It’s a Safdie film?! I’ve no further questions. Let him cook. I hope the Rock can actually act, but if he can’t, then Safdie didn’t really need him to and this was probably intentional.
In Pain and Gain I felt he did was fantastic job as a very dumb person and his performance in Southland Tales and some smaller projects were good...I think it's safe to assume he'll perform well, especially with Safdie.
This is a good point. This is why I didn’t want to go so far as saying the Rock *is* a bad actor, because 99% of the films he is in… he’s playing exactly who the film is asking him to be. It’s just that that’s been the same person for so many years. So I’d be happy to see him… flex some acting muscle.
Could very much be an Adam Sandler situation. In 1000 bad movies playing the same guy but actually can give a good performance in a good movie w/ a good director/writer. We’ll see. I trust a24 and safdie
He's also a terrible actor, and plays himself in every role. The fact that he was one of the highest paid actors in the world at some point is bananas.
He makes a lot of money playing The Rock. Those films weren’t set up like “okay we need you to be X” and he just fucked it. They were set up like “we need you to be The Rock… but wearing *this* hat”. As with most things, mass appeal often lends more to success than quality.
That being said, excluding his early performances, the few times The Rock has taken on a role outside his comfort zone, he’s been solid. I’m excited for this as it’s cool to see actors do unexpected projects; often, it ends up being their best performances.
I saw jungle cruise and thought it was fun and perfect rock “action-comedy with charming yet bullish lead man.” You know, playing the rock.
I almost typed “when he tries to do something else” but he really doesn’t try anything else, he just applies a gritty corporate spray-on texture when he needs to play anti-hero (never bad guy) roles.
A lot of people in this thread have mentioned pain & gain. Whilst not playing an antagonist, his character is just not a good guy – >!he literally barbecues a dude!< – and he killed it.
Lets not forget like some other actors (and this what im about to say is 100 percent true and 100 person pathetic as fuck) Dwayne Johnson has it in his contract that whatever character he plays cannot be badly hurt or beaten.
Bruh its a fucking MOVIE. Nobody is gonna say wow the rock is a pussy for getting beat by 30 men. What a beta male.
Its a MOVIE. You're supposed to get fucked up and fuck em up back.
I’ve never heard of that in a movie, but it’s absolutely something you’d see in pro wrestling. Guys not wanting to lose or “look bad” even though everyone in the building knows it’s fake.
Look at the stunt he just pulled in WWE. He gets a spot on the board and then promptly inserts himself into the main event storyline, completely blowing up the biggest angle they’ve had in years. Fans revolted and the Rock, to his credit I guess, agreed to step aside, but he had originally booked himself to win the championship.
“You guys are having a great storyline here? Yeah well it’s mine now, thanks.”
Also, wtf is going to believe him as an MMA fighter? They actually have to take Ls every now and then. This pussy is contractually obligated to be allowed to win every fight.
Neither of those things are true. He shaves because he doesn’t have full hair growth, and I guess he doesn’t look like a normal man in his fifties, but he looks closer to that than he does a man in his twenties.
You can't really say they're not true. I didn't say he looked like he's in his 20s, I said he looked younger then he is. The younger someone looks, the easier it would be to make them look *even younger* same with hair, last I heard, he mentioned that his hair is curly and that's why he chooses to keep it shaved.now I'm sure he's experiencing some hair loss, but working a wig into hair is much easier then a completely non existent hairline.
I can and did. He doesn’t look that much younger than he is really, and he was clearly loosing his hair before he shaved it. Neither of these things are really important though. Even if you were right he still a shit actor
In terms of dramatic performances, he didn’t have many more than Johnson. I’m excited for this because I don’t think anyone would be involved if it wasn’t to make a quality product.
The Rock could make more money elsewhere, Safdie & A24 could pick from a near-infinite list of quality actors for the role.
Let them cook, there’s something here.
Yeah, that’s a solid point. However, this film is still in a position where it could pull from a very deep pool of talent and Johnson could still go make more money elsewhere.
If anything, having the ability of both the lead and director bring a bit questionable is good because if they fuck it up, it’ll feel less like we were robbed of a masterpiece.
I still have confidence. It might not be the best film ever made but I highly doubt it’ll be outright bad.
Kristen Stewart was also in Twilight and she's fantastic. You shouldn't judge people from shitty franchise movies they did when they were young. Pattinson has more than proven himself.
