
show or recorded a podcast, but I was at Fantastic Fest and I
believe that the day we recorded, we recorded on Monday.
(33:48):
And you watch it the next day. It was the next day, it was, it
was a secret screening. And I mean, it was an incredible
experience. I mean, it was.
It was. Just because it's a it's a very
original film. It is so unique, it's wild.
It's all over the place in a good way.
It's almost 3 hours long. You don't feel it at all
(34:09):
surprising. No, not.
At all, unless you watch in theaters now where you have the
trailers. We did not have trailers.
So maybe that was very helpful in that.
I'm grateful for that. So Leonardo DiCaprio, fantastic,
Benicio del Toro, fantastic, everyone else in there.
But like, and then Paul Thomas Anderson with that car chase
scene over the hill, I thought that was brilliant.
(34:30):
I've never seen anything like that.
That was very, very reminiscent of movies you would get in the
90s that were not experimental per SE, but like very artsy at
the same time. Some of the films, some of the
camera work was very bold in a good way and very different and
be like, we're going to do it this way.
I liked it. Yeah.
And Paul Thomas said he doesn't have that many modern movies,
(34:54):
like movies that take place in the present in his filmography.
And it's like that was unique toit.
Sean Penn also really good. Oh, I forgot.
Why am I forgetting about Sean Penn, one of my favorite actors?
Wow, what a what a role, that's for sure, Jason.
Infinity and this is her first role and she she's great I mean
like this is just it's the totalpackage it's it's funny, it's
(35:17):
absurd, it's action-packed it's.Weird.
It's it's a weird fun film. That's all I can say.
Yeah, it just I mean it moves like none other.
It is it is so good. And I was actually the one nudge
and Sean before I was like, I just we just have to mention one
battle after another because came out while I was, you know,
come back from the festival. You know, it's playing in
(35:39):
theaters now. You gave it 5 out of five in
your review on Nurtropolis. I would have given it the same
It's. You would have given it 6 out of
five if you could. I, I mean truly, I would, yeah,
I would if I could. Yeah, yeah, we did record a
Fantastic Fest episode where Drew watched Black Phone 2 and
CC Road to Revenge. You can check that out, Drew.
(36:04):
Let me see if I can now. It's not writing that.
Let me see. Look at this, Drew.
You have made it with your quotefor CC Road to Revenge.
Gritty and bloody mayhem from start to finish.
So congratulations on that. That is amazing that you're in
the ads for CCU. I don't want to toot my own
horn, but I have to because I love this movie so much.
(36:26):
I saw it twice but I found this the other day.
I am here with Gabby's stall house.
Let's. Go leap.
To the big screen Nurtropolis. Don't put a smile on my face.
I had to put that up. I had to share with somebody.
Could you are there two more opposite movies with the with
(36:49):
Nurtropolis being quoted CC Roadto Revenge?
He's true. He's ever been.
You know, and grinding blood on that and that still.
And then you got Gabby's dollhouse.
You know Gabby looking ever so cute with her little Kitty cat
for me. Those are the Gabby cats.
You got to know the Gabby cats. And one of my favorites that's
introduced is Chumsley. You can tell I'm a fan already.
(37:12):
I've watched this movie. I never watched the show, but
that's how I felt about that as well.
I'm saying make sure you do visit nootropus.com for all our
news, reviews and trailers. I just dropped Alex Winter
interview is fantastic. We talked about the Broadway oh,
(37:32):
why am I Broadway with Keanu, which is called Waiting for
Godot. And then also we talked Bill and
Ted 4 maybe we talked about Ben 10 'cause he directed 2 live
action movies. We talked about freaked 4K
coming and then we talked about something else.
I don't recall, but we we talkedadulthood, his new film doll.
It's actually really good with Josh Gad.
(37:53):
It's a pretty dark it's a dark comedy.
It was actually fantastic and a lot of stuff to check out.
I spoke to the creator, writer, director of Boondock Saints.
We talked about the prequel bookand what is, you know, what's
going on with the the brothers for the future.
So that's coming up soon. And I have a lot of other stuff
in the works as well. And make sure you follow us on
(38:14):
socials or try to grow on Twitter and Instagram, follow us
on Facebook, follow Drew and I on letterbox, I mean, and
subscribe to our YouTube channel.
I mean wherever Drew, right? We are.
I mean, truly. Yeah.
Anywhere you can post about movies, I will.
Yeah, so we're doing our best tokeep up with everything.
It's been exciting so far. So far for 2025, when we got
(38:35):
more coming, like I said, Smashing Machine hitting
theaters October 3rd, Definitelycheck that out.
Once again, I'm Shawn Tardra, the mayor of Neutropolis.
And I'm Drew Munhausen, the professional media and movie
mastermind. And we'll see you at the movie.
Well, hello and welcome back to the Movie Goers Society podcast.
