That was an excellent one.

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

At times tough to watch, it's a fly on the wall movie that really shows the turmoil that the fighters went through in the early days. What's most interesting now is seeing the defunct PRIDE organization at its near peak in the early days. For a big fan of that era, this is like a nice little time capsule. Well worth checking out!

Meet Mark Kerr (more appropriately known as "The Smashing Machine") who, in 1999, ranked right up there as the absolute #1 Extreme Fighter in the entire world.This documentary-DVD (from 2002) takes a close-up look at this big bruiser, Kerr, who (at 6' 1" & 263 lb) was a literal "Hulk", being quite able to bench press 425 lb & squat 550 lb.Here the viewer gets a ring-side seat as a spectator to all of the bloodshed, all of the bashing, and all of the brutality. In these "no-holds-barred" mixed martial arts competitions Mark Kerr (like a human bulldozer) ultimately beats the living crap out of his mighty challengers who, right from the start, didn't stand a chance.In between pulverizing his opponents and beating them to a pulp, Kerr seriously deals with his debilitating addiction to painkillers (opiates), as well as finding some time out for a rocky romance and, hopefully, some quality home-life.All-in-all - The Smashing Machine is a fairly interesting documentary showcasing one man's insatiable drive to be the very best in a sport that's sure to leave the viewer awed by its physical brutality.Believe me, this is definitely one show that isn't for the squeamish.... Yep. This is the real thing.

I rented the DVD of "Smashing Machine" because I remembered Howard Stern talking about how good it was on his radio show a few months back. Just to preface where my opinion is coming from, while I am interested in martial arts and have seen a few of the UFC specials on Pay-Per-View years ago, I am by no means an active fan who is current with these events or the fighters.Before watching, I was a little worried that this movie might of been geared towards the fans, and since I had never even heard of Mark Kerr I thought it might be uninteresting. Glad to report I was wrong... I thought this movie was fantastic. It was partially a profile of Mark Kerr and partially showing the ins and outs of the Pride Fighting events. It was odd to see that these people that go in the ring and beat the life out of each other are just regular guys who go home to a family. I would recommend this movie to anyone that is interested by martial arts or fighting, I thought it was a great watch.

I won't describe this movie, since you've probably figured out what it's about by now, but I will say one thing that REALLY stood out. When you watch thismovie, because it was so brilliantly edited, you will feel like it is a legit hollywood film, and not a documentary. The timing of the cuts, the music, the mood, all make this documentary feel more like an amazing Rocky-type movie. Whatseems most hollywood of all is the story, the rise and fall of a hero... all the helping characters and evil villains he runs into along the way... and it's all REAL. There is one scene where this guy that he is going to fight, who is the size of godzilla, is with all his evil little cronies and they're laughing it up in a huge pool like a bunch of villains would in some movie. The movie had it's own Ivan Drago type (from Rocky 4)... you know the Russian champion who nobodycan beat because he's so tough. It was just really cool. So if you see this, think about what I've said, and you'll notice right off the bat!!