🎬 The Smashing Machine Review | X-Files by CommonX: The Rock’s Rawest Role Yet
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson built a career on confidence, charm, and control. The Smashing Machine breaks all three. It’s a fight film that leaves the ring and dives straight into the bruised soul of a man trying to outlast his own legend.
A review by Curb Fail Studios
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson built a career on confidence, charm, and control. The Smashing Machine breaks all three. It’s a fight film that leaves the ring and dives straight into the bruised soul of a man trying to outlast his own legend.
When the Mask Comes Off
Dwayne Johnson takes on Mark Kerr, the real-life MMA champion whose life hit as hard outside the cage as it did inside. Directed by Benny Safdie (Uncut Gems), this movie doesn’t glorify victory — it exposes the fight to stay human when the cheers fade.
It’s sweaty, shaky, and brutally honest. Safdie shoots it handheld, claustrophobic — like you’re trapped in Kerr’s head. The Rock isn’t playing The Rock anymore. He’s just a man crumbling under the weight of everything he built.
Why It Hits Gen-X Different
For Gen-X, this story hits home.
We came from an era that told us to “tough it out,” to work harder, to never let them see you crack. Kerr — and Johnson — are living proof that even the strongest among us reach a breaking point.
It’s the kind of film that makes you look back at your own grind and ask, what did it cost me to keep going?
That’s the CommonX spirit right there — resilience, reinvention, and brutal honesty.
The Rock’s Transformation
No CGI. No cape. No polished one-liners. Just a 260-pound man sweating through withdrawals, depression, and the quiet shame of failure. Johnson’s performance is career-defining — a reminder that vulnerability can hit harder than any punch.
Safdie’s camera never looks away, and neither should you.
🎧 Soundtrack and Grit
It hums with the pulse of 90s underground — distorted basslines, ambient noise, and moments of silence that say more than dialogue. It’s not a hype movie — it’s a human one.
Throw it in your Skullcandy cans, hit the treadmill, and see how long you can last before you start thinking about your own comeback story.
Final Verdict
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5/5)
The Smashing Machine is Dwayne Johnson stripped down to raw nerve and muscle — a film that trades fame for honesty and lands a knockout.
It’s a story every Gen-Xer understands: how to fall, get up, and start again when no one’s cheering.
Now playing in theatres and streaming worldwide.
🎬 X-Files Review: Predator – Badlands
1987 gave us one of the rawest creature flicks ever made. Now Predator – Badlands drags that legend through the dust and into the future — part survival horror, part redemption arc, and 100 percent Gen-X attitude.
by: Curb Fail Studios staff
1987 gave us one of the rawest creature flicks ever made. Now Predator – Badlands drags that legend through the dust and into the future — part survival horror, part redemption arc, and 100 percent Gen-X attitude.
Back to the Hunt
Director Dan Trachtenberg (Prey) returns with a lean, mean sequel that actually feels like a Predator movie again. Set in a scorched, near-future wasteland, it drops a new cast — led by Elle Fanning — into a world where the line between hunter and hunted barely exists.
Forget bloated CGI fests; this thing moves like an old-school actioner. Sparse dialogue, heavy tension, and a camera that loves grit more than gloss. The tech’s new, but the DNA’s pure 1980s menace.
Why It Hits Gen-X
We grew up on muscles, mud, and one-liners. The Badlands crew bleeds that same energy — just with more scars and less spray-tan. It taps straight into that Gen-X survivalism: make it work, fix it yourself, and don’t trust the system to save you.
Where millennials chase multiverses, we still chase grit. Badlands gives it back in spades.
The New Mythology
Trachtenberg builds on what Prey started — turning Predator into folklore instead of franchise. The Yautja’s still the ultimate hunter, but here it’s almost symbolic: the physical embodiment of everything trying to wipe out what’s left of humanity.
For Gen-X, that reads like a metaphor for burnout, resilience, and refusing to die quiet. That’s Common-X territory, man.
🎧 Sound, Sweat, and Score
The soundtrack pounds like metal scraped against concrete — industrial echoes, tribal drums, and synth nods that wink at Alan Silvestri’s original score. It’s the kind of sound design you feel in your ribs, perfect for Skullcandy headphones and late-night treadmill rage sessions.
Final Verdict
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️☆ (4.5/5)
Lean, mean, and smarter than it looks. Predator – Badlands respects its roots but doesn’t worship them. It’s the sequel Gen-X deserved — the one that remembers the jungle, the fear, and the fight.