I'm Sean Tarshborg, the mayor ofNurtropolis and joining me, as
always is my Co host Drumenhausen, the the
professional media and movie mastermind.
You know, I'm tongue twisted. It's been already a busy week of
interviews, but yeah, today we're talking about one of the
most talked about films in the fall festival season, I think
(00:37):
Smashing Machine. I think especially amongst movie
fans like us in our audience whoare kind of excited to see
Dwayne Johnson, AKA The Rock, You know, who was one of the
biggest wrestlers on the planet,who has become one of the
biggest movie stars on the planet.
But for the really the first time in his career, taking a
(01:00):
more prestigious turn. Like really trying to show off
the acting chops in a in a smaller movie, a more of a
character study, not the typicalbig budget, big budget.
See, I'm getting tongue twisted too.
Big budget action movies that weare so used to seeing him in
now. Yeah, Drew, show off your
(01:20):
T-shirt. What does that say?
That looks very familiar from this.
Says team, bring it. I've got the Brahma Bowl here on
the sleeve. This is one of the Rocks
wrestling shirts from circa 2011.
I think is around the time when he was making a big return
leading up to a WrestleMania match against John Cena.
(01:42):
Yeah, this is to show that I I've been with this guy for a
long time, that I'm not just a movie fan, I'm a wrestling fan.
I mean, really, the shirt is newcompared to how long I've been
following the Rocks career. But yeah, so I've I've got a lot
to say on him and his career andand this movie.
Yeah, I grew up a big fan of TheRock.
(02:02):
I still remember WrestleMania 17at the Astrodome.
That was a big match that that was a legendary match in my eyes
as a little kid. And for years, you know, he's
leaned into blockbusters and those family friendly popcorn
flicks that I watched and enjoyed.
I mean, I really like this. I liked him as a Scorpion King,
like and the mummy and then the movie.
I was like, yeah, bad CGI. But like that was like when he
was like, this guy is pretty cool in the movies.
(02:24):
You know he's well, that's. I mean, it's credit to him,
right? When you watch The Mummy
Returns, it opens with that bit with the Scorpion King where
it's actually The Rock and you're like, Oh yeah, this guy's
got the juice. And then, you know, the whole
movie is amping up to the returnof the Scorpion King.
And then and then you get the CGI mess there and it's
disappointing 'cause you're like, if it had just been The
(02:47):
Rock, it would have been cool. Like they didn't need to do
that. And that's credit to The Rock,
because we wanted to see him. That's true.
There is one film that I thoughtreally showed off as chops, Pain
and gain. Is that what it was called?
Yes. I thought that was a really.
Michael Bay movie. Good movie.
Really good, really dark and wild.
(03:09):
And I thought that really showeda little bit of what The Rock
could do. And then he, like, disappeared
from what that potential was forwhatever reason.
But The Smashing Machine, Benny Safi's MMA biopic starring
Dwayne the Rock Johnson as Mark Kerr, someone I wasn't too
familiar with, but you know, this is not just a action role
(03:30):
for The Rock. I think this was a total 180 and
we got a lot to break down. I truly think the Rock once he
appears, he truly disappears into this role of Mark Kerr, one
of the most celebrated yet tormented fighters in MMA
history before you know the UFC was even existence.
(03:53):
This is like the I don't know how to explain it, like the the
pre days of mixed martial arts where it's getting really
popular globally. It's a raw career, like career
defining turn, I think for the Rock.
I mean, I keep saying Rock, I know he likes going by the
Dwayne Johnson, but it's just it's in our blood to call him
The Rock. Yeah, this is a this is a Dwayne
Johnson picture. Pretty much.
(04:15):
I mean, yeah, I like the shot a lot, actually.
Drew, when you think about Dwayne Johnson's career, how big
of a shift does this role feel to you?
I mean, it's, if you really think about it, it's huge.
You know, the when he was being billed as The Rock in a lot of
(04:36):
the movies, he kind of had gained that reputation as being
the kind of the franchise savior.
You know, they inserted him intothe 5th Fast and the Furious
movie, which is still consideredto be 1 of if not the best movie
in that franchise. They inserted him into AGI Joe
sequel and like, you know, journey to the mysterious island
like he was in the sequels and the sequels were sometimes
(04:59):
bigger or better than the original with his presence.
And and then that has led to himbeing a big movie star franchise
guy. You've got the Jumanji movies,
you've got the fast and the furious.
Of course, you've got Moana where he's a huge voice part.
You know that an iconic voice role and.
(05:21):
The live action 1 coming I was just looking at his IMDb but
like what is coming up and he has like 16 projects in the
work. Oh, he's got he's got a ton And
and we're used to seeing him as he is big, muscular, the bald
head, the, the shining smile, they the his tribal, you know,
(05:42):
tattoos for his, his heritage. And like that's what we know
when we see the Rock or Dwayne Johnson.
