Dwayne Johnson is funniest when his pride is allowed to suffer, and tiresome when nobody can challenge him. The Smashing Machine reveals something more promising beneath that familiar certainty: an actor willing to be quiet and listen.
Fi1m perspective
In Moana (2016), Maui expects admiration, and Auliʻi Cravalho’s heroine has more pressing concerns. Dwayne Johnson gives the boastfulness enough room to become funny without making her seem outmatched. His voice can fill a scene, but the pleasure comes when Cravalho answers him back. We like him most when a film lets someone interfere with his self-importance.
The action roles made obvious use of his size, from The Scorpion King (2002) to Luke Hobbs in Fast Five (2011). The difficulty is how often physical confidence becomes the whole performance. Jake Kasdan’s Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) found a better use for that certainty by giving Johnson a joke at his own expense. That willingness to look foolish is missing from too much of his work.
Kasdan’s Red One (2024) shows how restrictive his solemnity can become. As Callum Drift, Johnson is supposed to have lost faith in people, yet plays his scenes with fixed disapproval. Chris Evans has little to work against because his partner will not give an inch. We can see the intended joke in putting such a serious man in charge of North Pole security, but Johnson does almost nothing with it. He makes the partnership feel like work.
Moana 2 (2024) is a weaker film than its predecessor, though Johnson and Cravalho still know how to needle each other. Their shared scenes are the easiest stretches of a sequel short of memorable songs. We would happily hear them bicker again, though we would rather not sit through so much thin material to do it.
Benny Safdie gets something less familiar from him in The Smashing Machine (2025), where Johnson plays fighter Mark Kerr under prosthetics, speaking in a soft, high voice. He listens closely enough that we stop anticipating the usual Johnson performance. We were unsettled by the childlike pleasure on Kerr’s face as he describes making another fighter submit, because Johnson plays it without a trace of doubt. The film is too slow, but the performance earns the patience Safdie asks for. Start with Moana for the comedy; choose The Smashing Machine if a fine performance matters more than a film that keeps moving.
Biography
Dwayne Johnson is an American actor and producer. He began his career as a professional wrestler under the ring name The Rock before moving into film and television.
Johnson is known for his role as Luke Hobbs in several Fast & Furious films (2011–2017), the voice of Maui in Moana (2016) and Moana 2 (2024), and Callum Drift in Red One (2024), which he also produced. He portrayed Mark Kerr in The Smashing Machine (2025), which he produced.
Born on 2 May 1972 in Hayward, California, Johnson played college football at the University of Miami. He is the son of professional wrestler Rocky Johnson and has Samoan ancestry through his mother.