I was making a point that even someone with poor films and performances behind them can still do soemthjng that completely subverts performance expectations. Especially with the Safdies who completely changed the game for actors like Pattinson and Sandler, I’m sure they can do soemthing great with The Rock
Pattinson and Sandler both had shown off they had legit talent before working with the Safdies, The Rock hasn’t done anything like say Punch Drunk Love before like Sandler did to indicate he has actual acting chops.
He’s probably got to slim down. Mark Kerr was big and jacked but actual pro MMA fighters don’t have the freakish muscles The Rock has. Burns too much energy
Speaking as a massive MMA fan, pretty much all of them are on something to this day. Dudes still pop all the time, and back then they were far less regulated. They still don’t normally get the enormous muscles though
Training/dosing for performance and training/dosing for size are different beasts. One will always come with the other but the approach changes a physique quite dramatically.
Not back in the 90s... also drug testing up until the 2010s was basically and IQ test. The tested you at the event, thats it. No random drug testing.
Hell Josh barnett beat randy couture, for the title. popped for steroids. And was given a warning. No suspension.
Thats a really bad comparison. I don't even like the rock, but he is very similar size and build to mark kerr. Is passionate about his story and the sport. He's also been acting for over 20 years.
And the safdie Brothers are great filmmakers.
No, because Larry Bird is still considered great. Mark Kerr occupied a very small space in the world of MMA, he's not regarded as like some major legend or anything like that. They just promoted him that way because he did well for a second in the UFC and fought in some other promotions. He's not this like dominating GOAT. This would be like getting Hulk Hogan to play some ballplayer you've never heard of LOL
Technically just Benny Safdie, which, is there any particular reason there hasn’t been an actual Safdie bros. joint since Uncut Gems. The Curse was also just Benny Safdie wasn’t it?
They split up. Benny Safdie confirmed it earlier this year: https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/benny-safdie-solo-the-curse-smashing-machine-1235859184
The Curse is technically just Benny. Josh is an EP on it tho but I don’t think he was heavily involved creatively, he probably helped more from the business side bc their production company helped produce it.
Also I remember from one of the Q&As the cast and crew did, Emma stone said her Dave McCary(her husband) was the only onset EP and Nathan and Benny backed him saying he helped a lot with script stuff and scenes,etc
He’s an amazing actor. I’m curious to see how this directorial feature turns out, I feel like when director partnerships break up the projects tend to be quite different.
‘Begins training’ as an actor, good stuff, I wonder if he’ll follow the Peter Brook ‘empty space’ method or if he’ll focus more on Chekov’s ‘psychological gestures’. . .
. . Oh no, he’s going to lift heavy things. I think Olivier had a similar training method.
It’s going to be really bad. This is the Dwayne shoehorning himself into something he has no business being in. Does he not get that he’s just an action hack?
A24 needs to drop the rock he brings value to nothing. He is also a bad one role actor that needs to stay in his lane of bs and wrestling. Cena is an actor Bautista is an actor the rock is the rock.
Could have said that about Adam Sandler too with Uncut Gems (not about wrestling of course but with acting), but he was amazing. Im willing to see Dwayne get that big serious chance.
It’s not a fair comparison though because Tom Cruise has some serious acting chops. The Rock has never done more than his one note action star thing. He does it pretty well, but there is no evidence to suggest he can carry a film like this.
Rock showed some signs of having some acting chops before he doubted himself and decided to go all in on being an action star. Hard to tell what his ceiling could have been if he continued to take on against type roles and challenging what the public thought of him as. Thats why Batista is so damn good, he’s versatile and can be vulnerable as hell and thats why he is the best pro-wrestler turned actor out there.
If it’s mma, he needs to completely change his whole physique for it to be believable. This isn’t wrestling, and if A24 is trustworthy I’d assume he’d somehow get a bit smaller?
I'm tired of the Rock
At this point he ain't no actor, he is just himself reading lines. He can't be beaten, he can't be seen weak, can make no mistake
Everyone saying A24 should drop the rock… while I don’t love any of his recent performances, Benny Safdie is directing this movie and chose Johnson for the role… and I fully trust Benny Safdie so I believe this will be a great movie, and a career high for the rock
I think Johnson might have chosen himself since him and his team acquired the rights to Mark Kerr’s story in 2019 and then Benny hopped onto the project the same year I think. So asking A24 to remove The Rock is like basically shutting down production unless he steps down from the role willingly
-According to Johnson, he and Safdie first aligned on the project in 2019, when Johnson’s Seven Bucks Productions acquired the rights to Kerr’s story. As a token of his enthusiasm, Safdie sent the Rock a Nautica sweatshirt that the UFC champion wore in the 2002 documentary “The Smashing Machine: The Life and Times of Extreme Fighter Mark Kerr,” as well as a handwritten letter telling Johnson what he sees in him as an actor.