And this is probably the first movie of his entire filmmaking,
you know, film filmography whereI didn't look at him and say,
like, I see The Rock or I see Dwayne Johnson.
(06:03):
He, he truly did become Mark Kerr.
And, you know, you mentioned at the beginning that you didn't
know who Mark Kerr was before this movie, and neither did I.
And then now having seen the movie, it's clear that that's
kind of the point. Like I, I guess that's not a
name that people were familiar with unless you've maybe been a
big fan of the UFC since its origination or followed Pride
(06:27):
fighting like really in the riseof MMA in the late 90s as we
entered the new Millennium. Yeah, it actually was just
watching one of the episodes from the Joe Rogan podcast and
Mark Kerr was on there. So I'm like halfway through that
episode. Really good episode.
If you want to learn about Mark Kerr from Mark Kerr himself and
Rogan about UFC and and MMA. So like that's like additional
(06:48):
reading after you watch this film, go check out that podcast
with Joe Rogan with Mark Kerr. It's fantastic.
And I'm like I said, I'm only halfway through it because, you
know, those are like 2 1/2 our episodes.
Do you think audiences are readyDrew to accept Dwayne Johnson
and and and a darker grounded character, something totally
different? Like I said, a 180.
(07:08):
I know that I don't speak for all audiences here, but I would
say yes. I know for myself personally,
it's like, this is a guy who I've been with since he was a
wrestler and I'm going to be with for his entire film career
and I'm always rooting for him and I'm always going to show up
(07:29):
for his movies in the theaters. And it's been a rough go, I
would say personally, the past few years.
I mean, Moana too is a voice role.
I can't fault him. But like, I think you were
higher on Red One than I was. Like, he's fine in that Fast X.
He's like a cameo at the end. So I barely even count that.
(07:49):
Black Adam, I was not a huge fan.
The DC League of Super Pets again, that's a voice roll.
Red Notice I thought was was terrible.
Jungle Cruise I thought was OK and the Jumanji movies I've
thought are OK, but it's just like, you know, fighting with my
family, which is the WWE movie, you know, about Paige and and he
(08:11):
plays himself in that. So it's it's been like a weird
past few years we got. We got to mention Rampage.
I do enjoy that film in an odd way.
See, I thought Rampage was bad. I actually didn't mind
Skyscraper, which was the same year I thought and.
Then San Andreas and then Baywatch.
There's these. They're really random if you
(08:32):
think about his filmography. It's, it's just, it's a lot of
hit and miss. Like the same year you have
Jumanji and Fate of the Furious,which were huge, but you had
Baywatch, which like wasn't verywell received.
So it that's, that's kind of what happens with them.
Like you have fighting with my family, which does what Hobbs
and Shaw, you know, not as well received and but then you get
(08:57):
another Jumanji movie that does well.
So it's like he's always just it's peaks and valleys.
And I think that we've all, I don't want to say overexposure
because he only, you know, it's like consistently 2 to 3 movies
a year, but we've just gotten soused to seeing Dwayne Johnson,
(09:18):
The Rock, whatever you want to call him.
And I was pretty much. I was ready for him to do
something different, to disappear into a role.
And you know, it's surprising because, like I said, I, I
forgot I was looking at him in this movie.
And if you look at pictures of Mark Kerr circa 1998 when this
movie was taking place, and those pictures, I mean, the way
(09:40):
they made the Rock look like the, I'm going to say the rock
the whole time. And I don't know what he would
prefer. You and I were just talking.
You know, some people call his friends, call him DJ.
And you know, I, it's, it's pretty uncanny how much he,
they, they made him resemble Mark Kerr.
Mark. Kerr said that himself too.
When he said he's watching. He's like, people are saying
(10:01):
this is just odd. It's not just the, you know,
it's the physical transformation.
As you can see, you know, with the covering of the tattoos,
makeup team with some of the prosthetic on the face later on.
He is bald. They have a hairpiece on him
when he has hair, you know when his.
When his head is shaped bald waswhen I was like, this is looking
a little bit more Dwayne Johnsonhere because we're used to him
(10:24):
being bald, but just still like it's like uncanny valley Dwayne
Johnson. But Mark Kerr was saying the
mannerisms were on point and, like, not scared him, like, not
a negative way, but like, kind of was eerie.
It was like, I'm watching myselfon screen.
And even his son said the same thing, who is much older now and
said, yeah, that's he's got yourmannerisms down is what he said.
(10:46):
And, you know, Johnson really leans into the pain, the
diction, the self doubt that defer that, you know, defined
Kerr's life. And like I said, remind me of
what we saw a little bit in painand gain of the rock kind of
disappearing and just offering us a little different character.
I know it's a wild character. It's not similar at all.
But it's one of the films that stands out in his filmography
(11:07):
was pain and gain. And this is one that really,
really stands out. You mentioned it.
You kind of bought him as curl right away, But did it take you
any time? Like when did you know, like
this is no longer, you know, Dwayne Johnson?
