Dwayne Johnson has become the biggest action star of the present since the turn of the millennium. In his best film, too, there’s a lot of action, even if it’s without any classic action at all – currently on Netflix.
Nobody would have thought in the early 2000s that wrestling superstar Dwayne Johnson would soon become the ultimate Hollywood star – his appearances as Scorpion King in “The Mummy Returns” and the spin-off named after his character did not necessarily suggest that. Today, the name of Hollywood’s number one shining star is practically synonymous with cracking action spectacles and opulent blockbusters. From “Fast & Furious” to “Jumanji” and this week’s “Black Adam”.
Relatively small and unknown is Johnson’s best, in my opinion, but certainly most personal film: “Fighting With My Family”, which you can currently stream on Netflix. Johnson produced the film himself with his production company Seven Bucks Productions, but also appeared in front of the camera for the film adaptation of the true story of the rise of wrestling superstar Paige. His role: himself, who gives the protagonist a valuable piece of advice or two along the way.
In a way, Dwayne Johnson returns to his wrestling roots with “Fighting With My Family”. The biopic is thus a true project of the heart. And exactly that – namely heart – is probably the most important component of the film, which thus needs neither a big action spectacle nor Dwayne Johnson in a leading role.
“FIGHTING WITH MY FAMILY”: OUTSIDER DRAMA MEETS FEEL-GOOD COMEDY
Director Stephen Merchant (“The Office”) walks a bit in the footsteps of great genre films like the Stallone classic “Rocky” with his film. Saraya Jade Bevis, who eventually became world famous under her ring name Paige, also enters the ring as a tough outsider. She wants to prove not only to the world, but also to her wrestling family – but above all to herself – that she has what it takes to make the leap from isolated Norwich in eastern England all the way to the WWE. “Fighting With My Family” shows the path paved with rows of stumbling blocks to get there.
From the first scene it is clear that we are not in for a melancholy drama, but great fun. A story about a family of outsiders who are at the same time so unbelievably offbeat and endearing that you can’t help but take them to your heart. When the father (“Shaun Of The Dead” star Nick Frost) angrily interrupts his kids while they are wrestling, only to explain to them how a real chokehold works, and the mother (“Game Of Thrones” star Lena Headey) joins in to make the wrestling hype palatable to her daughter, because it feels like coke, crack and heroin together – even if she has never taken the drugs, at least not together – you suddenly realise that nothing is right in this family. And yet somehow everything.
Director Stephen Merchant (“The Office”) follows in the footsteps of great genre films such as the Stallone classic “Rocky”. Saraya Jade Bevis, who eventually became world famous under her ring name Paige, also enters the ring as a tough outsider. She wants to prove not only to the world, but also to her wrestling family – but above all to herself – that she has what it takes to make the leap from isolated Norwich in eastern England all the way to the WWE. “Fighting With My Family” shows the path paved with rows of stumbling blocks to get there.
From the very first scene, it is clear that we are not in for a melancholy drama, but great fun. A story about a family of outsiders who are at the same time so unbelievably offbeat and endearing that you can’t help but take them to your heart. When the father (“Shaun Of The Dead” star Nick Frost) angrily interrupts his kids while they are wrestling, only to explain to them how a real chokehold works, and the mother (“Game Of Thrones” star Lena Headey) joins in to make the wrestling hype palatable to her daughter, because it feels like coke, crack and heroin together – even if she has never taken the drugs, at least not together – you suddenly realise that nothing is right in this family. And yet somehow everything.