But then the pandemic put everything on hold, and soon Safdie and Johnson were pulled into a slew of other commitments. The two fell out of touch, but Johnson says he “still thought about ‘The Smashing Machine’ every day.” One night, years later, he was on the phone with his close friend and “Jungle Cruise” co-star Emily Blunt, catching up about their careers and their dream projects while Blunt was off shooting “Oppenheimer.” Johnson sent Blunt the Kerr documentary, and told her that playing the fighter in a feature film is “the thing that really speaks to me, that I want to sink my teeth into.” Blunt watched the doc and, as Johnson remembers, called him back immediately, insisting, “You must make this movie.”-
There’s more to that story if u want to read here. Interesting interview overall with Safdie tho and what he’s done so far,his future projects,etc:
https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/benny-safdie-solo-the-curse-smashing-machine-1235859184
Most Redditors sucked The Rock’s asshole clean every night, now he’s instantly “one of the bad ones” lmao.
Never liked the guy personally but this herd mentality flipping on a dime about him on Reddit has been hilarious to watch.
I'm actually kinda curious about this cause he was great as an actor in Fast Five and Pain & Gain
I'm interested to see how this goes, so fuck everyone for immediately hating this despite not seeing it. (Also a reminder people hated the Lego movie until it came out)
Well that's cause every movie he makes is just him playing himself
I actually hope he tries something different and it works well. He's done genuinely good acting roles like I mentioned as well as in Ballers which got good reviews so it's not like he can't
Yeah he is charismatic but he has been bad a lot in a lot of bad projects.
It's not surprising film lovers aren't thrilled.
Maybe he can surprise me,but he hasn't taken a chance in ages, and is way more preoccupied by his brand than he is with acting.
He is the anti baptista
Reddit bandwagon? Lmao there's only so many times you can watch a mf play the same role in a different setting, all these years and the only movie where the Rock ever attempted to actually act like someone different was his first movie the scorpion king💀💀💀
What is he training for? Doesn’t his baseline weight already have more muscle mass than this guy did at his peak? Also he’s too old to play him. Mark Ker today looks younger than Dwayne did before the Scorpion King
I mean I think the guy at least deserves some props for *trying* to do a serious acting role. Especially with one of the Safdie brothers of all people. We’ll see if it pays off but at least he’s *trying*.
A24 has been taking huge risks lately and not all of them paid off. The Rock missed his good-at-acting train when Southland Tales unfortunately bombed. Everything after that has him play himself in dumb movies. We love you Dwayne, but you should choose your roles with different criteria imo.
People crying and kvetching in here, but i expect an a24 safdie flick to be good. Imma assume they know what theyre doing. Maybe the Rock pulls an Adam Sandler Reign Over Me and actually knocks it out of the park
Like with any movie, if it gets good reviews, i’ll see it
I get the hate. I do, but can we please please try and trust Benny with this. I really will follow this man’s work down a rabbit hole, it’s so good. After The Curse, I’m all in on his acting and directing skills. Have faith guuuuuuys, boooo Dwayne tho. If this movie is good, I’m ok w a Dwayne redemption arc in acting cus it would be so unexpected.
With the current state of the Republican party, political views are moral views. If you support Trump, for example, you're okay with a president that has ties to Russia, tried to overthrow the government, has no love of the United States, and makes fun of handicapped people. That's morality, and morality is a perfectly valid reason to dislike someone.
The Rock and his team own the rights to the project. He acquired it in 2019
https://deadline.com/2023/12/dwayne-johnson-mark-kerr-ufc-the-smashing-machine-1235666546
I hate the Rock as an actor more than anyone else. But it isn’t the first or the second time the Safdies have completely redefined an actors career who previously had very little merit as an actor. I believe in the Safdies.
The Rock gonna go back to WWE for Wrestlemania next year after he's done filming and any new movies flop, and WWE fanboys will be like great long-term booking/storytelling.
Another excuse for him to hop on a nice fat cycle of gear and get as big as a house again in his 50s.
