I don’t watch any of the MMA fighting that happens today and I don’t ever remember hearing about it back in the time period this film takes place (1997-2002). I basically went into this sports movie blind, only knowing that Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson were in a based on real events biopic. The name Mark Kerr is new to me. And I’ll probably be happy to never hear his name again.
This film is watchable for the performances of Johnson and Blunt who have the best chemistry together when their characters are fighting which works out great for the story. Blunt’s take on Dawn Staples, another name I’ve never heard, is so convincing as the manipulative, often childish girlfriend to Mark Kerr that I hated her by the middle of the movie for dumping on Kerr for his addiction issues. The feigning suicide bit didn’t do her any favors in the court of my opinion either. Props to Blunt for pulling this off because its the first time I can remember her playing someone so unlikable.
My biggest pet peeve, and there are many with this film, is that we don’t actually see Staples find Kerr unconscious while overdosing. We only hear her talking to his friend on the phone about it. How do you have a moment like that and not show it? Could have been the most dramatic moment of the film and you have Emily Blunt on hand. Missed opportunity to turn your mid range film into something more.
Kerr’s friend and competitor Mark Coleman is also featured in this film but we really only see his personal life in one scene. Beyond that, he is there to add much needed sports drama to the story because this is quite possibly the most anticlimactic sports movie ever made. Finding out – after not knowing who Kerr was – that Kerr doesn’t win at the end but Coleman does. The press in the film repeatedly make a big deal about the two possibly fighting each other but it never happens. Imagine Venus and Serena Williams are both at Wimbledon but neither win and they never meet on the court after the press spent weeks building that in everyone’s minds. The film doesn’t even try to make a profound sportsmanship statement about it. It just skips ahead to real life Mark Kerr pushing a 2025 shopping cart to his car as text explains that he married Staples, had a kid, and divorced her six years later before retiring in 2009. Roll credits.
Seriously? This film tried so hard to not be a cliche that it also isn’t an addiction movie or a sports movie or a bad relationship movie. Not really. It touches on those ideas, but never expands on them or adds anything new to the conversation. It just exists for the moments on screen while it downplays Coleman’s family life and skips important events (Kerr’s marriage, his overdose). If it weren’t for Blunt and Johnson putting in such great performances, this would have gotten the two star treatment for me. It received three because for the first time since The Rock started going by Dwayne Johnson, I finally saw the actor disappear into the role. So I take back what I said all these years about how he is a one trick sweaty show pony. He’s a two trick clydesdale pulling the movie along by sheer will.
3 very generous stars out of 5.
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Becky Tyler Art and Photography 
I don’t watch any of the MMA fighting that happens today and I don’t ever remember hearing about it back in the time period this film takes place (1997-2002). I basically went into this sports movie blind, only knowing that Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson were in a based on real events biopic. The name Mark Kerr is new to me. And I’ll probably be happy to never hear his name again.
This film is watchable for the performances of Johnson and Blunt who have the best chemistry together when their characters are fighting which works out great for the story. Blunt’s take on Dawn Staples, another name I’ve never heard, is so convincing as the manipulative, often childish girlfriend to Mark Kerr that I hated her by the middle of the movie for dumping on Kerr for his addiction issues. The feigning suicide bit didn’t do her any favors in the court of my opinion either. Props to Blunt for pulling this off because its the first time I can remember her playing someone so unlikable.
My biggest pet peeve, and there are many with this film, is that we don’t actually see Staples find Kerr unconscious while overdosing. We only hear her talking to his friend on the phone about it. How do you have a moment like that and not show it? Could have been the most dramatic moment of the film and you have Emily Blunt on hand. Missed opportunity to turn your mid range film into something more.
Kerr’s friend and competitor Mark Coleman is also featured in this film but we really only see his personal life in one scene. Beyond that, he is there to add much needed sports drama to the story because this is quite possibly the most anticlimactic sports movie ever made. Finding out – after not knowing who Kerr was – that Kerr doesn’t win at the end but Coleman does. The press in the film repeatedly make a big deal about the two possibly fighting each other but it never happens. Imagine Venus and Serena Williams are both at Wimbledon but neither win and they never meet on the court after the press spent weeks building that in everyone’s minds. The film doesn’t even try to make a profound sportsmanship statement about it. It just skips ahead to real life Mark Kerr pushing a 2025 shopping cart to his car as text explains that he married Staples, had a kid, and divorced her six years later before retiring in 2009. Roll credits.
Seriously? This film tried so hard to not be a cliche that it also isn’t an addiction movie or a sports movie or a bad relationship movie. Not really. It touches on those ideas, but never expands on them or adds anything new to the conversation. It just exists for the moments on screen while it downplays Coleman’s family life and skips important events (Kerr’s marriage, his overdose). If it weren’t for Blunt and Johnson putting in such great performances, this would have gotten the two star treatment for me. It received three because for the first time since The Rock started going by Dwayne Johnson, I finally saw the actor disappear into the role. So I take back what I said all these years about how he is a one trick sweaty show pony. He’s a two trick clydesdale pulling the movie along by sheer will.
3 very generous stars out of 5.
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