The Smashing Machine (film): Unfortunately, it just isn't very good

There was a ton of media hype about this film with Dwayne Johnson aka "The Rock" finally doing a role that isn't just muscular action guy with occasional comedy bits. People were excited to see if Dwayne actually has it in him to do some actual acting.

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This isn't really his first time doing something like this as he was pretty darn good in Pain and Gain starring alongside Mark Wahlberg and Anthony Mackie. Although a bit on the comedic side, that film was more serious than the Rock's usual slapstick crap or a semi-serious action film.

Getting back to The Smashing Machine though, while the Rock does a good job with the serious acting and the prosthetic stuff that they had to put on him or makeup or whatever, will almost certainly get someone nominated for awards.

They do a lot of things right in this film including dating the clothing properly and the sets and what not all look real. The fights don't look fake and I really don't have anything negative to say about it except for one really big thing.

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The big thing that is wrong with this movie is that it simply isn't very interesting. The story, while I am sure that the real life Mark Kerr would disagree, just isn't traumatic enough to warrant an epic film to be made about it.

Maybe it is just because I don't really know a great deal about MMA but I don't think that a fighter having a bit of an issue with PED's and overdosing once as well as having a toxic relationship is necessarily movie-worthy.

Mark starts to lose fights because of his addiction issues, then he cleans up and starts to win, then his relationship kind of derails his progression in his career. Then he enters a tournament in Japan and the people love him there. That's basically the movie.

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We are shown an MMA fighter's intense training regimen and its amazing to me that whatever they had to put on The Rock's face to change his appearance didn't fall off of him. That must be some really good materials!

There is already some talk about putting Dwayne Johnson up for nomination for an Oscar and that honestly doesn't surprise me seeing as how he is a darling of Hollywood. Sure, he is good in this, but portraying an MMA fighter isn't really that much of a departure from his actual life. I'm not saying Johnson's acting is bad but is he the best and worth of an Oscar nod? I would say absolutely not.

There was a standing ovation at some film festival that went on for entirely too long - 15 minutes from what I hear - and then Dwayne Johnson cried. That's perfectly acceptable but then when the film was released basically nobody went to go and see it.

I think critics feel obligated to sing the praises of this film even though it clearly wasn't good enough to get people to actually go and see it despite a massive advertising campaign. But then again, the Academy loves to nominate films that the general public didn't care for and often gives awards to film that 90% of the general public has never even heard of. I think it's all kind of rigged.

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This isn't a terrible film by any means, but it just isn't very entertaining and well, that is kind of the point of a film isn't it? The story isn't compelling enough, Kerr's situation isn't traumatic enough, and the only really entertaining stuff that happens is Emily Blunt's portrayal of a completely unreasonable and toxic girlfriend and how her gigantic boyfriend who definitely can kick the crap out of her, doesn't. If anyone should be nominated for something it should be her but again, this film isn't good enough to be nominated for anything although I am sure it will be because Hollywood operates in ways that us plebs will never understand.

Should I watch it?

Man, I don't want to crap on the Rock for trying something besides just being big guy with grey shirt on beating people up, I really don't; but the fact of the matter is that I think most people are going to find this really boring. A friend of mine is a massive MMA fan and he informed me that he too turned it off halfway through because the film just failed to hold his attention.

Many viewers found "the first hour to be particularly tedious." The first HOUR? That's another problem I have with this: It's too long! It seems as though every time there is going to be an awards push for a film they make it 2 hours long and that's exactly what they did with this one.

It is slated to lose around $80 million before going to streaming and honestly, I think it deserves to.

I think it is worth seeing if you don't have pay for it. Remote in hand, so you can just see the "good parts" and also see that the Rock is capable of good acting. I hope that this film, although I don't think it is anything special, will pave the way for Johnson to try other things.

MMA enthusiasts might find it good. I don't know.

_{you currently cannot stream this one for free with any service. You can rent or buy it on the usual suspects like Amazon, Apple, and Fandango. Some places may still have it in cinemas}