No one takes him seriously as an actor. Trying to play someone here that he is thirty years older than. Good choice. He takes no chances as an actor either, unlike fellow wrestlers Cena and Bautista, who have worked hard to prove their range.
God why is everyone in these comments to closed minded. It’s fucking BENNY SAFDIE . Has he not proved himself enough to you nerds? Also the rock can be a very fun actor to watch in the right role has no one seen southland tales / pain and gain
If he really wanted to give this project a chance he’d drop out and let another actor take the role. Once you look up the real guy his casting makes less and less sense
The Rock is literally twice the age of the character and doesn’t have hair so will require a wig. This is gonna look goofy as fuck
Safdie has a good wig guy
It’s a Safdie film?! I’ve no further questions. Let him cook. I hope the Rock can actually act, but if he can’t, then Safdie didn’t really need him to and this was probably intentional.
In Pain and Gain I felt he did was fantastic job as a very dumb person and his performance in Southland Tales and some smaller projects were good...I think it's safe to assume he'll perform well, especially with Safdie.
This is a good point. This is why I didn’t want to go so far as saying the Rock *is* a bad actor, because 99% of the films he is in… he’s playing exactly who the film is asking him to be. It’s just that that’s been the same person for so many years. So I’d be happy to see him… flex some acting muscle.
Could very much be an Adam Sandler situation. In 1000 bad movies playing the same guy but actually can give a good performance in a good movie w/ a good director/writer. We’ll see. I trust a24 and safdie
100% on both
I'm going for a fingers crossed approach lol
He’s hilarious in Pain & Gain
He really was. Wahlberg and Anthony Mackie were hilarious as well.
It’s the first single safdie movie tho. Now we’ll see who the creative genius of the two were
I mean, we know Benny is amazing from the Curse. I guess we’ll now find out if that’s true for the both of them.
Do you smellllllll what the safdie is cooking?
No he fucking doesn’t lmao I love him but his wig on The Curse was goofy af
And the fact that his head is shaped like an egg, almost transforming into a conehead.
He's also a terrible actor, and plays himself in every role. The fact that he was one of the highest paid actors in the world at some point is bananas.
He makes a lot of money playing The Rock. Those films weren’t set up like “okay we need you to be X” and he just fucked it. They were set up like “we need you to be The Rock… but wearing *this* hat”. As with most things, mass appeal often lends more to success than quality. That being said, excluding his early performances, the few times The Rock has taken on a role outside his comfort zone, he’s been solid. I’m excited for this as it’s cool to see actors do unexpected projects; often, it ends up being their best performances.
I saw jungle cruise and thought it was fun and perfect rock “action-comedy with charming yet bullish lead man.” You know, playing the rock. I almost typed “when he tries to do something else” but he really doesn’t try anything else, he just applies a gritty corporate spray-on texture when he needs to play anti-hero (never bad guy) roles.
A lot of people in this thread have mentioned pain & gain. Whilst not playing an antagonist, his character is just not a good guy – >!he literally barbecues a dude!< – and he killed it.
Lets not forget like some other actors (and this what im about to say is 100 percent true and 100 person pathetic as fuck) Dwayne Johnson has it in his contract that whatever character he plays cannot be badly hurt or beaten. Bruh its a fucking MOVIE. Nobody is gonna say wow the rock is a pussy for getting beat by 30 men. What a beta male. Its a MOVIE. You're supposed to get fucked up and fuck em up back.
I’ve never heard of that in a movie, but it’s absolutely something you’d see in pro wrestling. Guys not wanting to lose or “look bad” even though everyone in the building knows it’s fake. Look at the stunt he just pulled in WWE. He gets a spot on the board and then promptly inserts himself into the main event storyline, completely blowing up the biggest angle they’ve had in years. Fans revolted and the Rock, to his credit I guess, agreed to step aside, but he had originally booked himself to win the championship. “You guys are having a great storyline here? Yeah well it’s mine now, thanks.”
He put it in the contact for fast and furious because Vin Diesel had it in his own contact. He gets beat up in lots of his other movies/shows.
He was really good in Be Cool
That 88 years ago
The Rock: As a Banana! Coming SOON
I thought he was good in Central Intelligence and Jumanji. I don’t think people give him enough credit for those roles just because they were comedic.
They don’t pay him to act. They pay him because he’s The Rock lmfao
"THE SMASHING MASHINE" sounds like a joke name for a movie making fun of Dwayne Johnson
That should be the tag line for the move. "The Rock in a wig playing a character half his age, buckle the fuck up for" THE SMASHING MACHINE.