This is a a new this Mark Kerr like because it's hard.
Like he has a very his shape, his size, everything about him
(11:30):
is distinct. So it's hard to kind of hide.
But I thought they did as much as they could to make him feel
like a different person and not really see Dwayne The Rock
Johnson. It's I'd say it's pretty quick
because he's he is kind of doinga voice like he's trying to
mimic Mark Kerr's speaking voice.
He's it, he's very soft spoken, but when he is in the actual
(11:52):
ring at, you know, for a fight, he turns on this brutality that
like, even though we've seen Dwayne Johnson as the Rock as a
wrestler, this is still a much more brutal version of that
because it's MMA. It's it's a brutality that we're
not even used to seeing from theRock.
So it's it's all different. And I think that was the thing
that I was most impressive impressed with in the
(12:13):
performance where the quiet moments, because he does play
the calm, almost overly nice, you know, like personable
personality that he has. He plays that very well.
And I don't think this is a spoiler to say for the movie.
It's it's biopics. It's kind of hard to spoil.
Like if you know what happens, you know what happens.
(12:34):
But like, we see Mark Kerr at the end of the movie, as you
tend to do with these movies about real people.
And like, you're like, yeah, he got the likeness pretty right.
Like the, the the voice, the thetone, the the the kind soft
spoken nature when he's not in the ring.
I thought was like pretty spot on when you get to see it at the
(12:54):
insulate made it it made it moreimpressive.
Yeah. And he really showcased both
extremes of a performance of, you know, the vulnerability, the
softness, and then, like the aggressive side of things from
the fighting and then some of the lashing out and everything
else and the anger. There's some tears as well, like
we see ways that Dwayne Johnson hasn't performed before.
(13:16):
We haven't seen him go through these types of emotions in a
role. I can't I can't recall of
anything that really put him in this position to showcase that
type of range and those types ofsituations.
Do you think this is the role that finally earns him some
serious awards recognition or it's just the starting point and
he needs to continue to kind of build up from here?
He's definitely going to be at the very least in the
(13:39):
conversation, which is good. You know, he's never been in the
conversation before. And that's what's important.
And there's a lot of folks that sometimes they get in the
conversation and whether or not they get the nomination is
something is one thing. It's helpful that you have
things like the Golden Globes, which have actors in a comedy
and in a drama that opens up thethe pool.
(14:00):
And I think that there is a chance he gets nominated,
especially at one of these showswhere they like to have the big
stars there. That gets him in the door and
that's a big deal for award shows.
I'm not saying that's, you know,the only reason folks get
nominated, but I mean, he'll be in the conversation.
I I've already seen some really,really great performances this
year. Jesse Plemons in Begonia is
(14:23):
amazing. Leo in one battle after another
is fantastic. So like it's already some tough
competition and there's other things to come.
You know, George Clooney and J Kelly and we've already we got
Michael B Jordan and sinners. Like there's a lot of of noise
already out there in the best actor race.
And so he's got his work in campaigning ahead for him if
(14:46):
he's going to make it in. But still, the fact that he's
even in the conversation, I think it's a big deal.
And that's my big take away coming out of this movie is that
I hope this unlocked something in him and doing a deeper
character study and really, really showing your acting
chops. And we know that, you know, he's
losing weight for his next role.And so like, clearly there's
(15:08):
maybe a change happening here. He knew that something something
needed to to adjust. And that makes me much more
excited for what could come in the future.
Yeah, he's losing all this weight for playing the chicken
man in the movie Lizard Music. A young boy stumbles upon
(15:28):
strange lizard musicians on latenight TV, leading him to the the
friend and man with a elderly chicken.
And apparently he's playing likea 75 year old, So there's other
things to it. Interesting synopsis, but that's
why he's dropping all that weight.
Talking about the supporting cast, Really fantastic.
I think we could start with Emily Blunt, who is phenomenal
(15:52):
here as Kerr's partner. You can see why, you know,
Dwayne wanted to work with her again since Jungle Cruise wasn't
a fan of Jungle Cruise as much. Emily Blunt I like a lot, but I
don't think, I never think she'slike amazing, amazing.
But this film, I can see why like people talk highly of her.
(16:13):
I think she takes the jobs very seriously, and she did in this
role. And then you also have, you
know, real fighters in this movie.
You have Ryan Bader movies aboutMark Coleman.
So he plays Mark Kerr's best friend and he's a real fighter.
I thought he was really good in the best friend role and fellow
trainer, which is awesome. And then he had, you had that
(16:34):
elderly trainer Boss Rutin, I think.
And it was kind of like that Rocky and Mickey energy that
grounds the film emotionally. And they're like, look,
everyone's looking out for Mark Kerr in this film, Dwayne's
character and kind of making sure that his his future wife
doesn't take the focus out of him and everything else that's
(16:54):
going on. So who stood up most to you?
