{"id":130322,"date":"2025-09-09T13:47:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T13:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/130322\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T13:47:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T13:47:07","slug":"dwayne-johnson-transforms-into-the-smashing-machine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/130322\/","title":{"rendered":"Dwayne Johnson transforms into The Smashing Machine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Benny Safdie\u2019s solo directorial debut, The Smashing Machine, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.avclub.com\/venice-film-festival-2025-winners-jim-jarmusch\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">was a smash at the Venice Film Festival<\/a>, particularly on the very large back of star Dwayne Johnson\u2019s performance. Safdie took home the Silver Lion, the festival\u2019s award for Best Directing, while Johnson, sporting a new trim frame, received the best reviews of his career and, the ultimate arbiter of festival approval, a lengthy standing ovation. But that Johnson couldn\u2019t be more unrecognizable in the new trailer for Smashing Machine. It\u2019s the least The Rock has looked like The Rock on screen since The Scorpion King.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson plays real-life MMA champion and UFC fighter Mark Kerr. In the film, under heavy prosthetics and using a soft-spoken tone of voice to complain about his tummy troubles, Johnson transforms into a gentle giant who will, nevertheless, knee a man in the face until that man lies unconscious in a pool of his own blood. That lifestyle comes at a cost. As the trailer hints, Kerr\u2019s struggles with pain medication put him in a fight against himself and his ex-wife Dawn Staples (Emily Blunt).<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>The Smashing Machine enters the octagon on October 3.<\/p>\n<p>                    <a class=\"auto cell copy-container noimage\" href=\"https:\/\/www.avclub.com\/the-smashing-machine-trailer-dwayne-johnson-benny-safdie\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Benny Safdie and Dwayne Johnson deliver their Iron Claw in The Smashing Machine trailer<\/a><a class=\"auto cell copy-container noimage\" href=\"https:\/\/www.avclub.com\/the-smashing-machine-dvd-1798199079\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Smashing Machine (DVD)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Benny Safdie\u2019s solo directorial debut, The Smashing Machine, was a smash at the Venice Film Festival, particularly on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130323,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[64,63,134,344],"class_list":["post-130322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}