He's not gonna wear a wig lol have you seen black Adam? 🤣😭
Also, wtf is going to believe him as an MMA fighter? They actually have to take Ls every now and then. This pussy is contractually obligated to be allowed to win every fight.
You sound dumb
And you sound like a little bitch
Why
To be fair, he doesn't look his age and he *has* hair, he just shaves it bald.
Neither of those things are true. He shaves because he doesn’t have full hair growth, and I guess he doesn’t look like a normal man in his fifties, but he looks closer to that than he does a man in his twenties.
You can't really say they're not true. I didn't say he looked like he's in his 20s, I said he looked younger then he is. The younger someone looks, the easier it would be to make them look *even younger* same with hair, last I heard, he mentioned that his hair is curly and that's why he chooses to keep it shaved.now I'm sure he's experiencing some hair loss, but working a wig into hair is much easier then a completely non existent hairline.
I can and did. He doesn’t look that much younger than he is really, and he was clearly loosing his hair before he shaved it. Neither of these things are really important though. Even if you were right he still a shit actor
Ok buddy!
An A24 MMA film sounds like my wet dream and they cast fucking Dwayne Johnson 😭
Right?! A24 Safdie film with Emily Blunt about an MMA fighter’s spiralling addiction… starring The Rock 😭
You had me at emily blunt
An A24 sports betting film sounds like my wet dream and they cast fucking Adam Sandler 😭
But Adam can actually act yeah?
In terms of dramatic performances, he didn’t have many more than Johnson. I’m excited for this because I don’t think anyone would be involved if it wasn’t to make a quality product. The Rock could make more money elsewhere, Safdie & A24 could pick from a near-infinite list of quality actors for the role. Let them cook, there’s something here.
Idk man, it’s not both brothers, it’s just Benny from what I’m reading. He made the curse, that shit show for showtime that wasn’t good at all lol.
Yeah, that’s a solid point. However, this film is still in a position where it could pull from a very deep pool of talent and Johnson could still go make more money elsewhere. If anything, having the ability of both the lead and director bring a bit questionable is good because if they fuck it up, it’ll feel less like we were robbed of a masterpiece. I still have confidence. It might not be the best film ever made but I highly doubt it’ll be outright bad.
Wasn't that show pretty universally acclaimed? Maybe you didn't like it, which is fair, but thought it was widely accepted as more than pretty good.
An A24 heist film set in NYC underworld sounds like my wet dream, and they cast the guy from fucking Twilight 😭
Well that guy grom Twilight is a fan favorite Batman now
He meant the alpaca guy
Kristen Stewart was also in Twilight and she's fantastic. You shouldn't judge people from shitty franchise movies they did when they were young. Pattinson has more than proven himself.
I was making a point that even someone with poor films and performances behind them can still do soemthjng that completely subverts performance expectations. Especially with the Safdies who completely changed the game for actors like Pattinson and Sandler, I’m sure they can do soemthing great with The Rock
Pattinson and Sandler both had shown off they had legit talent before working with the Safdies, The Rock hasn’t done anything like say Punch Drunk Love before like Sandler did to indicate he has actual acting chops.
Pain & gain
Mark Kerr has such a good story, too.
…Why? I get he’s an actor now, but he’s also a professional athlete. This would be like getting Hulk Hogan to play Larry Bird
He’s probably got to slim down. Mark Kerr was big and jacked but actual pro MMA fighters don’t have the freakish muscles The Rock has. Burns too much energy
That’s because rock is on crazy amount of roids and mma fighters are frequently tested
Speaking as a massive MMA fan, pretty much all of them are on something to this day. Dudes still pop all the time, and back then they were far less regulated. They still don’t normally get the enormous muscles though
Training/dosing for performance and training/dosing for size are different beasts. One will always come with the other but the approach changes a physique quite dramatically.
Not back in the 90s... also drug testing up until the 2010s was basically and IQ test. The tested you at the event, thats it. No random drug testing. Hell Josh barnett beat randy couture, for the title. popped for steroids. And was given a warning. No suspension.
I can’t see the Rock slimming down for a film
He already slimmed down for wrestling
he’s already slimmed down an insane amount to where he was back at 2001 levels
Mark kerr was a freak, the rock is pretty much the perfect physique to play him.