I'm assuming it's Emily Blunt, but you know, pretty good
supporting cast as well. I mean, the main thing for me
with Emily Blunt is the say whatyou will about Jungle Cruise,
but she and Dwayne Johnson at least had chemistry in that, if
anything. And that continues here.
And I think that's important, especially not to say not for
(17:19):
this to sound negative about Dwayne Johnson, but just like
he's just such a movie star in aspecimen that like, him being in
a romantic relationship in a movie is always like just kind
of weird. It's tough to kind of even get
them the right match and someonehas to really because he's a
large man. So you need someone to impose
largeness in a small body too. So I thought Emily Blunt was
(17:41):
able to like play large and really go toe to toe with him in
this and really give him AI Don't know.
I don't know, not really. Spoiler bird get really into
him. Yeah, and like Emily Blunt, it's
kind of surprising I she only has 1 Oscar nomination
previously and that's for Oppenheimer where, you know, she
plays the wife in that. And so she does, she's good at
(18:04):
it, but she has a history of like playing the wife, playing
the girlfriend. And, you know, I, I think that
she's really great as a lead too.
And, you know, I think that she's really good in this.
She's she is like it's, it's a juicy part for her, but it's
still like you're playing against Dwayne Johnson in this
movie that really is centered around him.
(18:25):
I, I think Ryan Bader stood out to this is a Safdie thing,
right? Like Josh and Benny Safdie, the
Safdie brothers. We haven't really mentioned them
yet, but Benny Safdie on his owndirected this one.
And the Safdie's have a history of of casting, you know, real
people in movies or people who like truly work in this
profession to play a character. And so Ryan Bader, while not
(18:47):
playing himself, is, you know, playing a fighter.
And there is something about thefact that he really is, you
know, an MMA fighter that bringssome legitimacy to it and some
some realism because he he readslike a fighter.
Like you can just tell this guy's.
Authenticity is very important in these roles.
You can't just get some actor and be like, oh, you're an MMA
(19:08):
fighter and then pretend you areone in the film.
And especially if you don't havethe physique or the OR the
technique to do some of these fights.
Exactly. So I do always think it's it's
impressive when you get these guys that you know, are are
playing themselves or a version of themselves or somebody who
(19:28):
works in in the same career. I mean, like, look at Kevin
Garnett in uncut gyms who playedlike a fictionalized version of
himself. Like there's something special
that the Safdies are able to bring out of people that are
traditional actors and get performance out of them.
And even though this is just Benny directing this by himself,
(19:49):
it like I still feel like that'sthere.
There's still, it still has the feeling of like a Safdie
Brothers movie. Yeah, and, and, and Speaking of
Benny Safdie in his direction, Ilove that he shot this in like
this grainy, like 16mm. I guess look at the camera right
there. And I, I guess he shot it for
IMAX. I wish we saw it in IMAX.
(20:10):
Just the way it's shot. It's really awesome, really
transports you. It feels brutal and immersive
the way this film is shot. I really feel like you're there
for the underground years of theMMAI really liked it.
And also the only negatives I can say about this film and we
can touch a little bit about it was the pacing.
At times I thought there was waytoo much fighting.
(20:32):
I kind of wanted to see more of Sounds Horrible with some of the
darkness. I think they could have leaned
in more in the darkness of the story, and some of those fights
were just drawn out too much. And I didn't think we're going
to get that much fighting, surprisingly, you know?
Yeah. I was just.
Going to say the runtime for this movie is 123 minutes, so
just over 2 hours and this wouldhave been like a prime hour 40
(20:56):
movie if they could have cut, you know, a little bit, I feel
like it, it really would have flowed.
I, I will say there are some wonders and, and some long takes
and, and some of Dwayne Johnson's silence as part of his
performances is really well done.
There's a lot of really good physical part of parts of the
performance. There's one scene in particular
where he slight, ever so slight spoilers, but he he loses a
(21:19):
match and the camera follows himout of the ring and all the way
through this, this facility to back to the dressing room or
whatever you want to call it. The, the locker room.
I should say, if you can even call it.
That's not much of A locker roomin in the movie where he's
stationed, but it's a long shot following him as he's just by
(21:41):
himself for most of it in silence, digesting what just
happened. Going through this venue that's
like not a traditional sports venue and dealing with that just
seems. Like, it was at a hotel, I think
it was at a hotel they had to gothrough because there's the
kitchen, the service elevator, and yeah, there's just one long
shot of him trying to get back to it and navigate and just
(22:02):
dealing with all the emotion of losing and like and shock pretty
much. Yeah, And, and I think as much
as I'm a fan of his performance in this movie, I do still feel
like I don't want to say something's missing, but like, I
don't know the the what I'm kindof getting at is when you watch
the Oscars, you watch these award shows, right?
(22:24):
And you get, you know, so and sonominated for best actor and you
know, Dwayne Johnson as Mark Kerr in The Smashing Machine.
