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Speaker 1: Great per flick with Ben Ashey, Good morning, Ben.

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Speaker 2: Made. We got to talk about Dwayne the Rock Johnson

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Speaker 2: and the performance of his career.

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Speaker 1: Oh really?

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah. Well look that's a pretty low bar to clear.

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Speaker 2: So if you've heard anything about his new movie, This

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Speaker 2: Smashing Machine, you would have heard, Oh you know, the

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Speaker 2: Rock is an Oscar contender. This is the greatest performance

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Speaker 2: he's ever given on the screen. But look, what is

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Speaker 2: it really competing with the Toothbairy, WrestleMania seventeen, the Jamanji franchise.

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Speaker 2: So's he's what he's previously lacked in acting ability, the

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Speaker 2: Rock has more than made up for in likability. He

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Speaker 2: is one of the most beloved and bankable action stars

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Speaker 2: in Hollywood at the moment. Everyone loves the Rock, but

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Speaker 2: I think he probably felt that he had a bit

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Speaker 2: more to give, and so he's teamed up with the

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Speaker 2: director Ben Sassey, who he might remember. He's the one

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Speaker 2: who directed Uncut j who convinced us that Adam Adam

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Speaker 2: Sandlers also had dramatic acting ability. So Sassi has a

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Speaker 2: bit of form when it comes to taking actors and

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Speaker 2: showing us a different side of them. And so in

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Speaker 2: this film, the Rock is playing an MMA fighter, Mark Kerr.

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Speaker 2: It's a true story based on this guy who was

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Speaker 2: one of the earliest competitors in the Ultimate Fighting Championship

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Speaker 2: the UFC, which of course now is a multi billion

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Speaker 2: dollar sporting organization, big business and these days, of course,

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Speaker 2: you know, you're Connor McGregor's and other people like that

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Speaker 2: make millions of dollars. Back then, Mark Kerr one of

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Speaker 2: the first ones to do it. He was getting a

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Speaker 2: couple of grand to fight, getting absolutely beaten to heck

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Speaker 2: and in the end, you know, his body was broken.

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Speaker 2: He had a drug addiction. So it's a pretty pretty

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Speaker 2: sad story, but it's a perfect sort of topic for

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Speaker 2: a biopic. And so the Rock plays Mark Kerr, who's

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Speaker 2: a former college wrestler, gets into Ultimate Fighting and then

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Speaker 2: sort of, you know, struggles with some of the aspects

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Speaker 2: of this and also has even bigger struggles outside of

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Speaker 2: the octagon with his girlfriend Dawn, who's played by the

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Speaker 2: great British actress Emily Blunt, and she is fantastic in this.

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Speaker 2: Like thankfully their relationship never became violent, but certainly it

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Speaker 2: was a war of words all the time, and it

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Speaker 2: sort of went from love to hate, and she was

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Speaker 2: supportive sometimes sometimes you know, she was probably more interested

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Speaker 2: in the money that he was earning and the lifestyle,

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Speaker 2: and he had to overcome that stuff in his domestic

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Speaker 2: life and then get into the ring and take on

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Speaker 2: someone who wanted to, you know, beat the absolute but

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Speaker 2: Jesus out of him. Now, what the film does really

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Speaker 2: well is, I guess, depict that emotional struggle that Mark

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Speaker 2: Kerr went through. What I would say is it probably

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Speaker 2: doesn't really examine the morality of the sport at a

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Speaker 2: time when it certainly was creating a lot of controversy,

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Speaker 2: Like the boxing purists really question where the UFC even

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Speaker 2: had a place in the sporting landscape. The film steers

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Speaker 2: well clear of that. It's a bit of a branding

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Speaker 2: exercise for UFC, if I'm being honest.

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Speaker 1: So it's a bit like the Formula One movie, is it?

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Speaker 2: Oh, it's very similar to that. Like I think anytime,

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Speaker 2: whether it's a musical, biopic or a film that's attached

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Speaker 2: to a particular brand, you only really get to make

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Speaker 2: those movies if you're very careful with what you're doing

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Speaker 2: with those brands, and this film is a bit careful

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Speaker 2: with that. But look, it's an interesting portrait of a guy.

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Speaker 2: Although I will say it is very, very similar to

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Speaker 2: the documentary The Smashing Machine, the Life and Times of

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Speaker 2: extreme fighter Mark Kerr. So that's the inspiration behind this film.

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Speaker 2: If that film came out I think in the early

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Speaker 2: two thousands, it's basically almost the scene for scene recreation

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Speaker 2: of that documentary, so dramatized, just dramatized, exactly a dramatical recreation.

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Speaker 2: And that's not uncommon. There's certainly a lot of movies

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Speaker 2: where you find that if it's not based on a book,

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Speaker 2: it's based on a documentary, and they do take some

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Speaker 2: of those scenes from documentaries and just get actors to

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Speaker 2: redo them. Is that the greatest artistic achievement in the world.

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Speaker 2: I would argue probably not, but certainly from the Rocks perspective,

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Speaker 2: you know, he's really great. Will he get an Oscar nomination?

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Speaker 2: I think there's a possibility. I think Emily Blunt might

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Speaker 2: also earn one for this. But look, I think it's

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Speaker 2: a good film, but it's probably not quite the you know,

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Speaker 2: five star film that some people are saying that it is.

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Speaker 1: How many knockouts in the ring? How many stars out

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Speaker 1: of five? Are you giving the Smashing Machine Bend, which

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Speaker 1: is in cinemas today, by the way.

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Speaker 2: In cinema today, I'm going to give it three and

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Speaker 2: a half in a split decision.

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Speaker 1: Gee, that's not bad. That's pretty.

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Speaker 2: It's not bad. There's a lot to like about it,

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Speaker 2: the well made film, and the rock is is really good.

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Speaker 1: Okay, and there's a lot of UFC fans, so it's

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Speaker 1: definitely worth going in on the big screen. Hey Ben,

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Speaker 1: thanks a lot. We'll send you to the movies again

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Speaker 1: and you can come back and tell us about another

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Speaker 1: one next week.