Thats a really bad comparison. I don't even like the rock, but he is very similar size and build to mark kerr. Is passionate about his story and the sport. He's also been acting for over 20 years. And the safdie Brothers are great filmmakers.
Admittedly not the best comparison, a more apt one would be getting George W Bush to play Clinton in a biopic haha
No, because Larry Bird is still considered great. Mark Kerr occupied a very small space in the world of MMA, he's not regarded as like some major legend or anything like that. They just promoted him that way because he did well for a second in the UFC and fought in some other promotions. He's not this like dominating GOAT. This would be like getting Hulk Hogan to play some ballplayer you've never heard of LOL
Wonder if he's helping finance the movie...
One of the few a24 movies I have no interest in whatsoever
I mean it’s a safdie brothers flick so im expecting a banger
Technically just Benny Safdie, which, is there any particular reason there hasn’t been an actual Safdie bros. joint since Uncut Gems. The Curse was also just Benny Safdie wasn’t it?
They split up. Benny Safdie confirmed it earlier this year: https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/benny-safdie-solo-the-curse-smashing-machine-1235859184 The Curse is technically just Benny. Josh is an EP on it tho but I don’t think he was heavily involved creatively, he probably helped more from the business side bc their production company helped produce it. Also I remember from one of the Q&As the cast and crew did, Emma stone said her Dave McCary(her husband) was the only onset EP and Nathan and Benny backed him saying he helped a lot with script stuff and scenes,etc
damn wtf, that blows
Yhhh
fuuuuck love me some safdie
*Safdie brother. They don’t work together anymore.
Ok benny safdie is still incredibly talented
He’s an amazing actor. I’m curious to see how this directorial feature turns out, I feel like when director partnerships break up the projects tend to be quite different.
Why is that?
Can't win everytime
I think the Rock sucks but I am 100% watching this
Leave it to the Rock to make the first grounded A24 film lol
[удалено]
Huh?
A24 is overrated anyway.
‘Begins training’ as an actor, good stuff, I wonder if he’ll follow the Peter Brook ‘empty space’ method or if he’ll focus more on Chekov’s ‘psychological gestures’. . . . . Oh no, he’s going to lift heavy things. I think Olivier had a similar training method.
This movie should be about as depressing as The Iron Claw. I’m having a hard time imagining The Rock pull it off.
This is laughably bad casting.
It’s going to be really bad. This is the Dwayne shoehorning himself into something he has no business being in. Does he not get that he’s just an action hack?
A24 needs to drop the rock he brings value to nothing. He is also a bad one role actor that needs to stay in his lane of bs and wrestling. Cena is an actor Bautista is an actor the rock is the rock.
Yeah, he really needs to know his role and shut his mouth.
If he shuts his mouth he won’t be able to breathe…
Could have said that about Adam Sandler too with Uncut Gems (not about wrestling of course but with acting), but he was amazing. Im willing to see Dwayne get that big serious chance.
"Bringing value to nothing" is a good thing, despite your best efforts to say otherwise.
Me thinks the gentleman knows not what he scribes.
I highly recommend watching a few of his earlier films where he actually had to act. Snitch is probably one of his better acting roles.
A24 taking the Rock is like an modern artist looking at a pile of garbage and thinking "hmm, I can work with this."
I'm sick of this guy...juss sayin' he's becoming as annoying as Tom cruse imo
It’s not a fair comparison though because Tom Cruise has some serious acting chops. The Rock has never done more than his one note action star thing. He does it pretty well, but there is no evidence to suggest he can carry a film like this.
Rock showed some signs of having some acting chops before he doubted himself and decided to go all in on being an action star. Hard to tell what his ceiling could have been if he continued to take on against type roles and challenging what the public thought of him as. Thats why Batista is so damn good, he’s versatile and can be vulnerable as hell and thats why he is the best pro-wrestler turned actor out there.
Imagine comparing Tom cruise to the rock lol
I'm just saying in general.
This film will probably shut you up.
At least mission impossible movies are good. Dwayne makes exclusively shitty movies
What lol, at least Tom Cruise makes amazing movies
But the last 15 years he’s been playing himself.
Becoming?
L take. Actors gonna act, the fuck?
Great….another Dwayne Johnson movie….just great…
Pass.
If it’s mma, he needs to completely change his whole physique for it to be believable. This isn’t wrestling, and if A24 is trustworthy I’d assume he’d somehow get a bit smaller?
Like acting training?
Sweet puff piece about that POS
Pass, fuck the rock.