And you get a clip, you get a short clip from the movie of
their performance. And it's usually, sometimes it's
a big moment, sometimes it's a more subtle moment.
But like you get that Oscar clip.
And I just kind of he has some good moments in this movie and
(22:46):
he has some quiet moments. He has some moments where he's
in an argument or where he is a little bit bigger, but I just
don't know if it quite got thereto be like, give me that Oscar
clip, am I? Am I being too harsh?
What do you think? No, I think it comes also down
to the movie or like the writing.
And I don't think this is the movie that's going to win him
any awards. Obviously, it might get him
(23:07):
some, you know, some recognitionthat movie is out.
There, it's not. It's not all on him.
That's fair. It's not on him at all.
I think it's due to the type of movie and so we have to see what
he really wants to do. I would like to see him in some
type of like historical fiction film too.
Something I I feel like like howJason Momoa made that series
(23:32):
Chief of War and I'm not sure ifyou've seen it, but it has
really good I've heard. Good things.
Really fantastic and really dives deep and like really gets
they dive into the emotional aspect of it too and and dives
into that culture. I think he needs to find
something that fits his physique.
That's not AI don't want to callit a problem, but it's a set
back his physique. But he did.
(23:54):
He's losing 75 plus pounds for this next film.
So we have to see how that translates on the big screen.
And that's why you see, I mean, John Cena wanted to retire.
He's going to lose weight. Just like who am I about to
mention Batista? Batista lost all this weight so
he can get better roles that fithim because it's weird to be
first of all, it's hard to keep all that mass.
It's too hard, especially when you get up in age and a roll
(24:17):
needs to fit physically as well.And so that is tough to do.
And I, I think Dwayne Johnson isrealizing that.
So he's slowly rolling towards figuring it out.
And this is the first time he's losing weight ever, I think, in
his. Career there is a It's worth
bringing this up. The Hollywood Reporter did an
(24:38):
article about a month ago. I don't know if he saw this
where they did the top 10 wrestlers turned actors and
ranked them. Did you see this list?
I don't think I saw that specifically.
I did hear rumblings about it, but I never took a look at it.
You get folks like Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan and Big
Show and Kevin Nash folks that are on the list, but.
(24:59):
But those are. Naturally.
Those aren't the real actors to me.
Right, the top. The top three, of course, are
the current big three, which areit not in order.
Dwayne Johnson, Batista, Dave Batista and John Cena are the
top three. If you, Sean personally had to
(25:21):
rank them 123. The top wrestlers turned actors.
What are what are you, what are you doing?
What are you, how are you ranking them?
What, what? And I'm not, you know, there's
no conditions here. I'm just saying like your
personal ranking. I'm going to put some conditions
on it because there's a lot of controversy over.
(25:42):
I'm pretty sure I won't put Batista one, but Batista is a
student of cinema and film. So yeah, he has the best, I
think, potential and he has shown it, but I don't think he
has really. I mean, the characters he's
played, I still see Batista. I see all these, all these
wrestlers. I still see the wrestler in
(26:03):
them. It's really tough.
John Cena is hilarious. I love him in comedies.
I think he's perfect in comedies.
I don't see how he can go serious.
I really don't see it. I mean, he's going to be in that
Looney Tunes movie, that comedy versus Acne movie.
I don't know what type of roles he's going to excel at once he's
done with wrestling. To Be The Rock has been the most
(26:25):
successful, regardless of the duds.
He's taken big swings. He has entertained us more in
cinema than the other two for sure, with the amount of content
put out. Not all of them, but amazing.
But like there's a lot of prettyfun stuff in there and he's been
playing himself pretty much and and that's what worked I think
entertainment wise. And that that translates from
(26:47):
wrestling to film. The Rock had the best
personality and in ego or whatever you want to call it and
the all that stuff that translate well to cinema.
Kind of want to see where Batista goes, but he just
released this one movie that wasvery small that didn't get much
of A reach. I don't know what it was called
so I'm not sure what's next fromsome of the movies I've seen
with Batista other than like Dune and then also Blade Runner,
(27:09):
which were the small rules, I got to see him do something
else. So I probably put Rock, Batista,
Cena. They they did rank 1 Batista, 2
Dwayne, three Cena, and then it goes on. 4 is Roddy Roddy Piper.
Of course, I'm I for me it's it,it is kind of conditional.
(27:34):
Like I think for me #1 is DwayneJohnson 2 just as far as pure
movie star stamina goes? Like, but if you're going, if
the criteria is by pure acting ability, then yeah, I probably
put Dwayne. I probably put Batista above
Dwayne. I think he has taken a lot more
acting course. Like, I don't know, maybe maybe
(27:57):
has a little bit more range, butthis at least opens the door for
Dwayne Johnson to be in that conversation because this is a
good performance. And I and I think that that's
important. So Cena is always going to be
Cena. I don't think Cena even has any
aspirations for being more than like John Cena.
