"Beyond the regular crunch of fist on bone, The Smashing Machine is an unexpectedly gentle, soulful character study that has Johnson undercutting his crowd-pleasing ‘The Rock’ persona with vulnerability and boyish uncertainty."

"Why would anyone want to inflict this pain, or feel it? As Kerr, Johnson helps us understand that drive... His Kerr is a lover, a fighter, an athlete, a winner and a loser, all mixed up in one human being."