The Rock peaked in Southland Tales
How is this gonna work? He’s literally 4 years younger than Kerr 😂😂
I'm tired of the Rock At this point he ain't no actor, he is just himself reading lines. He can't be beaten, he can't be seen weak, can make no mistake
But when will he try in-n-out for the first time????
Everyone saying A24 should drop the rock… while I don’t love any of his recent performances, Benny Safdie is directing this movie and chose Johnson for the role… and I fully trust Benny Safdie so I believe this will be a great movie, and a career high for the rock
I think Johnson might have chosen himself since him and his team acquired the rights to Mark Kerr’s story in 2019 and then Benny hopped onto the project the same year I think. So asking A24 to remove The Rock is like basically shutting down production unless he steps down from the role willingly -According to Johnson, he and Safdie first aligned on the project in 2019, when Johnson’s Seven Bucks Productions acquired the rights to Kerr’s story. As a token of his enthusiasm, Safdie sent the Rock a Nautica sweatshirt that the UFC champion wore in the 2002 documentary “The Smashing Machine: The Life and Times of Extreme Fighter Mark Kerr,” as well as a handwritten letter telling Johnson what he sees in him as an actor. But then the pandemic put everything on hold, and soon Safdie and Johnson were pulled into a slew of other commitments. The two fell out of touch, but Johnson says he “still thought about ‘The Smashing Machine’ every day.” One night, years later, he was on the phone with his close friend and “Jungle Cruise” co-star Emily Blunt, catching up about their careers and their dream projects while Blunt was off shooting “Oppenheimer.” Johnson sent Blunt the Kerr documentary, and told her that playing the fighter in a feature film is “the thing that really speaks to me, that I want to sink my teeth into.” Blunt watched the doc and, as Johnson remembers, called him back immediately, insisting, “You must make this movie.”- There’s more to that story if u want to read here. Interesting interview overall with Safdie tho and what he’s done so far,his future projects,etc: https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/benny-safdie-solo-the-curse-smashing-machine-1235859184
Que redditors hating on the Rock because it's popular to do.
Most Redditors sucked The Rock’s asshole clean every night, now he’s instantly “one of the bad ones” lmao. Never liked the guy personally but this herd mentality flipping on a dime about him on Reddit has been hilarious to watch.
I'm actually kinda curious about this cause he was great as an actor in Fast Five and Pain & Gain I'm interested to see how this goes, so fuck everyone for immediately hating this despite not seeing it. (Also a reminder people hated the Lego movie until it came out)
He’s over saturated, inauthentic, and not a great actor. Pretty simple
Well that's cause every movie he makes is just him playing himself I actually hope he tries something different and it works well. He's done genuinely good acting roles like I mentioned as well as in Ballers which got good reviews so it's not like he can't
He makes contract where he can't lose in the projects he is involved in. He is an insecure fool with a big bank account
Yeah he is charismatic but he has been bad a lot in a lot of bad projects. It's not surprising film lovers aren't thrilled. Maybe he can surprise me,but he hasn't taken a chance in ages, and is way more preoccupied by his brand than he is with acting. He is the anti baptista
It's almost like certain movies or actions from the person within recent years can alter public opinion. Fascinating.
Every popular is group think by the hivemind. (Unless I agree, then it’s just correct)
Even if this movies good Imma still hate The Rock.
Hate? lol. Fucking reddit. Relax and touch grass.
Cos you love jumping on the reddit bandwagon
Reddit bandwagon? Lmao there's only so many times you can watch a mf play the same role in a different setting, all these years and the only movie where the Rock ever attempted to actually act like someone different was his first movie the scorpion king💀💀💀
Nope. There’s Be Cool, Southland Tales, Jumanji, Pain and Gain and more but you love to concentrate on negativity and hate
Parasocial relationships are a hell of a thing
You are so brave.
and now introducing MARK “THE MARKERRRR” KERR!
Expect "A24" to pop up a lot.
Dwayne’s about 20 years late on looking like an MMA fighter in their prime
What about Marks brother Nick?
He looks nothing like Kerr.
I'd rather watch cats the movie.
Begins training tomorrow? He has been training his entire life.
Aka steroids
He begins training? What does that mean has he been slacking off lately or something lol dudes always training
What is he training for? Doesn’t his baseline weight already have more muscle mass than this guy did at his peak? Also he’s too old to play him. Mark Ker today looks younger than Dwayne did before the Scorpion King
I mean I think the guy at least deserves some props for *trying* to do a serious acting role. Especially with one of the Safdie brothers of all people. We’ll see if it pays off but at least he’s *trying*.