And right now we're so I'm so deep into, you know, the current
(28:19):
season of Peacemaker, which I'm all caught up on.
And like, even though he's Peacemaker and playing it a
superhero, like he's still John Cena to me, even if he's being
profane or whatever. I to be clear, that's a this is
positive. I love John Cena and I like
watching him in movies and TV show and I will go to show up
and see whatever he's in as well.
I'll say this true. If I had to pick right now who
(28:42):
my favorite entertaining wrestler out of the three
delivering movies, good or bad, is John Cena, What was that?
Ricky Sticky? What was it?
Ricky Spinicky. That was hilarious.
I I've had more fun with Cena films, as in the recent times
that I have with Batista in Rockfilms.
I do like the smashing machine alot, but I'm saying Cena has
entertained me far more. He can elevate some otherwise
(29:05):
would be, you know, not as good.He makes that.
Did you see Did you see Jackpot,the one with Aquafina?
Yes, yes, I liked it. I did like that.
Like. He's finding that too.
He makes that one better and he does have that ability.
And, and I when I spoke to Paul Feig about that, he was, I asked
him about John Cena and he was saying he's very talented,
(29:26):
especially when it comes to comedy.
And he is a student also. He's also trying to be a student
of film and cinema and comedy aswell.
And Batista is also hilarious when he's in Guardians, you
know, just the way he does it. I mean, Guardians is probably my
favorite Batista role as Drax. Of course.
And, and he is, I think it's debatable, but he's probably the
(29:46):
biggest breakout star of the first Guardians movie out of all
of them. Yeah.
And I like that was kind of the story out of that was how good
Batista was as Drax. And.
And then when I saw him in BladeRunner, I was like, whoa.
That was a whoa, but it was too short of a thing.
And then it just like disappeared.
Like that type of role didn't really come about.
Like I don't know what happened.I really wish he was like when
(30:09):
they for Batman they made him like Hugo Strange or something
like that. I thought that would have been
it still. Happened.
Could still happen sometime. It could happen like that would
be a comic book breakout role but when it comes to something
mainstream or outside, not mainstream but outs not
mainstream outside like big blockbusters and and superhero
(30:30):
films. I don't know what he would excel
at, but like, if he sticks to the sci-fi and does some fun
sci-fi stuff, I don't know. I don't know what he's doing
next. Maybe we should look it up later
on. But lastly, Drew, I want to ask
you this. Do you think this is, I think
that we know the answer. What are Johnson's best
performances? Or is it overstating it?
This is the best performance. Yeah, yeah.
(30:54):
I mean, I mean from a true acting perspective, he he is.
Say what you will about like acting, Dwayne Johnson is a
fantastic movie star. When he shows up as Luke Hobbs
in Fast 5, the dude has presencewhen he shows up in something
(31:15):
even like something like Jumanjiright where he's Doctor Xander,
Smulder Bravestone, you know, hehe brings something to that.
He is a star. And even though I thought Black
Adam was like pretty terrible, you put him in the suit, there's
something there like he is a movie star and there's something
(31:39):
about that. Not everybody can do that.
But from a pure acting perspective, this is his best
performance. Yeah, I'm with you and going
back really because I did pull up his, you know, IMDBI did
watch The Last Showgirl. He has a small role in that.
He's really good in The Last Showgirl, the Naked Gun scene
(32:00):
with him, and that is hilarious.I kind of like that playing.
Oh. Let's try to forgot he does.
He does have a cameo in that. Apparently he's in the
Highlander movie that's been delayed slightly because of
Henry Cavill's injury and then also he's might be in Roadhouse
2 which just added oh who they add?
Who's Alex Cross? Who is Hawkman in Aldous Aldous?
(32:24):
Aldous. Aldous.
Hodge, he's he. I still think of him every time
I see him. I think of him as voodoo in the
first season of Friday Night Nights.
I just can't get past it 'cause I was such a big Friday Night
Lights fan. So apparently he is part of
Roadhouse too, I think, if that's what I read correctly.
And then Batista is doing something for the legend, legend
of Ang film doing a voice in that.
(32:46):
And, and there's other things that we don't, I don't know
what's official and what's not official, but yeah, that's our
take on The Smashing Machine. But that's hitting theaters on
October 3rd. We're not just wrapping up just
yet. There's a couple things I want
to talk about, but let us know if you're planning on seeing The
Smashing Machine and whether youthink Dwayne Johnson finally
gets the recognition he has beenchasing.
(33:07):
We did talk about 1 battle afteranother.
We'll talk about real quick as we wrap things up.
For me, I think it's, I have to think really hard, but I think
it'd be one of my favorite, maybe any top 2 films of the
year, surprisingly. As of this time, for me
personally, it is the only movieI've seen this year that I would
(33:27):
give five out of five stars. I loved it.
