Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson guns for Oscar in sleepy 'Smashing Machine'

movie review

SMASHING MACHINE

Running time: 123 minutes. In theaters Oct. 3.

TORONTO — In a canyon-sized leap for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, the man has gone from being a professional wrestler to playing an MMA fighter.

What a stretch! But I suppose the old chestnut “write what you know” can just as easily apply to actors.

In Johnson’s case: “Fight what you know.”

His performance as two-time UFC heavyweight champion Mark Kerr in “The Smashing Machine,” which played Monday night at the Toronto International Film Festival, is his deepest, most nuanced and respectable work to date.

He’s dialed in, vulnerable, and not rattling off punchlines or hiding behind his badass exterior for once. Having been punched in the face by “Jungle Cruise,” “Red One,” and “Jumanji: The Next Level,” I didn