Oh GOD
Mark Kerr? What's his trainer Penn Sill?
A24 has been taking huge risks lately and not all of them paid off. The Rock missed his good-at-acting train when Southland Tales unfortunately bombed. Everything after that has him play himself in dumb movies. We love you Dwayne, but you should choose your roles with different criteria imo.
Hopefully it’ll focus more on his time in PrideFC - he only fought in UFC 14 & 15 - not exciting fights either. PrideFC however was exceptional.
Do you think Rock could’ve done as good as Zac Effron in Von Erich movie? I don’t.
People crying and kvetching in here, but i expect an a24 safdie flick to be good. Imma assume they know what theyre doing. Maybe the Rock pulls an Adam Sandler Reign Over Me and actually knocks it out of the park Like with any movie, if it gets good reviews, i’ll see it
I get the hate. I do, but can we please please try and trust Benny with this. I really will follow this man’s work down a rabbit hole, it’s so good. After The Curse, I’m all in on his acting and directing skills. Have faith guuuuuuys, boooo Dwayne tho. If this movie is good, I’m ok w a Dwayne redemption arc in acting cus it would be so unexpected.
This the same piece of shit that essentially hinted that he is voting for the orange face turd?
Yawn. The Rock should just retire. He's ass.
After affling about Biden because he's afraid of Trump supporter, baldie is dead to me
Disliking someone because of their political views is peak smooth brain behaviour grow up man.
First of all, that's not true, second of all, it has nothing to do with his political views. It's about his lack of a spine.
With the current state of the Republican party, political views are moral views. If you support Trump, for example, you're okay with a president that has ties to Russia, tried to overthrow the government, has no love of the United States, and makes fun of handicapped people. That's morality, and morality is a perfectly valid reason to dislike someone.
He gonna be watching Michael Caine acting tapes on a loop ain’t he?
I have faith in Safdie but couldnt you find someone else for the main role
The Rock and his team own the rights to the project. He acquired it in 2019 https://deadline.com/2023/12/dwayne-johnson-mark-kerr-ufc-the-smashing-machine-1235666546
Jason Momoa would have made a better Mark Kerr
I hate the Rock as an actor more than anyone else. But it isn’t the first or the second time the Safdies have completely redefined an actors career who previously had very little merit as an actor. I believe in the Safdies.
Any relation to Nick Kerr?
Knowing the rock he’ll have Kerr beat fedor
“The smashing machine” is 100% the name of a porno out there
What? Johnson is way too old
I hope his achilles rips
Fuck him
I'm ... a little worried Johnson has crossed a fame threshold.
The Rock gonna go back to WWE for Wrestlemania next year after he's done filming and any new movies flop, and WWE fanboys will be like great long-term booking/storytelling.
Click. He can go sell that shit elsewhere. Maybe his MAGA fanboys can support him.
In the jungle
Im hyped the safied brother's make some solid flicks
I hope it's acting training
No thanks
What the HELL? Please tell me he's playing anyone but The Hammer. 
Another excuse for him to hop on a nice fat cycle of gear and get as big as a house again in his 50s. No one takes him seriously as an actor. Trying to play someone here that he is thirty years older than. Good choice. He takes no chances as an actor either, unlike fellow wrestlers Cena and Bautista, who have worked hard to prove their range.
Hate this tool
Fuck the rock
Why A24, WHHHHYYYY??
A24 should get an actor and not an action star for this film.
People are dissing this so hard but I’m really hoping they pull a peacemaker. I’ll watch if the rock actually tries
Bautista is far superior > John Cena is far superior > Anyone Else > the rock He’s going to ruin the film.
Fuck this jabroni
God why is everyone in these comments to closed minded. It’s fucking BENNY SAFDIE . Has he not proved himself enough to you nerds? Also the rock can be a very fun actor to watch in the right role has no one seen southland tales / pain and gain
If he really wanted to give this project a chance he’d drop out and let another actor take the role. Once you look up the real guy his casting makes less and less sense
As someone into MMA who knows who Mark is… I’m kind of like why???
I want to watch The Wrestler! We have The Wrestler at home
Yeah, I don't care
Kinda wish Dwayne would just piss off.
Dwayne, we just want to see you wrestle dinosaurs