I thought it was a masterpiece. I did.
It's worth noting because the last time you and I did a live
show or recorded a podcast, but I was at Fantastic Fest and I
believe that the day we recorded, we recorded on Monday.
(33:48):
And you watch it the next day. It was the next day, it was, it
was a secret screening. And I mean, it was an incredible
experience. I mean, it was.
It was. Just because it's a it's a very
original film. It is so unique, it's wild.
It's all over the place in a good way.
It's almost 3 hours long. You don't feel it at all
(34:09):
surprising. No, not.
At all, unless you watch in theaters now where you have the
trailers. We did not have trailers.
So maybe that was very helpful in that.
I'm grateful for that. So Leonardo DiCaprio, fantastic,
Benicio del Toro, fantastic, everyone else in there.
But like, and then Paul Thomas Anderson with that car chase
scene over the hill, I thought that was brilliant.
(34:30):
I've never seen anything like that.
That was very, very reminiscent of movies you would get in the
90s that were not experimental per SE, but like very artsy at
the same time. Some of the films, some of the
camera work was very bold in a good way and very different and
be like, we're going to do it this way.
I liked it. Yeah.
And Paul Thomas said he doesn't have that many modern movies,
(34:54):
like movies that take place in the present in his filmography.
And it's like that was unique toit.
Sean Penn also really good. Oh, I forgot.
Why am I forgetting about Sean Penn, one of my favorite actors?
Wow, what a what a role, that's for sure, Jason.
Infinity and this is her first role and she she's great I mean
like this is just it's the totalpackage it's it's funny, it's
(35:17):
absurd, it's action-packed it's.Weird.
It's it's a weird fun film. That's all I can say.
Yeah, it just I mean it moves like none other.
It is it is so good. And I was actually the one nudge
and Sean before I was like, I just we just have to mention one
battle after another because came out while I was, you know,
come back from the festival. You know, it's playing in
(35:39):
theaters now. You gave it 5 out of five in
your review on Nurtropolis. I would have given it the same
It's. You would have given it 6 out of
five if you could. I, I mean truly, I would, yeah,
I would if I could. Yeah, yeah, we did record a
Fantastic Fest episode where Drew watched Black Phone 2 and
CC Road to Revenge. You can check that out, Drew.
(36:04):
Let me see if I can now. It's not writing that.
Let me see. Look at this, Drew.
You have made it with your quotefor CC Road to Revenge.
Gritty and bloody mayhem from start to finish.
So congratulations on that. That is amazing that you're in
the ads for CCU. I don't want to toot my own
horn, but I have to because I love this movie so much.
(36:26):
I saw it twice but I found this the other day.
I am here with Gabby's stall house.
Let's. Go leap.
To the big screen Nurtropolis. Don't put a smile on my face.
I had to put that up. I had to share with somebody.
Could you are there two more opposite movies with the with
(36:49):
Nurtropolis being quoted CC Roadto Revenge?
He's true. He's ever been.
You know, and grinding blood on that and that still.
And then you got Gabby's dollhouse.
You know Gabby looking ever so cute with her little Kitty cat
for me. Those are the Gabby cats.
You got to know the Gabby cats. And one of my favorites that's
introduced is Chumsley. You can tell I'm a fan already.
(37:12):
I've watched this movie. I never watched the show, but
that's how I felt about that as well.
I'm saying make sure you do visit nootropus.com for all our
news, reviews and trailers. I just dropped Alex Winter
interview is fantastic. We talked about the Broadway oh,
(37:32):
why am I Broadway with Keanu, which is called Waiting for
Godot. And then also we talked Bill and
Ted 4 maybe we talked about Ben 10 'cause he directed 2 live
action movies. We talked about freaked 4K
coming and then we talked about something else.
I don't recall, but we we talkedadulthood, his new film doll.
It's actually really good with Josh Gad.
(37:53):
It's a pretty dark it's a dark comedy.
It was actually fantastic and a lot of stuff to check out.
I spoke to the creator, writer, director of Boondock Saints.
We talked about the prequel bookand what is, you know, what's
going on with the the brothers for the future.
So that's coming up soon. And I have a lot of other stuff
in the works as well. And make sure you follow us on
(38:14):
socials or try to grow on Twitter and Instagram, follow us
on Facebook, follow Drew and I on letterbox, I mean, and
subscribe to our YouTube channel.
I mean wherever Drew, right? We are.
I mean, truly. Yeah.
Anywhere you can post about movies, I will.
Yeah, so we're doing our best tokeep up with everything.
It's been exciting so far. So far for 2025, when we got
(38:35):
more coming, like I said, Smashing Machine hitting
theaters October 3rd, Definitelycheck that out.
Once again, I'm Shawn Tardra, the mayor of Neutropolis.
And I'm Drew Munhausen, the professional media and movie
mastermind. And we'll see you at the movie.
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